Here are the flags I wear:
White for the saris my Ajji wore
Laced delicately with floral prints.
Red for the bindi my mother wears,
Never mellowed in tone
To accessorise.

Blue for the sea that calls
Especially when I wander too far,
Green for the colour I grew to love
At first sight of English countryside,
Burnt umber for the Konkan coast
Yellow, for sunflowers in oil.

These I drape around myself
Every day.
And silently give thanks,
For the heartland of my birth
That can never be confined
To three colours.