Of our National Flag...

Visited Thimphu after a long gap,

Stayed with wife at Changzamtog.

Wanting adventure I went for a walk.

Paid my respects at the memorial

chorten, where people rushed past me.

I continued down towards town.

Saw a flutter of orange and yellow

with a streak of white in between.

I bowed my head in respect,

for it was our national flag.

But upon closer scrutiny it wasn’t.

The colors were there.

The dragon was there.

But something seemed terribly

wrong with the flag.

The diagonal line that separates

the yellow from the orange was gone.

Instead vertical lines took its place.

The dragon was still flying diagonally.

Our national flag distorted!!

And it seems to be fluttering in plain sight.

Who? What? Why? ...were the questions

floating inside my head.

Since it’s in the middle of our capital,

and no one seemed to care about

I was shocked. I felt sad.
...
[Some years ago there was an uproar when Adidas brought out a shoe with our flag printed on it. Check it out at http://bhutannews.blogspot.com/2008/01/adidas-walks-on-bhutanese-national-flag.html]

[Bhutan's National Flag]

[The 'distorted' version of our national flag which I saw]