Context

Sujata Bhatt was born in 1956 in Ahmedabad, the largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat, where her mother tonguemother tongue: A person's first language - the one they learn from their mother. was Gujarati. Later, her family lived for some years in the United States, where she learned English. She now lives in Germany.

She has chosen to write poems in English, rather than Gujarati. But a number of her poems, including this one, are written in both languages.

This poem is part of a longer poem ('Search for my Tongue'), written when she was studying English at university in America and was afraid she might lose her original language.

In an interview, she says:

"I have always thought of myself as an Indian who is outside India."

Her mother tongue is for her an important link to her family, and to her childhood:

"That's the deepest layer of my identity."