Hyderabad Rocks Boulders are periods,commas and marks ofexclamation or interrogation,sculpted in love,seasoned in abandon,they are bookmarks mottled by time,condensed, heartfelt and sacredlike words in a quatrain,waiting for the paintbrushof imagination to consecrate them.Harvesting Gods: Poems, Satya Mohanty, Speaking Tiger, 2025.Harvesting Gods What if the crops failed,jobs dried up as a dying river,and the economy shrunk like an ageing man,losing in three dimensions,God is always there to be harvested.What if the spin of yarn is a tangled knot,a great mess-up or a territory lost,soldiers killed by the incursers,enemy is omnipresent as Godhelping to twist it into a tale of triumph.What if our present looks violated,in the crowded halls of arrivals and departuresof social media,we would finally be brewing the elixir of the pastfor concocting the future.§Patriotism Patriotism is a predatorthat stalks with eyes of tricolour.A paintbrush to pour colouron the tabula rasa of mind,wiped clean of history, experience and wisdom.All that remains in the end,“We” and “them”,“they” merge with uswhen it suits,“we” remain standing apart,when their hearts are to be carvedto find a blackened soulof a nation; as dark as charcoal.§ Hope Hope, like ficus,can take root in nothing.It just needs so little;stones, a crumb of earth,will do as an anchorin a landscape of despondency.Then it can grow skywardwith sunshine and air.The enveloping darknessa wee hour agobecomes forgotten weedsafter a long winter.§A Country with a New Name Weeds of yesteryearscome back as fresh bloom,we accept a future which is ancient.In an airlambent with beliefwe allowed them to imagine us.Hatred is the ambience now,hatred for others,hatred for the self,hate for everything around.Love has gone on a Sabbathwhen bare hands became fists.Gangsters are in power,lawbreakers make rules.Killers are declared martyrsand sinners become angels.We find neither night disappearingnor the dawn nearing.The above poems are from Satya Mohanty’s book Harvesting Gods.Satya Mohanty is Former Secretary to GOI.