Skip to main content

Poem Summary: The Tale of Melon City by Vikram Seth

The Tale of Melon City by Vikram Seth is a humorous poem about a king who is just opposite the terms ‘just and placid’. Rather the king is excited about everything in his kingdom.


The poem is about one hasty decision of king that costs him his life. He orders to build an arch from where he can instruct the spectators. Well, the construction of the arch goes awry, as when the king stands, the arch being built too low, it touches the crown and as a result it falls down. Falling of the crown is a matter of insult for the king, thus he orders to hang the chief of the builders. Noose and gallows are prepared. The crowd is ready to witness the convict go lifeless. But just in time the chief of builder blames the workmen for fault. Next the workmen are taken to the death penalty; they too cry aloud saying that this is the mistake of a mason. The mason is then put next for the death punishment; well he passes the blame on the architecture. Well, the architecture being a clever guy says that the amendments in the plan were made by the king itself. This incident puts the king in a dilemma – he says that the situation is tricky.

The king calls for the wisest man in the country for a decision. An overly old man is brought for the decision. The old man can neither walk nor see but he says that the culprit must be hanged. So according to his judgment, the arch is made to hang. But it had touched the crown of the king thus it too was spared from being hanged. On the other hand, the crowd is going berserk. They want to see someone being hanged.

The king then decides that whosoever fits the noose will be hanged. One by one all men are measured; the only tall man that fits the noose is king. Thus, the king is hanged. The king is dead because of his own foolishness.

What who is going to be the next king of the kingdom? As a custom, the first man passing the City Gate will decide who can be the next king. An idiot comes out as a passer-by. When asked he replies melon – melon is his standard reply to all questions. A melon is crowned and declared as the king of the kingdom. A melon will rule over men – what a funny proposition is this.

Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 16, 2018 at 5:28 AM

    Funny story😂😂😂

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownFebruary 26, 2019 at 9:27 PM

      HoW!!! FUNNY😆😆😆😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

      Delete
    2. UnknownFebruary 26, 2019 at 9:27 PM

      🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂

      Delete
    3. AnonymousMarch 12, 2019 at 2:31 AM

      This is not written by Vikram Seth. He is taking the credit of a story written by Idries Shah in his book of Caravan of Dreams. How cheap of Vikram Seth. But he should realize that the literary world is not a gather of fools to believe his crass!

      Delete
    4. UnknownAugust 2, 2019 at 3:24 AM

      Superb...👌🏻👏👏👌🏻

      Delete
  2. UnknownJanuary 30, 2019 at 8:24 AM

    👌👍

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownFebruary 5, 2019 at 8:00 AM

    Very helpful

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sadaf naazFebruary 6, 2019 at 6:25 AM

    Very funny ..and very interesting story..like this so muuuch ..and thnk uuu for such a good explanation....

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should
67 comments
Read more

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversation fo
63 comments
Read more

Poem Summary: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias is a short poem of fourteen lines written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The concurrent theme of the poem is that nothing remains intact and same forever in this world. Even the brightest of metal, one day decays with passage of time. The throne name of Egyptian King Ramesses is Ozymandias. It was his dearest desire to preserve himself forever by building a huge statue that he thought would never tumble down. Stanza 1: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; Summary: The poet narrates the poem through the eyes of a traveler who seems to have come back from a remote and far-away land, referring to Egypt. The traveler r
23 comments
Read more