Class 11 commerce students can refer to Chapter 8 The Tale of Melon City notes given below which is an important chapter in the class 11 English book. These notes and important questions and answers have been prepared based on the latest CBSE and NCERT syllabus and books issued for the current academic year. Our team of English teachers has prepared these notes for class 11 English for the benefit of students so that you can read these revision notes and understand each topic carefully.

The Tale of Melon City Notes Class 11 English

Refer to the notes and important questions given below for The Tale of Melon City which is really useful and has been recommended by Class 11 English teachers. Understanding the concepts in detail and then solving questions by yourself will help you to learn all topics given in your NCERT Books.

• The Tale of Melon City by Vikram Seth is a humorous poem about a king who is just opposite the terms ‘just and placid’.
• 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. The arch is constructed within no time.
• But as soon as the king passes from under the arch, it touches his crown and it falls to the ground.
• The king feels humiliated and summons the chief of the builders. A noose is set up to hang him.
• The crowd gets excited at the prospect of a spectacle.
• But the chief of builders pleads for mercy and 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. The oldest 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.
• The ministers find an opportunity to impress the king and glorify the arch for having touched the king’s head.
• So the arch was spared. But now the crowd was becoming impatient. It demanded hanging.
• Finally, the king decided that whosoever fits the noose will be hanged. One by one all men were measured.
• Ironically, the tallest one of them was the king. So he was hanged. The king died because of his own foolishness.
• The ministers held a meeting to discuss that a king was needed immediately. But who is going to be the next king of the kingdom? So, as was the custom, the first man passing the City Gate would get to decide who would be the next king.
• Just then an idiot comes out as a passer-by. When asked he replied melon as it was his standard reply to all questions.
• A melon was crowned and declared as the king of the kingdom.
• This poem is a satire on the political scenario of our country.

Short Answer Type Questions

Question. Why did the king ride down the thoroughfare and what was the result?
Ans. The king rode down the thoroughfare to edify the spectators there. Since the arch was built too low, the lost his crown under it. He felt himself disgraced.

Question. What kind of king was the one who ruled over the state? What did he proclaim?
Ans. The kind of the state was just and placid. For the welfare of the workers he proclaimed that an arch should be built up which would extend across the major thoroughfare.

Question. How was the new ruler of the state selected?
Ans. After the king the ministers sent the messengers to proclaim that the next man to pass the city gate would choose the ruler of their state. An idiot happened to pass the gate. His standard answer to all the questions was ‘A Melon’. So when he was asked to decide about who will be the king, he replied ‘A Melon’ Ministers declared that a melon would be their new ruler.