Class 11 English · Original EZT practice
The Tale of Melon City - Vikram Seth (Class 11 English, Snapshots, Chapter 5)
The Tale of Melon City is Chapter 5 of Class 11 Snapshots in the Reprint 2025-26 printing (pp. 39-44), Vikram Seth's verse satire from Mappings (1981), marked '(After Idries Shah)'. In a city ruled by 'a just and placid King', a triumphal arch is built too low and knocks off the royal crown - and the hunt for someone to hang ends when the noose finds the only man it fits. A melon ends up on the throne, and the citizens are content. This page retells the poem with fresh practice questions. (Note: this is original practice, not a textbook exercise key.)
6 original worked examples, 6 fresh self-check questions and 4 mixed questions, with explained answers. These are not copied textbook exercises, an official chapter index or a full answer key. No affiliation with NCERT is claimed.
Official sources for topic and edition context, checked 25 October 2026:
1. The poem at a glance
The decree: 'The King proclaimed an arch should be / Constructed, that triumphally / Would span the major thoroughfare / To edify spectators there.' The mishap: 'Under the arch he lost his crown.' - 'The arch was built too low.' The first sentence: 'The chief of builders will be hanged.' - until the chief shouts 'O King, it was the workmen's fault' and the King calls a halt. The chain of blame: the workmen plead 'The bricks were made of the wrong size.'; the masons quiver and say 'It was the architect...'; the architect answers 'You made certain amendments to / The plans when I showed them to you.' The trap closes: 'The King heard this. The King saw red.' - the blame has come home. The counsel: 'The wisest man in this country' is carried in, 'So old (and therefore wise) was he' - his verdict: 'The culprit must be punished.' and 'The crown off, and it must be hanged'. The reprieve: a Councillor asks 'What touched your head, Your Majesty?' - and the arch is spared. The crowd's mood: 'The nation / Wants a hanging. Hanged must be / Someone, and that immediately.' The measurement: 'But only one man was so tall / He fitted. One man. That was all. / He was the King.' - 'Was therefore hanged by Royal Decree.' The succession: 'The next to pass the City Gate / Will choose the ruler of our state' - an idiot passes, answers 'A melon', because 'This was his standard answer to / All questions. (He liked melons.)' The coronation: 'Crowning a melon.' - '(Carried) the Melon to the throne / And reverently set it down.' The moral: asked about their melon King years later, the people answer 'If His Majesty rejoice / In being a melon, that's OK / With us' - so long as he 'Leaves us in Peace and Liberty'.
2. Key details and what they signal
'just and placid': the poem's refrain-phrase is the satire's engine - the King is so placid he keeps reversing his sentences, and so 'just' he hangs whoever the evidence names, even himself. 'The rope and gallows were arranged.' - justice in this city is instant theatre: the gallows go up before the case is heard. 'In fact he nearly lost his head;' - the pun is literal: the amendments are his, so the head at risk is the King's own. 'How can we hang so shamefully' - the Councillor's logic saves the arch on protocol, not innocence: nothing may be hanged that touched the royal head. 'The noose was set up somewhat high.' - a single practical detail decides who dies: the gallows' height, not guilt. 'Thank Goodness we found someone,' said / The Ministers' - relief, not grief: the state needed any corpse at all to keep order. 'Long live the King! The King is dead.' - the rhyme folds mourning and celebration into one breath; institutions outlive the man. 'Enforced with due ceremony' - even absurdity is administered properly; the form of law survives its content.
3. Theme
Satire of mechanical justice: a King who follows procedure off a cliff - blame-shifting ends only when the evidence points at the throne itself. Custom over sense: the city's rules are obeyed literally into absurdity, from hanging an arch to crowning a melon. The people's bargain: the citizens accept a melon because it 'Leaves us in Peace and Liberty' - laissez faire as the final punchline. Power as accident: height, an idiot's favourite fruit, and 'due ceremony' decide who rules and who dies.
Choose, solve, check, then try a fresh question.
Before calculating, read the method prompt and name the condition that makes it useful. Write your own attempt. Open the steps only when you need them, and use the check to catch a wrong sign, unit or interpretation. Finish with the fresh question before reading its answer.
Lose the crown
Choose the method: Ride, then knock.
EZT practice question
What happens when the King rides under the new arch?
Show the worked solution
- The ride: the King passes under the arch built 'To edify spectators there'.
- The mishap: 'Under the arch he lost his crown.'
- The cause: 'The arch was built too low.'
Answer: The arch knocks his crown off - 'Under the arch he lost his crown.' - because 'The arch was built too low.'
Check: Crown off, arch too low.
Watch for this: Do not treat the knock as a small accident - in a state that runs on symbols, touching the crown is touching the King; the whole manhunt grows out of one low measurement.
Now try it yourself
Why does the King call it a disgrace rather than an accident?
Check your answer
A just and placid King rules by dignity, and the crown is the dignity made visible; the arch has not hurt his head, it has bruised the office.
The poem's satire begins where pride meets measurement.
Escape the first sentence
Choose the method: Sentence, then shout.
EZT practice question
Who is ordered hanged first, and what saves him?
Show the worked solution
- The sentence: 'The chief of builders will be hanged.'
- The rescue: being led out, the chief shouts 'O King, it was the workmen's fault'.
- The halt: the King stops the proceedings to hear him.
Answer: The chief of builders - 'The chief of builders will be hanged.' - and he is saved by shouting 'O King, it was the workmen's fault' as he passes the King.
Check: Chief sentenced, workmen blamed, halt called.
Watch for this: Do not read the halt as mercy - the King stops for procedure, not pity; the poem's justice is a machine that simply redirects towards whichever name is shouted last.
Now try it yourself
Why does the chief's shout work instantly?
Check your answer
The system needs a culprit, not the culprit; a fresh name is as good as the old one, so the machine rolls on towards the workmen without missing a step.
Blame is the city's only due process.
Follow the blame
Choose the method: Bricks, then plans.
EZT practice question
How does the blame travel from the workmen back to the King himself?
Show the worked solution
- The workmen: 'The bricks were made of the wrong size.'
- The masons: 'It was the architect...'
- The architect: 'You made certain amendments to / The plans when I showed them to you.'
Answer: Workmen blame the bricks - 'The bricks were made of the wrong size.'; masons blame the architect; the architect reminds the King, 'You made certain amendments to / The plans when I showed them to you.' - 'The King heard this. The King saw red.'
Check: Bricks, architect, amendments, saw red.
Watch for this: Do not miss that every link is technically true - the satire works because each excuse is reasonable; only the accumulated chain is absurd, and it ends at the throne.
Now try it yourself
Why does the architect's answer close the trap?
Check your answer
His is the first blame that cannot be passed on: amendments made by the King are the King's, so 'he nearly lost his head' stops being a pun and becomes a verdict.
The chain always ends where the changes began.
Hear the wisest man
Choose the method: Counsel, then protocol.
EZT practice question
What does the wisest man advise, and why is the arch not hanged?
Show the worked solution
- The counsel: 'The wisest man in this country', 'So old (and therefore wise) was he'.
- The verdict: 'The culprit must be punished.' - the arch, since 'the arch it was that banged / The crown off'.
- The reprieve: the Councillor asks 'What touched your head, Your Majesty?' - nothing that touched the royal head may be hanged.
Answer: He rules 'The culprit must be punished.' and names the arch - 'the arch it was that banged / The crown off'; the arch escapes because the Councillor objects, 'What touched your head, Your Majesty?'
Check: Arch named, then saved by protocol.
Watch for this: Do not read the reprieve as sanity returning - the arch is spared on etiquette, not innocence; the city that would hang a building is also too proper to hang one that touched the crown.
Now try it yourself
Why is the wisest man's wisdom satirical?
Check your answer
He is 'So old (and therefore wise)' - the bracket is the tell; his wisdom amounts to agreeing that someone or something must hang, which is the city's madness in a robe.
Age certifies the absurdity, not the sense.
Measure for the noose
Choose the method: Demand, then measure.
EZT practice question
How is the King himself chosen for the noose?
Show the worked solution
- The demand: 'The nation / Wants a hanging. Hanged must be / Someone, and that immediately.'
- The test: 'The noose was set up somewhat high.' - each man is measured against it.
- The result: 'But only one man was so tall / He fitted. One man. That was all. / He was the King.' - 'Was therefore hanged by Royal Decree.'
Answer: The crowd demands 'a hanging', every man is measured against the high-set noose, and 'only one man was so tall / He fitted.' - 'He was the King.', hanged 'by Royal Decree'.
Check: Nation wants a hanging; only the King fits.
Watch for this: Do not read the measurement as justice finally working - it is the same mechanical logic as the blame chain; the noose's height, not guilt, picks the victim, and it happens to pick the King.
Now try it yourself
Why does no one exempt the King?
Check your answer
Custom and crowd have taken over the state - 'Thank Goodness we found someone' is the Ministers' whole conscience; the machine that hung anyone now hangs everyone.
A rule applied absolutely spares no one.
Crown the melon
Choose the method: Gate, then answer.
EZT practice question
How does a melon become the next ruler?
Show the worked solution
- The proclamation: 'The next to pass the City Gate / Will choose the ruler of our state'.
- The idiot: 'This was his standard answer to / All questions. (He liked melons.)' - he answers 'A melon'.
- The coronation: 'Crowning a melon.' - '(Carried) the Melon to the throne / And reverently set it down.'
Answer: Custom sends heralds to proclaim 'The next to pass the City Gate / Will choose the ruler of our state'; an idiot passes first and, as 'This was his standard answer to / All questions', says 'A melon' - so the Ministers crown one.
Check: City Gate, idiot's answer, melon crowned.
Watch for this: Do not treat the melon as the poem's joke at the citizens' expense only - the people are content precisely because a melon 'Leaves us in Peace and Liberty'; the punchline is a preference.
Now try it yourself
Why are the citizens satisfied with a melon?
Check your answer
A melon cannot build arches or hang anyone - after the reign of mechanical justice, the best ruler is the one who cannot rule; laissez faire is the city's learned lesson.
The state gets the King its rules deserve.
Try a mixed set
Choose a method or explanation before opening each answer.
1. The mishap?
Show answer and reason
'Under the arch he lost his crown.'
'The arch was built too low.'
2. The first culprit?
Show answer and reason
'The chief of builders will be hanged.'
Saved by shouting the workmen's fault.
3. The noose test?
Show answer and reason
'But only one man was so tall / He fitted.' - 'He was the King.'
Height, not guilt, decides.
4. The succession?
Show answer and reason
'The next to pass the City Gate / Will choose the ruler of our state.'
The idiot likes melons.
Try it yourself
Work these on paper before checking any notes. Answers are deliberately not shown here.
- In two sentences, explain how the poem turns 'just and placid' from a compliment into an indictment.
- Trace one full loop of the blame chain - builders, workmen, masons, architect, King - and say what each link has in common.
- Explain in your own words why the Ministers say 'Thank Goodness we found someone' and what that single line convicts.
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Questions about this practice page
- Who wrote The Tale of Melon City?
- Vikram Seth. The chapter states the poem is taken from Mappings (1981) and included in his Collected Poems, and the poem is marked '(After Idries Shah)'. The textbook carries no biographical note.
- What is The Tale of Melon City about?
- A low-built arch knocks the crown off a just and placid King; the hunt for a culprit passes from builders to workmen to masons to the architect and back to the King, who alone fits the noose - after which custom puts a melon on the throne.
- Why is the King hanged in The Tale of Melon City?
- The crowd demands 'a hanging', every man is measured against the high-set noose, and 'only one man was so tall / He fitted.' - the King himself, hanged 'by Royal Decree'.
- How does a melon become King in the poem?
- Custom says the next person through the City Gate names the ruler; an idiot whose standard answer to all questions is 'A melon' passes first, and the Ministers crown one.
- Where is The Tale of Melon City in the Class 11 book?
- Chapter 5 of Snapshots in the Reprint 2025-26 printing (pp. 39-44); the Rationalised 2023-24 contents lists it as Chapter 6 (pp. 55-60). Chapter numbers and pages differ between printings, so check your own copy.