The poem ‘The Tale of Melon City’ is the story of a moody and whimsical king. He ordered an arch to be constructed. The arch was built too low. When the king was under it, his crown was banged off. The king became angry. He ordered that the chief of builders would be hanged for that disgrace. The chief of builders pleaded that it was workmen’s fault. The just king ordered the workmen to be hanged. But the workmen blamed the wrong size of the bricks for this mishap. Masons pleaded innocence and shifted the blame on the architect. The architect saved himself as he had already advised many amendments in the plan.

The king needed some counsel to solve this tricky issue. The wisest man in the kingdom counselled that the arch itself was guilty. As it banged the crown off it must itself be hanged. The arch was brought to the scaffold. But a counsellor urged the king not to do so. A thing that touched the royal head couldn’t be hanged.

The people were watching the whole drama. They grew restless. They wanted someone to be hanged immediately. The king judged the mood of the public. He declared that someone would be hanged immediately. The noose was set up. Everyone was measured by and by. Only one man was so tall whose neck fitted in the noose. He was the king himself. His majesty was hanged by a Royal Decree.

The Ministers proclaimed that ‘the next to pass the City Gate’ would choose the new king. An idiot passed first by the City Gate. He declared that a melon would be the next king of the state. The melon was crowned as the next king with due respect and ceremony. It made no difference to the people. It didn’t matter if their king was a man or a melon.