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Question
‘The Tale of Melon City’ has been narrated in a verse form. This is a unique style which lends extra charm to an ancient tale. Find similar examples in your language. Share them in the class.
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Solution
‘The Tale of Melon City’ is a narrative poem. It is an ancient tale told in verse. Vikram Seth uses all poetic devices to create special effects. The whole poem runs in rhyming couplets. The last word of each line rhymes with the second. The poet adopts a narrative style of story-telling. But it is the use of humour and irony that creates a special effect in the poem.
The poem introduces us to a ‘just’ and ‘placid’ king. Both the adjectives are ironical. The irony is that the king is neither of the two. He is neither ‘just’ nor ‘placid’. His exaggerated sense of justice is the reflection of his personality. He is whimsical. The arch is too low and bangs his crown off when he rides under it. The king takes it as a ‘disgrace’. Then starts the summoning of the people to be hanged. But he is easily influenced and convinced and lets every one go scot-free. He falls in his own trap. His exaggerated sense of justice leads him to his own death.
Again it is quite humorous that an idiot chooses the next king. He names a melon. The crowning of a melon with respect and ceremony sounds quite humorous. But it is ironical as well. The irony is that the people care little if they are ruled by a man or a melon. Even when the king was alive he was no better than a melon. A melon was the right substitute for such a whimsical and idiotic king.
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|
“I don’t believe in taking the right decisions. I take decisions, I take decisions and then make them right:” One of them make them right. One of Ratan Tata’s inspiring words which made me dream beyond shadows. I feel fortunate that I discovered him in the early stage of my life, and now I am using his teachings to mould my future the way I want. Even though Ratan Tata was born into a very posh family in India, he never took money and power for granted. He graduated from Riverdale country from New York, Ratan Tata began his career in the Tata Group working on the shop floor of Tata Steel. After working for almost 10 years, he was appointed as the director-in-charge of the National Radio and Electronics Company Limited (NELCO) in order to help its struggling finances. He worked hard to build a better consumer electronics division, but the economic recession and union strikes prevented him from achieving success, and this success helped Tata to be appointed as the chairman of the Tata Group of companies. He started with a very basic job in his father’s company, and today he owns a billion-dollar company. The tag of greatness does not come without making any sacrifices, and this tag on Ratan Tata suits to its best. Tata Group launched its passenger car Tata Indica in the year 1998 but Tata Indica was a failure in its first year, and the experiment seemed to be failing. Many people started advising Ratan Tata that he should sell the passenger car business. Ratan Tata also agreed to this, and a proposal was given to Ford; they showed interest too. The three-hour meeting at Ford headquarters in Detroit, chairman of Ford (Bill Ford) said to Ratan Tata, “Why did you enter in the passenger car business when you were not knowing of it. It will be a favour if we buy this business from you.” Ratan Tata decided to move back home. While travelling, he was very tense as the feeling of being insulted was on his mind. After earlier failures, Tata Motors did well with its business of passenger cars but in the same period, Ford did very bad. In 2008 when Ford was on it way of bankruptcy, Tata Group offered Ford to buy its luxury car brand, Jaguar Land Rover. Ford arrived in Mumbai for the meeting. In the meeting, Bill Ford said to Ratan Tata, you are doing a big favour for us by buying-Jaguar-Land Rover is now owned by Tata Group and is currently making profits. |
A1. Rewrite the following sentences as per their occurrence in the extract: (2)
- He was appointed as the Director-in-charge of the National Radio and Electronics Company Limited.
- Tata Group launched its passenger car “Tata Indica” in the year 1998.
- Billi Ford said to Ratan Tata, "You are doing a big favour for us by buying Jaguar-Land Rover."
- He graduated from Riverdale country from New York.
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The writer says, "I don't believe in taking right decisions. I take decisions and then make them right."
A3. Give reasons: (2)
Ratan Tata decided to sell his passenger car business.
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A5. Grammar: (2)
Do as directed:
- He worked hard building a better consumer electronics division.
(Rewrite the sentence using the infinitive form of the underlined word) - Tata Group launched the passenger car Tata Indica.
(Rewrite it beginning with 'The passenger car Tata Indica......')
A6. Vocabulary:
Give antonyms.
- Profit × ______
- Prevent × ______
