Skip to main content

Country without politicians



CBSE’s class eleven English course has a poem by Vikram Seth titled The Tale of Melon City.  The essence of the poem is that people will live in “Peace and Liberty” as long as there are no foolish politicians around.

The king in that poem is the quintessential politician who tries to please everybody.  He is also a narcissist who hates obstacles on his way.  When his crown is knocked down, while he takes a victorious ride on his chariot, by the arch that he was inaugurating to show off himself, his narcissistic pride is hurt.  He orders someone to be hanged in order to assuage his hurt pride. 

The accused passes the blame to another person as self-defence. The king has to guard his reputation for being just and honest.  So he orders that newly accused person to be hanged.  And the blame continues to be passed from one to another. 

I teach this poem in my class where the blame passes on from the Mughals to the British to Christian missionaries to Dalits to just any nobody.  But that’s just an aside.  Let’s get back to the poem.

Finally, in Seth’s poem, the blame comes back to the king himself.  The king orders his own hanging, being “just and honest”.  And the people of the country are happy to hang the king.  According to the cultural tradition of the country, the new king is to be chosen by the person who crosses the city gate after the election is proclaimed.  Very simple, inexpensive form of election.  The person who dares to pass the gate in such a troubled time obviously is an idiot. Who else will take upon himself such a responsibility as choosing the king? 

“Who will be the next king?” the kingpin asks the idiot.

“Melon,” answers the idiot.  The idiot loved melons, says the poet.

And a melon became the king of Melon City.  People lived in “Peace and Liberty” because a melon doesn’t require taxes for anything – not for foreign travels, not for publicity, not for costumes, not for you name it.

I leave the question to thinking people: why not eliminate politicians?  Why not live in “Peace and Liberty”?  Why not get rid of taxes levied by kings (governments – both Central and State)?  Why not get rid of the mafia run by governments?  Why not get rid of the bureaucracy which sucks our blood?  Why not get rid of the religious leaders who sell us ignorance? 

I never raise these questions in my class.  Because these questions are my private dreams.  A country without politicians is just a dream.  A country of intelligent people is a nightmare.


Comments

  1. Rajeev MoothedathFebruary 3, 2018 at 11:01 PM

    "I leave the question to thinking people: why not eliminate politicians?" - Who ( How) will bell the cat?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 4, 2018 at 11:25 AM

      How is the real question. Who? I'm ready. But I don't know how it can be done.

      Delete
  2. ManiparnaFebruary 4, 2018 at 3:33 AM

    I dream of such a city/ world without politicians!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 4, 2018 at 11:26 AM

      Happy to see another individual who shares my dream. Some dreams are only for self-consolation :)

      Delete
  3. Anita SabatFebruary 4, 2018 at 12:26 PM

    Imagine Melon Cities or any other favourite fruit/veggie cities worldwide! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. yatrasblogFebruary 5, 2018 at 10:23 PM

    My father in law says the same,his dream is 0 polititian in India.Then new India will born.yes,like minded people are there.we will get solution too..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 5, 2018 at 11:24 PM

      That's encouraging. Let more and more people come out against politicians.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pranita a perverted genius

Bulldozer begins its work at Sawan Pranita was a perverted genius. She had Machiavelli’s brain, Octavian’s relentlessness, and Levin’s intellectual calibre. She could have worked wonders if she wanted. She could have created a beautiful world around her. She had the potential. Yet she chose to be a ruthless exterminator. She came to Sawan Public School just to kill it. A religious cult called Radha Soami Satsang Beas [RSSB] had taken over the school from its owner who had never visited the school for over 20 years. This owner, a prominent entrepreneur with a gargantuan ego, had come to the conclusion that the morality of the school’s staff was deviating from the wavelengths determined by him. Moreover, his one foot was inching towards the grave. I was also told that there were some domestic noises which were grating against his patriarchal sensibilities. One holy solution for all these was to hand over the school and its enormous campus (nearly 20 acres of land on the outskirts
13 comments
Read more

Randeep the melody

Many people in this pic have made their presence in this A2Z series A phone call came from an unknown number the other day. “Is it okay to talk to you now, Sir?” The caller asked. The typical start of a conversation by an influencer. “What’s it about?” My usual response looking forward to something like: “I am so-and-so from such-and-such business firm…” And I would cut the call. But there was a surprise this time. “I am Randeep…” I recognised him instantly. His voice rang like a gentle music in my heart. Randeep was a student from the last class 12 batch of Sawan. One of my favourites. He is unforgettable. Both Maggie and I taught him at Sawan where he was a student from class 4 to 12. Nine years in a residential school create deep bonds between people, even between staff and students. Randeep was an ideal student. Good at everything yet very humble and spontaneous. He was a top sportsman and a prefect with eminent leadership. He had certain peculiar problems with academics. Ans
25 comments
Read more

Queen of Religion

She looked like Queen Victoria in the latter’s youth but with a snow-white head. She was slim, fair and graceful. She always smiled but the smile had no life. Someone on the campus described it as a “plastic smile.” She was charming by physical appearance. Soon all of us on the Sawan school campus would realise how deceptive appearances were. Queen took over the administration of Sawan school on behalf of her religious cult RSSB [Radha Soami Satsang Beas]. A lot was said about RSSB in the previous post. Its godman Gurinder Singh Dhillon is now 70 years old. I don’t know whether age has mellowed his lust for land and wealth. Even at the age of 64, he was embroiled in a financial scam that led to the fall of two colossal business enterprises, Fortis Healthcare and Religare finance. That was just a couple of years after he had succeeded in making Sawan school vanish without a trace from Delhi which he did for the sake of adding the school’s twenty-odd acres of land to his existing hun
19 comments
Read more

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
37 comments
Read more

Sanjay and other loyalists

AI-generated illustration Some people, especially those in politics, behave as if they are too great to have any contact with the ordinary folk. And they can get on with whoever comes to power on top irrespective of their ideologies and principles. Sanjay was one such person. He occupied some high places in Sawan school [see previous posts, especially P and Q ] merely because he knew how to play his cards more dexterously than ordinary politicians. Whoever came as principal, Sanjay would be there in the elite circle. He seemed to hold most people in contempt. His respect was reserved for the gentry. I belonged to the margins of Sawan society, in Sanjay’s assessment. So we hardly talked to each other. Looking back, I find it quite ludicrous to realise that Sanjay and I lived on the same campus 24x7 for a decade and a half without ever talking to each other except for official purposes.      Towards the end of our coexistence, Sawan had become a veritable hell. Power supply to the
12 comments
Read more