IN THE KINGDOM OF FOOLS -A. K RAMANUJAN
SUMMARY
This is an interesting story about a Kingdom of Fools. The king and his minister did not have any brain. Once they ordered that night should be considered day and vice-versa. They ordered that the people should keep awake at night and sleep during the day.
One day, a guru and his disciple visited the kingdom. To their utter surprise, the city looked deserted during the day time and by evening the shops opened and they purchased food to eat. The disciple felt happy at the cheap rate of eatable items and decided to stay back, while the guru rejected the idea. An incident almost saved the kingdom. One day a thief entered the house of a merchant but before he could steal anything, the wall fell on him and he died. The brother of the thief complained to the king against the merchant whose weak wall had taken the life of his poor brother.
Ultimately the merchant blamed the mason, the mason blamed the dancing girl, the dancing girl blamed the goldsmith and the goldsmith blamed the family of the merchant. It was decided that merchant should be executed as he had inherited his father’s wealth as well as his sins. The merchant was thin and the stake was meant to execute very fat people.
As a result, a new stake was built to execute the merchant but it was too big, therefore, the king ordered that a fat man should be executed first. The king’s men brought the disciple to be executed. Seeing in his vision, the guru came to rescue of his disciple.
He said to the king that this stake was new, therefore, he wanted that he himself should be executed first. The king asked the reason. The guru said that the person who is executed first on this holy stake, will be reborn as the king of this kingdom.
Now the king wished to die first in order to become the king again. Therefore the foolish king was executed and the guru through his wisdom saved his disciple.
I. Read the extract and answer the questions :
A. ‘As the servants sharpened the stake and got it ready for the final execution of the criminal, it occurred to the minister that the rich merchant was somehow too thin to be properly executed on the stake. He appealed to the king’s common sense. The king too was worried about it.’
i. Why were the king and the minister worried?
ii. The king and the minister lacked common sense. Explain.
iii. Who were to be executed on the stake?
B. The stake is the stake of the god of justice. It’s new, it has never had a criminal on it whoever dies on it first will be reborn as the king of this country. And whoever goes next will be the future minister of this country. We’re sick of our ascetic life. It would be nice to enjoy ourselves a king and minister for a while. Now keep your word, My Lord, and put us to death. Me first, remember?
i. Why was ‘the stake’ put up for?
ii. What were ‘we’ sick of?
iii. What will happen to him who dies first on this stake?
II. Short Answer Type Questions :
i. What was so strange about the Kingdom of fools?
ii. Why did the Guru want that he and his disciple should die first?
iii. What advice did the guru give his disciple before leaving?
iv. Who is the real culprit according to the king? Why did he escape the punishment?
III. Long Answer Type Question:
i. How did the Guru manage to save his disciple from execution?
Please click on below link to downloadCBSE Class 9 English The Kingdom of Fools Worksheet Set A
