XII- ENG. Core The Tiger King ( Brief Summary)

XII ENG.The Tiger King

                          Ch-2 

                A Brief Summary

'The Tiger King' describes the Maharaja Sir Jilani Jung Jung Bahadur of Pratibandapuram. When the king was just 10 days old, astrologers predicted that he would be killed by a tiger. At this the 10 days old prince, for a surprise to all, uttered, 'Let tigers beware!". The child grew like any other royal child, drinking the milk of a white cow looked after by an English nanny and watching English movies. At the age of 20, he was crowned as the king and came to know about the prediction relating to his death.

       From then, he started killing tigers and banned the tiger hunt by any other person in the state. As per the astrologer he needed to be careful with the hundredth tiger even if he had killed ninety-nine tigers.

         Once a high ranking British officer visited his state and wanted to go for tiger hunting. But his wish was declined and in order to secure his state from the wrath of the British officer, the Maharaja sent 50 diamond rings worth ₹3 lakh to the officer's wife.

         The Maharaja killed seventy tigers in ten years and there was no tiger left in Pratibandapuram. In order to achieve his target of killing hundred tigers, the Maharaja decided to marry a girl from a royal state which had more tigers to complete his target. Every time, when he used to visit his in-laws, he used to kill 5-6 tigers. In this way he could kill ninety-nine tigers but couldn't find the hundredth tiger. The Maharaja got furious for not finding the hundredth tiger and threatened the Dewan who in order to save himself got an old tiger from the circus and with great difficulty placed it in the forest.

      The Maharaja shot this tiger and felt happy and victorious. But, in fact, the bullet did not hit the tiger. The tiger collapsed out of fear. But none of the staff wanted to take risk of telling the truth to the Maharaja So they killed it and brought it in a grand procession. 

    Finally, Tiger King was happy and satisfied. On the third birthday of his son, he bought a wooden tiger for his son as a gift. This was so poorly carved that while playing with it, a tiny sliver of the wood pierced the king's right hand which later on developed infection. He was operated upon and during this, he died. Thus, ironically the hundredth tiger, ie, the wooden tiger, took its revenge and killed the tiger king.

Thanks for reading ( English Confluence) by CL Gautam)