Prose Lesson 7- The Adventure - Short Answers

1.‘That is, assuming that in this world there existed someone called Rajendra
Deshpande!’ Why does Professor Gaitonde feel so?
Professor Gaitonde had gone through a strange and a harrowing experience. He had been
literally transported into an alternative universe. In the alternative world the reality was
very different. History had altered its course. Now back into the real world Professor
Gaitonde, as a historian felt he would go to a big library and browse through history books
and would return to Pune and have a long talk with Rajendra Deshpande, to help him
understand what had happened. After the queer happening, he was unsure about the
reality and wondered if Rajendra Deshpande existed.

2.What were the things that Professor Gaitonde noticed as the train entered the British
Raj territory?
As the train touched Sarhad, from where the British Raj began, an Anglo-Indian in uniform
went through the train checking permits. The blue carriages of the train carried the letters
GBMR on the side an acronym for ‘Greater Bombay Metropolitan Railway’. There was the
tiny Union Jack painted on each carriage as a . reminder that they were in British territory.
As the train stopped at its destination, Victoria Terminus, the station looked remarkably
neat and clean. The staff was mostly made up of Anglo-Indians and Parsees along with a
handful of British officers.

3.Where was Khan Sahib going? How did he intend to reach there?
Khan Sahib was going to Peshawar. After the train reached Victoria Terminus he would take
the Frontier Mail out of Central,-the same night. From Bombay he would go to Delhi, then to
Lahore and then Peshawar. It would be a long journey and he would reach Peshawar two
days later.

4.What was the strange reality that Professor Gaitonde saw as he stepped out of the
station?
As Professor Gaitonde came out of the station, he saw an impressive building. The letters on
it revealed that it was the East India headquarters of the East India Company. He was
shocked as it was supposed to have had stopped operating soon after the events of 1857
but here it was flourishing.

5.What came as the biggest blow to Professor Gaitonde?

Professor Gaitonde was shocked to see the East India Company flourishing, a different set of
shops and office buildings at Hornby Road. But when he turned right along Home Street and
entered Forbes building, a greater shock awaited him. He asked for his son Mr Vinay
Gaitonde but the English receptionist, looked through the telephone list, the staff list and
then through the directory of employees of all the branches of the firm but could not find
anyone of that name.

6.What did Professor Gaitonde decide to do when the reality that he was living seemed
very strange?
When Professor Gaitoride saw unfamiliar sights and felt that he was reliving history he was
very surprised but not finding his son as an employee in Forbes baffled him completely. He
decided to go to the library of the Asiatic Society to solve the riddle of history. So he made
his way to the Town Hall.

7.What books did he browse through in the library? What did he discover?
In the Town Hall library, he asked for a list of history books including his own. When he got
the five volumes, he started looking through them from the beginning. Volume one dealt
with the history up to the period of Ashoka, volume two up to Samudragupta, volume three
up to Mohammad Ghori, and volume four up to the death of Aurangzeb. This was history as
he had known. However in the last (fifth) volume, history had taken a different turn during
the Battle of Panipat. The book mentioned that the Marathas won it handsomely and Abdali
was chased back to Kabul by the triumphant Maratha army led by Sadashivrao Bhau and his
nephew, the young Vishwasrao.

8.How did the victory of the Peshwas in the Battle of Panipat help them?
The victory in the battle was not only successful in building their confidence tremendously
but it also established the supremacy of the Marathas in northern India. The East India
Company, watching these events temporarily deferred its plan to spread out further. For the
Peshwas the immediate result was that the influence of Bhausaheb and Vishwasrao
increased and Vishwarao succeeded his father in 1780 A.D. The rabble-rouser, Dadasaheb,
had to retire from state politics.

9.What was the effect of the victory of the Peshwas on the East India Company?
The East India Company was alarmed when the new Maratha ruler, Vishwasrao, and his
brother, Madhavrao, expanded their influence all over India. The Company was limited to
pockets of influence near Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. However, in the nineteenth
century the Marathas were aware of the importance of the technological age starting in
Europe. Hence when they set up their own centres for science and technology, the East
India Company saw another chance to extend its influence, it offered support and experts.
But they were accepted only to make the local centres self-sufficient.

10.What was the final outcome of the Peshwas?

During the twentieth century, inspired by the West, India moved towards a democracy. By
then, the Peshwas had lost their enterprise and democratically elected bodies slowly but
surely replaced them. The Sultanate at Delhi survived even this change because it exerted
no real influence. The Shahenshah of Delhi was a nominal head to rubber-stamp the
‘recommendations’ made by the central parliament.

11.Gangadharpant began to appreciate the India he had seen. Why was it so?
After reading this new history, Gangadharpant was pleased at the India he had seen, it was
a country that had not been subjected to slavery of the white man; it had leamt to stand on
its feet and knew what self-respect was. From a position of strength and for purely
commercial reasons, it had allowed the British to retain Bombay as the sole outpost on the
subcontinent.
 12.How had the Marathas won the battle?
After reading about the consequences of the battle Gangadharpant felt that his
investigations were incomplete. To find the answer he went through the books and journals
before him. At last, among the books he found one that gave him the clue. It was
‘Bhausahebanchi Bakhar’. He found a three-line account of how close Vishwasrao had come
to being killed. However God had been merciful. The bullet brushed past his ear and he was
saved by inches.

13.What did he take with him absentmindedly from the library? How did it help him?
At eight o’clock the librarian politely reminded the Professor that the library was closing for
the day. Before Gangadharpant left he shoved some notes into his right pocket.
Absentmindedly, he also shoved the ‘Bakhar’ into his left pocket. It helped the Professor
convince Rajendra that the story was not a figment of his imagination. He produced this as a
very important piece of evidence.

14.What happened did Professor Gaitonde see in the Azad Maidan?

In the Azad Maidan, the Professor found a multitude of people moving towards a pandal to
listen to a lecture. As the lecture was in progress, people kept coming and going. But
Professor Gaitonde stared at the platform, he noticed that the presidential chair was empty.
Like a piece of iron attracted to a magnet, he swiftly moved towards the chair.

15.What happened when Professor Gaitonde went ahead to occupy the chair on the dais?
When Professor Gaitonde went ahead to occupy the chair on the dais, the audience
protested vehemently. Professor Gaitonde went to the mike to give his views but the
audience was in no mood to listen. However, he kept on talking and soon became a target
for a shower of tomatoes, eggs and other objects. Finally, the audience rushed to throw him
out bodily but he was nowhere to be seen.

16.‘… facts can be stranger than fantasies, as I am beginning to realise.’ Why did Rajendra
say this?
Rajendra had thought that Professor’s mind was playing tricks on him till Gangadharpant
produced his own copy of ‘Bhausahebanchi Bakhar’, where the account of the war stated
that Vishwasrao was hit by the bullet. He then produced the other evidence in the form of a
document that he had inadvertently picked up from the Professor Gaitonde’s library.

Rajendra was confused when he saw this material evidence. He then admitted that his
experience had not been just a fantasy. He realized that facts could be stranger than fiction.

17.How did Rajendra explain ‘reality’?

Rajendra said that reality was what we experience directly with our senses or indirectly via
instruments. It may not be unique as has been found from experiments on atoms and their
constituent particles. Physicists discovered that the behaviour of these systems couldn’t be
predicted definitively even if all the physical laws governing those systems are known.
 18.How did Rajendra relate the lack of determinism in quantum theory to the Professor’s
experience?
Rajendra said that the path of an electron fired from a source cannot be determined as in
one world the electron is found here, in another it is over there. Once the observer finds
where it is, we know which world we are talking about. But all those alternative worlds
could exist just the same. Similarly, catastrophic situations offer radically different
alternatives for the world to proceed. It seems that so far as reality is concerned all
alternatives are viable but the observer can experience only one of them at a time.

19.How did Professor Gaitonde make the transition from one reality to the other?
Rajendra admitted that there are many unsolved questions in science and this Professor
Gaitonde’s transition was one of them. But he guessed that since one needs some
interaction to cause a transition, at the time of the collision he must have been thinking
about the catastrophe theory and its role in wars. Perhaps he was wondering about the
Battle of Panipat and the neurons in his brain acted as a trigger.

Long Answers

1.Describe the observations made by the Professor as he entered the alternative

universe.
Professor Gaitonde was shocked when the train stopped beyond the long tunnel at a small
station called Sarhad. An Anglo-Indian in uniform was checking the train permits.

Then the train passed through the suburban rail traffic. The blue carriages carried the
letters, GBMR, on the side that stood for ‘Greater Bombay Metropolitan Railway’. There was
a tiny Union Jack painted on each carriage as a gentle reminder that they were in British
territory. The station at Victoria Terminus looked impeccably neat and clean. The staff
comprised mostly of Anglo-Indians and Parsees along with a handful of British officers.

Coming out of the station, he found himself facing an imposing building. It was the office of
the East India Company. As he walked along Homby Road, as it was called, he found a
different set of shops and office buildings. There was no Handloom House building. Instead,
there were Boots and Woolworth departmental stores, imposing offices of Lloyds, Barclays
and other British banks, as in a typical high street of a town in England.

The greatest shock that awaited was when he entered Forbes building and wished to meet
his son, Mr Vinay Gaitonde. The receptionist searched through the telephone list, the staff
list and then through the directory of employees of all the branches of the firm and finally
shook her head and said, that nobody of that name was either there or any of their
branches.

2.Write a detailed account of the different history that Professor Gaitonde read in the
fifth volume of the book in the library.
The book mentioned that the Marathas won Battle of Panipat. Abdali was chased back to
Kabul by the victorious .Maratha army led by Sadashivrao Bhau and his nephew, the young
Vishwasrao. As a consequence the Marathas gained a great deal of confidence and
established their supremacy in northern India. The East India Company, watching these
developments, temporarily postponed its expansionist programme. This increased the
influence of Bhausaheb and Vishwasrao who succeeded his father to the throne in 1780 A.D.

The troublemaker, Dadasaheb, was pushed to the background and he ultimately left state
politics. Vishwasrao and his brother, Madhavrao, combined political insight with courage
and expanded their influence all over India. The Company’s influence was limited only to
areas near Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. For political reasons, the Peshwas kept the
puppet Mughal regime alive in Delhi.

In the nineteenth century the Peshwas realized the importance of the technological age and
set up their own centres for science and technology. They accepted East India Company’s
help only to make the local centres self-sufficient. In the twentieth century India moved
towards a democracy. The Peshwas had lost their enterprise and democratically elected
bodies gradually replaced them. The Sultanate at Delhi was just a nominal head to
rubberstamp recommendations made by the central parliament.

3.What was the difference in the actual events of the Battle of Panipat and the ones
reported in the alternative universe?
Professor Gaitonde wanted to look for accounts of the battle itself, so he went through the
books and journals before him. At last, he found ‘Bhausahebanchi Bakhar’. There he found
account of how close Vishwasrao had come to being killed but the ‘merciful’ God had saved
him. A shot had brushed past his ear and he had missed death by inches. However, in this
world in which Gaitonde had written his volumes of history, ‘Bhausahebanchi Bakhar’
reported that Vishwasrao had died fighting. God had ‘expressed His displeasure. He was hit
by the bullet’. The entire history seemed to have changed radically.

4.What was the outcome of the Battle of Panipat in the alternative universe?
Their victory increased the morale of the Marathas. The East India Company temporarily
shelved its expansionist programme. The Peshwas expanded their influence all over India.
The Company was reduced to pockets of influence near Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. The
Peshwas kept the puppet Mughal regime alive in Delhi. With the dawn of the technological
age in Europe, they set up their own centres for science and technology.

The East India Company saw another opportunity to extend its influence but its aid and
experts were accepted only to make the local centres self-sufficient. The twentieth century
brought about further changes inspired by the West, India moved towards a democracy and
democratically elected bodies replaced the Peshwas. After reading this, Professor Gaitonde
began to appreciate that India because it had not been subjected to slavery of the white
man; it had learnt to stand on its feet and knew what self-respect was. From a position of
strength and for purely commercial reasons, it had allowed the British to remain.

5.Describe the scene that transported Professor Gaitonde to the alternative universe.
Professor Gaitonde, after a frugal meal, set out for a stroll towards the Azad Maidan. There
he saw a pandal where a lecture was to take place. Professor Gaitonde walked towards the
pandal and noticed that on the platform the presidential chair was unoccupied. Drawn to
the stage like a magnet, he quickly moved towards the chair.

The speaker stopped in mid-sentence, too shocked to continue. But the audience shouted at
him. When he insisted on talking he became a target for a shower of tomatoes, eggs and
other objects. But he kept on trying bravely to correct this blasphemy. Finally, the audience
crowded on the stage to throw him out. And, in the crowd Gangadharpant was nowhere to
be seen.

6.‘But we live in a unique world which has a unique history.’ Why did the Professor say
so?
Rajendra tried to rationalize Professor Gaitonde’s experience on the basis of two scientific
theories known today. He had passed through a catastrophic experience. He applied it to
the Battle of Panipat. The Maratha army was facing Abdali’s troops on the field of Panipat.
There was no great disparity between the latter’s troops and the opposing forces. So, a lot
depended on the leadership and the morale of the troops.
In the history known to us Vishwasrao, the son of and heir to the Peshwa, was killed.

This proved to be the turning pointing in the battle. Whether Bhausaheb was killed in battle
or survived is not known. The soldiers lost their morale and fighting spirit and were
defeated. However, in the alternative universe the bullet missed Vishwasrao, and it boosted
the morale of the army and provided just that extra force that made all the difference.
Professor Gaitonde felt comparable statements are made about the Battle of Waterloo,
which Napoleon could have won. But all this is assumption. We live in a inimitable world
which has a distinctive history. This idea of ‘it might have been’ is not acceptable for reality.

7.How did Rajendra explain Professor Gaitonde’s experience by linking it to ‘the lack of
determinism in quantum theory’?
Rajendra felt that reality might not be unique as has been found from experiments on atoms
and their constituent particles. The behaviour of these systems cannot be predicted
definitively even if all the physical. laws governing those systems are known. The course
taken by an electron fired from a source cannot be asserted. This is the theory of the lack of
determinism in the quantum theory. Similarly, in one world the electron is found here, in
another it is over there.

In yet another world it could be in a completely different location. Once the observer finds
where it is, we know which world we are talking about. But all those alternative worlds
could exist just the same. The electron could be orbiting in any of a large number of
specified states. These states may be used to identify the world. In state no. 1 we have the
electron in a state of higher energy.

Instate no. 2 it is in a state of lower energy. It could make a jump from high to low energy
and send out a pulse of radiation. Or a pulse of radiation could knock it out of state no. 2
into state no. 1. Such transitions are common in microscopic systems. If it happened on a
macroscopic level people could make a transition from one world to another and back
again.