The

Adventure
Shikha Shokeen

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Professor Gaitonde was traveling by the Jijamata Express train

which was running along Pune-Bombay Route and was faster
than the Deccan Queen. The first stop of the train was Lonavala
which came in 40 minutes. The professor noticed that there were
no industrial towns outside Pune city. The next stop was the
ghat section which was similar to what the professor already
knew. The train followed to the next city – Karjat and started
speeding at a greater pace than before. When the train was in
Kalyan, it moved at high speed.

CUSTOM TEXT HERE

JAN 15&
2020
The professor came up with a plan to be followed when he
would arrive at Bombay city. He was a historian who thought he
should have come up with a plan sooner to go to the big library
and glance at the history books there. He wanted to know how
the current situation of India by studying various events. He
further planned to move back to Pune after his work finished
and meet with Rajendra Deshpande to have a discussion over
the current events.
LOCATION

He was thinking about it and assumed if a person named

Rajendra Deshpande existed in this world. As he was into his
thoughts when the train stopped beyond a long tunnel in a place
called ‘Sarhad’. He saw an Anglo-Indian in a uniform who was
going through the train to check the permit.

Shikha Shokeen

As the incident was taking place, a person named ‘Khan Sahib’

asked Gaitonde if he was going to Bombay for the first time to
which he replied yes. He asked Khan Sahib about how would he
reach Peshawar. He told him the whole route – the train would
first go to Victoria Terminus and then he would change the train
‘Frontier Mail’ from the central. The train will then go to Delhi
and then to Lahore and finally Peshawar. It would be a long
journey of two days.
Khan Sahib further talked about his business to Gangadharpant
Gaitonde (Professor) who was listening to him willingly. He got
 to taste a different flavour of the country other than what he saw
and knew. The train next passed through the residential rail
traffic and he saw a blue carriage with GBMR on the side.

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EAST INDIA HOUSE HEADQUARTERS OF
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THE EAST INDIA COMPANY
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Shikha Shokeen

Khan Sahib explained the full form of GBMR – Greater Bombay

Metropolitan Railway. He further showed him the tiny Union
Jack painted on the carriages which was a mark for the
reminder that they were in British territory. As the train moved
passed Dadar, it stopped at the destination – Victoria Terminus.
The station was neat and clean and the staff consisted of Anglo-
Indians and Parsees with few British Officers.

As the professor got down from the station, he saw a big sign
which read ‘East India House Headquarters of the East India
Company’ which made the professor curious as he didn’t expect
this in Bombay. According to his knowledge of history, East
India Company was shut down after 1857 events. But the
company was standing there which was growing successfully.
He was confused as to how history took a turn. He had to know
what happened.

Shikha Shokeen

As the professor walked passed the Hornby road in Bombay, he

noticed a different set of shops in the street. There were no
longer Handloom House Building but were Boots and
Woolworth departmental stores and offices of Lloyds, Barclays
and other British originated banks. It was just like a high street

=
in England.

He entered the Forbes building in the Home Street. He asked the

receptionist about Mr. Vinay Gaitonde. She searched for quite
some time, all the telephone list and the staff list but didn’t find
anything. She told him that there is no such person working in
any branches of the company.
He was shocked and didn’t expect this. He was thinking about
what would happen if he would not be alive in this world.
He moved out of the building and went to a restaurant to eat
lunch. He then went to ‘Town Hall’.

He reached the Town Hall which had a library inside. He

entered the reading room and made his way towards history
books. He took five volumes and started reading from the
beginning. Volume one was about the period of Ashoka, another
was about Samudragupta, the third one was about Mohammad
Ghori and the fourth volume was up to the death of Aurangzeb.
 He noticed the last volume, it had some changes. After reading
volume five, he knew about the exact moment where history
changed.

Shikha Shokeen

city Afghanistis

kingpital
He came to know that Marathas had won the Battle of Panipat.
Abdali was chased to Kabul by the successful Maratha army
which was led by Sadashivrao Bhau and his nephew.

The book didn’t give detailed information about the war but it
elaborated about the details about the power struggles in India.
The professor read the account with great interest. Although he
recognized the writing style to be his, he could not recollect
having written it. After the war, the Marathas established
superiority in the northern Indian region which also worked as
a great confidence booster for them.

l
The East India Company got side-lined and abandoned its
expansionist program.
For the Maratha ruler, the influence of Bhausaheb and
Vishwarao increased. Vishwarao succeeded his father in 1780
AD. Dadasaheb was assigned to a lower rank and he retired
from state politics. The East India Company met its match in
Vishwarao. Vishwarao and his brother, Madhavrao, with their
political smartness and courage in the battlefield, expanded
their influence all over India. The company was left with
influence in only a few cities in India like Bombay, Calcutta, and
Madras just like Europeans, Portuguese and French.
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Shikha Shokeen
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The Marathas kept the Mughal government alive for political
reasons. In the nineteenth century, rulers were smart enough to
recognize the importance of technology rising in Europe. On the
other hand, East India Company extended its influence by
offering aid and experts in the region where they were accepted
only as local centers.

India was a democratic country inspired by the West during the

twentieth century. The Peshwas of Marathas lost their empire
and democratic bodies took their place. The Mughal Sultanate
at Delhi survived the transitions as they had no influence. The
Mughal rulers were no longer a carving on the rubber stamps.
The professor started liking India as he continued reading about
it. It was different from the one he believed he saw. This country
knew how to stand on its feet and it was no longer the slave
under white man. Bombay was made an outpost on the sub-
continent region by the British. According to a treaty in 1908, it
would expire in the year 2001. The professor was comparing the
country he was witnessing now. But, he still felt that his
investigation was incomplete and he wanted to know more
answers about the Maratha battle.

Shikha Shokeen

As he was going through the books in front of him, he found the

clues in one of them, which was Bhausahebanchi Bakhar. He
never relied on Bakhar for any type of historical evidence but he
always found them entertaining. Among the manipulated
accounts, he found the three-line account about Vishwarao and
how he was killed. Vishwarao was shot and the bullet brushed
past his ear while he was running upon his horse in a confused
fight. The book said that even a sesame seed would have been a
reason for his death. -
↑

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The librarian asked him to finish as the library was about to be
closed at eight o’clock at night. He noticed he was the only one
left in the reading room. He asked the librarian whether he
could keep the books with him and asked him about the opening
time of the library. The librarian told him that it opens at eight
o’clock in the morning and the professor left the table. He
pushed the notes into his right pocket and pushed the Bakhar
book into his left one.
 Shikha Shokeen
LOCATION

He found a guest house to stay in and eat cheap meat for dinner.
He decided to walk towards Azad Maidan and found a large
pack of a crowd moving towards the pandal. The professor
moved towards the pandal. A lecture was taking place and
people were going and coming to and fro. His attention was on
the stage. There was an empty table and chair. The presidential
chair was also unoccupied. He was motivated and he moved
towards the chair. The speaker stopped and he was shocked to
see the professor sitting on that empty chair. The speaker yelled
at him to vacate the chair. He replied the lecture doesn’t have
any chairperson but the speaker asked him to move away and
told him that the chair was iconic. The Professor didn’t listen to
his instructions and went to the mike to express his thoughts. He
started by saying that vacant chair lecture is like Shakespeare’s
Hamlet, and without Prince of Denmark.

The audience was in no mood to listen to anything. Clearly, old

customs had changed now. They no longer believed the chaired
person and his false promises. They asked him to move aside, as
they only wanted to hear the speaker. But the professor
continued talking as he believed he would control the unfriendly
audience. They soon started throwing tomatoes, eggs and other
objects towards him. He kept on trying bravely but the audience
started moving towards him to remove him physically from the
platform. In the crowd, the professor was nowhere to be seen.
The professor was talking to Rajendra. He narrated everything
to him which he saw and lived for those few days. He said he
was found in the Azad Maidan next morning and now he is back
to the real world which he is familiar with. He wanted to know
where had he spent the two days when he was unconscious.

Shikha Shokeen

Rajendra was amazed by the narrative and he replied after a

while. He asked the professor what he was thinking just before
his collision with the truck. Professor replied that he was
thinking about Catastrophe theory. He further told Rajendra not
to smile showing excess satisfaction. It is nothing like that my
mind was playing tricks with me. To win the argument, the
professor took out the printed page and Rajendra was surprised.

CONFIDENTIAL
Professor told Rajendra that he had unintentionally slipped the
Bakhar into his left pocket and he intended to return it the next
morning. But the book got torn off and lost in the large crowd in
the Azad Maidan. This page is evidence from the book that I had
stolen it. Rajendra again read the page, it described how
Vishwarao missed the bullet. He then showed him his own copy
of Bakhar and the texts were different. It said that Vishwarao
was hit by the bullet. -
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Rajendra told the professor that by reading the evidence, he had

begun to realize it’s not a fantasy. He wanted the professor to
know some facts.

Rajendra explained to him that this was a catastrophic

experience which he had just felt. Professor told him to
continue. He told the professor to apply the Catastrophe theory
to the Battle of Panipat. The Abdali and Maratha army were
both equally strong in terms of troops and forces. Their shell
was also comparable but the victory dependent on the
leadership and morale of the troops.
The point where the Marathas were killed was the turning point
of the battle. Uncle of Vishwarao rushed into the crowd and was
never seen again. No one knows whether he survived or died.
The troops lost their morale and fighting spirit and it was a
defeat for them.

Shikha Shokeen

Rajendra continued by saying that the torn page that he read

was about how the events took another turn and everything
happened differently from what they knew. The Professor added
similar statements are made about Battle of Waterloo where
several texts talk about ‘it might have been. Rajendra then made
his second point which was, how we experience reality. It is via
our senses or with the help of instruments. But is reality really
limited to what we see or is it a demonstration?

Shikha Shokeen

Rajendra explained that the reality is not the same, it has been
founded by the experiments of small atoms and their particles.
The physicists studied such system and found something
surprising. They found that the behaviour of such systems
cannot be predicted.
NOW THIS IS

Remarkable
He gave an example of an electron. If he would fire a bullet from
a gun. He would know where it will go but it cannot be predicted
about the electron. We can count odds about where it can be at a
specific time and position. Professor added ‘the lack of
determinism’ which means lack of a doctrine caused by external
will. He added that he had also heard of it.

21/10/2021

Rajendra while gathering his thoughts told the professor that in

one world, the electron may be found here and in another, it may
be found in another place but in the third world. It may be at
different locations. Once the observer knows about the correct
placing of the electrons at every world, it might happen that an
alternative world exists at the same time. The Professor asked
him whether there are any contacts between these many worlds.
Rajendra told him it might not happen. He said in both the
worlds, the electron is orbiting the nucleus of an atom.

The Professor added an example of planets and sun. Rajendra

said not quite as in the case of the planets we know about the
path that is followed by the planets. But in the case of electrons,
it is different. When an electron is in state 1, it is in higher
energy. In-state 2, it is in lower energy. It might happen that the
electron jumps from a higher to a lower position. These
transitions happen at a microscopic level but what if it
happened at the macroscopic level.

Professor told him that he went to another world and came

back again. Rajendra said it is the only explanation he can offer
right now. According to him, in catastrophic situations, different
alternatives can exist and somewhere the observer can
experience one reality one at a time.

Shikha Shokeen

Rajendra added that the professor made a transition and

experienced two worlds one at a time, one in which he lives and
another one where he spent his last two days. This world has the
history they know about and another one has different facts. The
Battle of Panipat had divisions of facts in both worlds. He said
that the professor didn’t travel past or future but was in the
present and experiencing different worlds. There may be more
worlds which may arise out of division at different points of
time. Professor asked as to why only he made the transition.

·
Rajendra answered that he didn’t know why he made the
transition but he could guess it. At the time of the collision, the
professor was thinking about catastrophe theory and its role in
the war. Maybe he was thinking about the Battle of Panipat at
that moment the neurons in his brain acted as a trigger and
made the transition.

Shikha Shokeen

The Professor confessed that he was thinking about what would

happen if the battle had gone the other way and he was about to
address this at his thousandth presidential address. Rajendra
laughed and said now he can happily recount his real-life
experience than just wondering about it. The Professor was
serious and told him that at his thousandth presidential address
at Azad Maidan, he was rudely interrupted by the crowd and
speaker. The professor Gaitonde who was defending his chair on
the stage had to disappear and he would never be seen again at
another meeting. He also conveyed his regrets to the organizers
of the seminar.
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C ·

Reference : -

https://www.successcds.net/learn-english/class-11/the-
adventure.html
The Adventure Important Questions
Shikha Shokeen

Question 1. Write the word’s meaning

Acumen

Answer 1: Awareness

Question 2. Write the word’s meaning

Frugal

Answer 2: Economical

Question 3. What was the name of Professor Gaitonde’s son?

Answer 3: The name of Professor Gaitonde’s son was Vinay

Gaitonde.

Question 4. What did GBMR stand for?

Answer 4: GBMR stands for “Greater Bombay Metropolitan

Railway”.

Question 5. Whom did Professor Gaitonde want to meet?

Answer 5: Professor Gaitonde wanted to meet Rajendra

Deshpande.

Question 6. What is Professor Gaitonde’s plan to do in Bombay?

Answer 6: Professor Gaitonde made a plan of action in Bombay.

He decided to go to the big library in Town Hall and study
 Shikha Shokeen

history to understand how that reality was different from the

one he knew. He also thought that after finding out the
historical course of events, he would meet Rajendra Deshpande
in Pune, who might explain his experience.

Question 7. Why did Professor Gaitonde go to the Forbes

building? What did he find out there?

Answer 7: Professor Gaitonde went to the Forbes building to

see if someone named Vinay Gaitonde worked there. The
receptionist searched the name and informed them that they
didn’t have any employees by that name. Vinay Gaitonde was
Professor Gaitonde’s son, and he realised that his son might
not exist in the other reality.

Question 8. How was Bombay in the other reality?

Answer 8: Bombay was under the rule of the East India

Company in that reality. So, Professor Gaitonde saw a great
difference in the city. He saw that Victoria Terminus was
remarkably clean and most of the workers were Anglo-Indian
or British. While we walked down the alley, he did not find the
handloom house buildings. Rather, he found different sets of
houses and shops. He discovered the Forbes building and Town
Hall, as well as the large library.

Question 9. What was the impact of the East India Company in

the other reality?

Answer 9: Unlike in our history, the East India Company was

unable to colonise India.In reality, the Maratha Empire was
India’s strongest ruler, and the Company’s influence remained
around big cities like Calcutta, Bombay, and Chennai. The
company stayed primarily for commercial reasons, assisting
Indian rulers in development.The British kept Bombay as their
outpost in the Indian subcontinent.However, the lease would
expire in 2001.

Question 10. What was the bifurcation of history that resulted

in the other reality?

Answer 10: Historical events play a major role in the existing

environment. Professor Gaitonde found that the course of
history was almost the same in that alternate reality until the
battle of Panipat. In Professor Gaitonde’s reality, the Maratha
army was defeated in the battle of Panipat, but in the other
reality, they won the battle. This bifurcation of history created
two different realities with different outcomes.

Question 11. Why was the chair empty?

Answer 11: The general public was not interested in having

presidents while attending lectures. They changed the rule
because they didn’t want to listen to long introductions or
votes of thanks. Their sole interests were the lectures. So, the
president’s chair was kept there but empty, symbolising that no
one could preside over a lecture or speech given to the general
public.

Question 12. What, according to Rajendra, triggered Professor

Gaitonde’s travel to another reality?

Answer 12: According to Rajendra, Professor Gaitonde must be

thinking about catastrophic theory and the battle of Panipat.
Professor Gaitonde agreed, saying he was thinking about these
when he came before the truck. Then, Rajendra remarked that
his thoughts might trigger his neurons, which could transport
him to an alternative reality.

Shikha Shokeen
Question 13. How did Professor Gaitonde spend his day in
Bombay?

Answer 13: Professor Gaitonde roamed the streets of Bombay.

He went to the Forbes building to search for his son but
couldn’t find his name in the employee list. Then, he went to
the library in the Town Hall and read Indian history until eight
o’clock in the evening. Then he found a guest house to stay in
and had dinner. He went for a walk in Azad Maidan after dinner.

Question 14. Why could Gangadhar Pant not help but compare
the country he knew with what he witnessed around him?

Answer 14: Gangadhar Pant Gaitonde was a professor of

history. He was teleported to another reality by transitioning
from reality to an alternate one. In the other reality, the
Marathas won the battle of Panipat, which changed the course
of subsequent historical events and resulted in a different India.
So, Professor Gaitonde could not recognise the new country in
which he was wandering, and he did not find any similarity
between what he was experiencing and what he had been
living in. In that reality, India was never colonised by British
forces. Rather, the East India Company remained a business
body influencing large cities like Bombay or Calcutta. India was
never divided into two countries, and people could travel to
Peshawar by train. Bombay was under the governance of the
Company, and the city was different in the professor’s eyes. He
found Victoria Terminus remarkably neat and clean, while the
employees were only Anglo-Indian or British. When he
wandered along a road, he found a different set of houses and
shops reflecting the Aglow culture. So, he could not compare
the two countries with their two different realities.

Question 15. Briefly explain the following statements from the

text.

Shikha Shokeen
 Shikha Shokeen

“You have passed through a fantastic experience: or more

correctly, a catastrophic experience.”

Answer 15: Professor Gaitonde had an unusual experience. He

claimed that he visited an alternative world where the course
of history differed from the known world. He shared his
experience with Rajendra Deshpande and asked for an
explanation. Rajendra first thought it to be an image of
professor Gaitonde. But after seeing Gaitonde’s proof, Rajendra
took the matter seriously and told him that he could think of
two theories. His second theory was that the professor had
gone through a catastrophic experience. He explained the
quantum theory to the professor and stated that one could not
determine where a free electron would be at the micro level.
The professor said there is a ‘lack of determinism in quantum
theory. Rajendra further explained that such a transition might
take place at the macro level. According to him, the professor
was in the same world and in the same timeline, but he
experienced two different realities. Though he could not
explain how he was teleported from one reality to another. So,
he called the professor’s experience a ‘catastrophic experience’.

Question 16. In an alternate reality, what was the significance

of the Maratha victory at Panipat?

Answer 16: The battle of Panipat, which created a schism in

Indian history and two distinct realities, was Maratha’s
victory.The books the Professor studied in the Town Hall library
explained the impact of the Maratha Empire’s victory on India’s
politics, economy, and society. The Maratha Empire got more
important all over India. That reduced the influence of the East
India Company, and they continued to have an impact in large
urban centres like Bombay or Calcutta. Maratha rulers or
Peshwas became the de facto or actual rulers.They understood
 Shikha Shokeen

the importance of science and technology and took help from

the East India Company to develop India. Slowly, India started
to get influenced by the ideologies of the West, and the
country was inclined toward democracy. Peshwas lost their
enterprises, and most of their governance was replaced by
democratic bodies. Though, the Shahenshah of Delhi survived
the transition to democracy. His chair remained as the de jure
ruler. The central parliament did the actual work, and
Shahenshah of Delhi supported these activities by giving his
stamps to them.

Question 17. How did Professor Gaitonde come back to the

world he knew?

Answer 17: Professor Gaitonde spent his whole day in a library

and then stayed in a guest house. He went for a walk in the
nearby Azad Maidan after dinner.The professor noticed a
crowd and the sound of a lecture coming from the ground. He
understood a speech was being given to people and came
closer to watch it. He found out that a chair on the stage was
unoccupied. It was the president’s chair. In that reality, people
have abolished the rule of having a president in a meeting. It is
because they did not like to hear the vote of thanks or long
introductions. Professor Gaikonde protested it and said the
meeting remains incomplete without a president. So, he came
to the stage and started to give a speech. The listeners became
agitated and soon began to throw eggs and raw bananas. But
the professor continued his speech, and the general public
forcibly expelled him from the stage. Then, the professor
vanished into the crowd. The next day, he was found in Azad
maidan, in reality, he knew, and he rushed to Rajendra
Deshpande to share his experience after he returned to his
actual reality.
·

Reference : -

https://www.extramarks.com/studymaterials/cbse/important-
questions-class-11-english-hornbill-chapter-7/