The Adventure

Questions and Answers Short Answer Type

Question 1.
‘That is, assuming that in this world there existed someone called Rajendra
Deshpande!’ Why does Professor Gaitonde feel so?
Answer:
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.
Question 2.
What were the things that Professor Gaitonde noticed as the train entered the
British Raj territory?
Answer:
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.
Question 3.
Where was Khan Sahib going? How did he intend to reach there?
Answer:
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.
Question 4.
What was the strange reality that Professor Gaitonde saw as he stepped out of the
station?
Answer:
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
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Company. He was shocked as it was supposed to have had stopped operating soon
after the events of 1857 but here it was flourishing.
Question 5.
What came as the biggest blow to Professor Gaitonde?
Answer:
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.
Question 6.
What did Professor Gaitonde decide to do when the reality that he was living
seemed very strange?
Answer:
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.
Question 7.
What books did he browse through in the library? What did he discover?
Answer:
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.
Question 8.
How did the victory of the Peshwas in the Battle of Panipat help them?
Answer:
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.
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Question 9.
What was the effect of the victory of the Peshwas on the East India Company?
Answer:
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.
Question 10.
What was the final outcome of the Peshwas?
Answer:
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.
Question 11.
Gangadharpant began to appreciate the India he had seen. Why was it so?
Answer:
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.
Question 12.
How had the Marathas won the battle?
Answer:
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.

Question 13.
What did he take with him absentmindedly from the library? How did it help him?
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Answer:
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.
Question 14.
What happened did Professor Gaitonde see in the Azad Maidan?
Answer:
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.
Question 15.
What happened when Professor Gaitonde went ahead to occupy the chair on the
dais?
Answer:
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.
Question 16.
‘… facts can be stranger than fantasies, as I am beginning to realise.’ Why did
Rajendra say this?
Answer:
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.
Question 17.
How did Rajendra explain ‘reality’?
Answer:
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
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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.
Question 18.
How did Rajendra relate the lack of determinism in quantum theory to the
Professor’s experience?
Answer:
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.
Question 19.
How did Professor Gaitonde make the transition from one reality to the other?
Answer:
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.

The Adventure Extra Questions and Answers Long Answer Type

Question 1.
Describe the observations made by the Professor as he entered the alternative
universe.
Answer:
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.

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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.

Question 2.
Write a detailed account of the different history that Professor Gaitonde read in the
fifth volume of the book in the library.
Answer:
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.

Question 3.
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What was the difference in the actual events of the Battle of Panipat and the ones
reported in the alternative universe?
Answer:
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.

Question 4.
What was the outcome of the Battle of Panipat in the alternative universe?
Answer:
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.

Question 5.
Describe the scene that transported Professor Gaitonde to the alternative universe.
Answer:
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.

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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.

Question 6.
‘But we live in a unique world which has a unique history.’ Why did the Professor
say so?
Answer:
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.

Question 7.
How did Rajendra explain Professor Gaitonde’s experience by linking it to ‘the
lack of determinism in quantum theory’?
Answer:
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.

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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.