The Adventure Summary in English Analysis and Explanation by Jayant Narlikar

The Adventure Summary in English and Hindi Pdf. The Adventure is written by Jayant Narlikar.

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The Adventure Summary in English by Jayant Narlikar

About the writer Jayant Narlikar

Name Jayant Narlikar
Born 19 July 1938 (age 81 years), Kolhapur
Spouse Mangala Narlikar
Awards Padma Vibhushan, Adams Prize, Padma Bhushan, Prix Jules Janssen
Known for Steady-state model, Hoyle–Narlikar theory of gravity
Jayant Narlikar - the adventure summary in english class 11
Jayant Narlikar

The Adventure Theme

This is an extract of the later half of the story ‘The Adventure” by Jayant Narlikar. It is a science fiction story in which two theories, the Catastrophe theory and the lack of determinism in Quantum theory, are tried to be explained through an imaginary set of events which would have occurred in the life of a professor of history if the result of a battle more than 200 years earlier would have been different.

The Adventure Summary

The Adventure About the Characters

Professor Gangadharpant Gaitonde: He is an eminent professor of history working in Pune. He has a catastrophic accident which causes him to transition to a parallel world for 60 hours.

Rajendra Deshpande: He is a mathematical and scientific expert who tries to rationalise Professor Gaitonde’s experience by applying the Catastrophe theory and the lack of determinism in Quantum theory.

The Adventure Summary in English

The Adventure Summary in English

Earlier Part of the Story (Not the Part of Text)
Professor Gangadharpant Gaitonde was an eminent historian and a leading public figure of Pune. He was much in demand for presiding over public functions. He had just completed his 999th occasion for presiding at a function. He had decided that his thousandth appearance on the stage would be for history. That occasion was to come two weeks later at a seminar devoted to the Third Battle of Panipat.

While he was walking home, a truck on the road hit him. He lost consciousness. When he regained consciousness, he had transited to a parallel world (although he was not aware of this). He was in hospital. After recovering, he was discharged from the hospital the next morning. He tried to reach his home, but he found that it did not exist in the parallel world. He decided to go to Bombay because his son was working in a British company there. He went to Pune railway station and took a train to Bombay. The extract starts from here.

Gaitonde’s Journey to Bombay
When Gaitonde had to get a permit to visit Bombay, he was told that Bombay was British territory while the rest of India was independent. On the journey in a first class compartment of the Jijamata Express, he sat beside Khan Sahib, who would be going on to Peshawar from Delhi on business. Then he realised that there had been no partition of India (in this parallel world). On the route, the train stopped only at Lonavala, Karjat and the border town of Safhad, where the permits were checked. It did not stop at Kalyan, but finally terminated at Victoria Terminus in Bombay. While going through Bombay’s suburbs, he observed that the carriages of the local trains had the British flag painted on them, indicating that they were passing through British territory.

Gaitonde Fails to Find his Son
Gaitonde had planned out his activities on his visit to Bombay. He would try to meet his son and then go to a big library to solve the mystery of his transition. When Gaitonde stepped out of the railway station, he saw ‘East India House’, which indicated that the East India Company still existed in Bombay. Further, he found various British companies and buildings on the road. He visited his son’s office to meet him, but found that no such person worked there, although the company was the same one. This made Gaitonde realise the truth of what Rajendra Deshpande had told him earlier about the Catastrophe theory. He had really made the transition to a parallel world.

Gaitonde Finds the Information he Needed
He visited the Town Hall building in which the library of the Asiatic Society was located. Luckily for him, it also existed in the parallel world. In the library he also found the five books on Indian history which he had written. On going through the fifth volume, which gave India’s history after the death of Aurangzeb, he found that the result of the third battle of Panipat in 1761 was written differently from what he knew, although he was the author of this book in the parallel world.

It said that the Marathas had won the battle, whereas he knew that they had lost it. From here onwards, the history of India changed, which explained what Gaitonde had been experiencing for the last few hours.

He found confirmation in a Marathi journal about how exactly the Marathas had won the battle. The Marathi journal stated that a bullet fired by the Afghans in the battle just brushed the ear of the leader of the Marathas, Vishwasrao. Gaitonde in the real world had written in his fifth volume that Vishwasrao had been killed by a cannon shell in the battle and the Marathas lost their morale and the battle subsequently, because that was what earlier historians had written. In the parallel world, Vishwasrao survived, rallied his troops and won this battle.

India’s Remaining History in the Parallel World
The remaining history of India, as recounted in the fifth volume Gaitonde was reading, can be summarised by saying that India never went under British rule. The Marathas did not allow the East India Company to expand its influence in India. In fact, its influence was limited to a few places like Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. India gradually became a democracy but allowed the British to carry on in Bombay on a lease for commercial reasons. The lease was due to expire in the year 2001, 15 years after the time of this story.

Gaitonde Returns to the Real World
Gaitonde left the library when it closed in the evening, indicating to the librarian that he would come back next morning. After taking a meal, he went for a stroll to Azad Maidan. There was a lecture going on there. When Gaitonde saw a vacant presidential chair on the stage, he went and sat on it, thinking that it was for him, because in the real world he had been invited for such a seminar. The audience reacted by strongly protesting against Gaitonde sitting on the presidential chair.

The reason was that, in this world, the people had become sick of hearing long introductions, vote of thanks and remarks of the chair. They were only interested in what the speaker was speaking and had abolished the custom of having a chairman long ago. The chair kept on the platform was only symbolic.

Gaitonde got up and started speaking, but the audience pelted him with tomatoes, eggs and other objects as they did not want any remarks from him. When Gaitonde still did not stop speaking, the audience swarmed on to the stage to remove him. During the commotion, Gaitonde disappeared. Actually he had suffered another catastrophe by being knocked unconscious by the mob and returned to the real world, as he was found on the Azad Maidan the next morning with his clothes torn. He had no idea what had happened and so he returned to Pune.

Rajendra Deshpande Explains What Happened to Gaitonde
Gaitonde narrated his adventure to his friend Rajendra Deshpande, a mathematical and scientific expert. Rajendra tried to explain to him what had happened by explaining how the Catastrophe theory and the lack of determinism in Quantum theory applied to his adventure.

When Rajendra felt that Gaitonde had imagined- things because he may have been thinking about the third battle of Panipat at the time the truck hit him, Gaitonde showed Rajendra the torn-off page of the history book from the other world, about Vishwasrao escaping death. In the book in the real world, the account was given as Vishwasrao being hit by a bullet and dying. So in the real world, the Marathas had not won, the East India Company had flourished and so on.

At first, Rajendra was perplexed by this new evidence. But, after further discussion with Gaitonde, Rajendra Deshpande explained that he had come to the conclusion that there could be many ‘different worlds existing at different points of time’. They could all have a different history. Professor Gaitonde had been to another parallel world. The time was the present but its history was quite different.

Gaitonde Refuses to Chair any More Seminars
When Rajendra suggested that Gaitonde could recount his adventure at the thousandth seminar he was presiding over after a few days, Gaitonde told him that he had already declined the invitation, as he did not want to chair any more seminars. Probably he remembered the treatment he had received from the audience in the parallel world when he tried to chair a seminar.

The Adventure Chapter Highlights

Professor Gaitonde had a collision with a truck. At that time he was thinking of the Catastrophe theory and its implications for history.

He found himself in another Bombay, which looked more like England as it was much cleaner and had many big English shops). The East India Company was flourishing there.

In this Bombay, he went to the Asiatic Society library in the Town Hall to read some history books, including the ones he had himself written.

Most of the history was as he knew it in his world, but the point where the history had changed was the third Battle of Panipat. In this different world, the Marathas had won this battle.

Then the Marathas did not allow the East India Company to expand its influence in India. In fact, its influence was limited to a few places like Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. India had become a democracy but allowed the British to carry on in these cities for commercial reasons.

Gaitonde wanted to find out how the Marathas had won the battle. According to one history book in the library, the Maratha army’s morale was boosted when Vishwasrao managed to escape death narrowly.

After leaving the library in the evening, he went for a stroll to Azad Maidan. There was a lecture going on. When Gaitonde saw a vacant presidential chair on the stage, he went and sat on it, thinking that it was for him, because in the real world he had been invited for such a seminar. But in this world, people were fed up of long speeches and had abolished the ’chairing’ custom. They got angry because Gaitonde would not stop talking. They threw various things at him and then got onto the stage to throw him out. But suddenly Gaitonde vanished.

He was found in the Azad Maidan, in his own familiar world. Where had he been for two days?

He went back to Pune and showed Rajendra Deshpande the proof that he had been somewhere else and was not imagining things. It was the torn-off page of the history book from the other world, about Vishwasrao escaping death. In the book in his own world, the account was given as Vishwasrao being hit by a bullet and dying. So in our world, the Marathas had not won, the East India Company had flourished and so on.

Through discussions, Professor Gaitonde and Rajendra Deshpande came to the conclusion that there could be many ‘different worlds at different points of time’. They could all have a different history. Professor Gaitonde had been to another world. The time was the present but its history was quite different.

The Adventure Word Meaning

Word – Meaning
ghat section – section of railway track in the Western Ghats, i.e. the hilly region
landscape – painting of a countryside or rural scenery
roared through – passed through with a roaring sound without stopping
racing – fast thinking
state of affairs – situation
Sarhad – border town
Anglo-Indian – An Indian of English descent or of mixed English and Indian parentage
ventured – dared to ask
Central – Bombay Central railway station
been wound up – stopped its operations
blow – setback
volume – book in a series of books
blow-by-blow account – detailed description
morale booster – event that improved their confidence and raised their morale
from the sidelines – but not taking part in it
relegated to – assigned to a lower rank or position
political acumen – political shrewdness with keen insight
pockets – areas
puppet – actually under control of another
de facto – existing
astute – marked by practical intelligence
Shahenshah – ruler
rubber-stamp – formally approve
doctored accounts – narratives changed so as to deceive
after his heart – to his liking
throng – crowd
panda1 – temporary structure
gave vent to – expressed his feelings and ideas
valiantly – courageously
dumbfounded – greatly surprised
smugly – with a self-satisfied look
Bakhar – form of historical narrative written in Marathi prose
food for thought – something that requires serious consideration
pacing – walking to and fro
catastrophic – sudden happening causing damage and/ or suffering
take issue – disagree
definitively – finally with authority
ignoramus – ignorant
trajectory – path
proceeded – carried on
speculating – guessing

An Astrologer’s Day Summary