Summary of the lesson, THE ADVENTURE by Jayant Narlikar (class 11)
Answers
Explanation:
The Adventure Summary
The Adventure by Jayant Narlikar is a unique story in which the author has tried to concoct a new blend of history and physics. In this story he writes about Professor Gaitonde’s unique experience. He time-travels into the past and experiences something that never ever existed. He finds himself in a Bombay that never ever existed.
The Bombay Gangadharpant saw in different world was quite different. As the train stopped at Victoria Terminus, he found the station to be extremely neat and clean; the blue coaches of the train carried GBMR, “Greater Bombay Metropolitan Railway”. The working staff consisted of Anglo-Indians and a few British officers.
As he came out of the station he saw the Headquarters of East India Company; while walking on Hornby Road, he saw buildings of British brands, such as Boots and Woolworth departmental stores, imposing offices of Lloyds, Barclays and other British banks. The most startling thing was at the Forbes building where his son worked, he did not find him there.
Then he went to the Library of Asiatic Society to solve the riddle of the history. As a historian it was his duty to find the truth and the reality related to the battle of Panipat. He wanted to know the details of battle of Panipat. And as he read the book he was amazed to find the details totally contrary to what had actually happened. In the book he read the Marathas’ morale was very high because their leader, Vishwasrao successfully pierced the enemy defense line without being hit by the so many bullets that were fired at him. Thus they succeeded in defeating Abdali’s troops.
Not only the Marthas had defeated the troops of Abdali, but they had also kept the British at bay. They had successfully established their kingdom in North India and through political acumen steered India to a state of prosperity and power. They had managed and administered India efficiently in all spheres such as finances, defense, and international trade. He was wonderstruck at this phenomenon.
After leaving the library he went to a guest house and took a light meal. Professor Gaitonde went to Azad Maidan where he found a lecture going on; on the stage he noticed the presidential chair unoccupied. There he had an argument with the audience regarding the unchaired lecture, which turned out to be violent. The audience got on the stage and threw Professor Gaitonde off the stage.
The throw had an effect on the professor as it was after this experience he came out of the other world experience. He had been found unconscious in Azad Maidan.
In order to solve the mystery of this unique experience, Professor Gaitonde went to Professor Deshpande. The latter tried to give scientific explanation to the former. According to professor Deshpande, reality is something we experience through our senses which are kind of instruments. These senses or instruments have limitations. What we call reality may have other manifestations or dimensions.
Physicists have found there are many worlds existing besides the world we see through our senses. They have also found something startling during experiments on small systems of atoms and their particles. The behavior of these systems is unpredictable. This is called lack of determinism. Keeping this law in mind it can be said what we call reality may be different in another world.
According to Deshpande, Gaitonde made transition from one world into another during his unique experience about battle of Panipat. The reality is he was visiting Bombay in coma. He met with an accident and went into a coma; at the time of accident, Professor Gaitonde was thinking about Battle of Panipat and the possible consequences of theory of catastrophe on it. He also found history to be changed in which India had never ever become slave to the British. He also found that Marathas had defeated the troops of Abdali at Panipat. During the time he was in coma, his consciousness experienced an experience of British India in which he always wanted to see; but that India had never existed in reality; it existed in Gaitonde’s mind only
Answer:
Professor Gaitonde was travelling from Pune to Bombay via the Jijamata Express, a train which was faster than the Deccan Queen. As he was crossing towns and villages, he met a man named ‘Khan Sahib’ who talked about his business and chatted about several things. They got off at Victoria Terminus station which was neat and clean. It had British officers, Parsees and Anglo-Indian staff all around. He was confused as to how the East India Company was ruling the country as according to his facts, they had fled away after the events of 1857.
He went to the Hornby road and noticed that the shops were different. He entered the Forbes building and inquired about Mr. Vinay Gaitonde but as checked by the receptionist, no such man had ever worked there. He went to the Town Hall and sat in the reading room. He took five books related to the history and decided to go through them one by one and check how the facts had changed. He started investigating from the period of Asoka to the third battle of Panipat.
According to the fifth volume ‘Bhausahebanchi Bakhar’, he found out that Marathas had won the Battle of Panipat and spread their influence all over India after that. He was confused as it was different from what he knew so far. After the victory, India was moved to the path of democracy. There were no longer any kings ruling and democratic parties had been set up. The professor started liking India as he kept reading further 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 slave under the white man.
As he was going through the book, the librarian told him to finish since they were closing the library. It was eight o clock. He asked about carrying the books with him as he would return the next morning and slipped the Bakhar book into his left pocket. He checked into a guest house and had his dinner. He decided to walk towards Azad Maidan. He noticed a large crowd of people going towards a pandal. A lecture was going on but he noticed something unusual. The presidential chair was empty. The speaker was talking and the crowd was continuously moving inside and outside.
He could not control himself and moved towards the stage and sat on the chair. The crowd was taken aback and started asking him to get up and move away. He tried to talk to them but they started throwing several objects at him such as tomatoes, eggs, etc. Soon the crowd moved towards him to push him away and he was nowhere to be seen.
Next, he woke up in a hospital bed and saw Rajendra in front of him. He narrated the whole sequence of events that took place and Rajendra listened to him amazed. The professor was confused as to where he was and if he had been in a coma for the past two days. What was the experience he just had, was it real or not.
Rajendra explained to him that it happened because of two theories – Catastrophe theory and lack of determinism in Quantum theory. Catastrophe theory states that a small change in any situation can result in a shift in behaviour. In reality, the Marathas lost their leader – Bhausaheb and Vishwarao and hence they lost the battle. But Professor saw that the bullet missed and Vishwarao was not dead.
Professor then showed him the torn page of the Bakhar book that he had in his pocket. Rajendra read it carefully and told him that realities can be different for different people. What he thought had happened is a catastrophic experience.
Rajendra told him that in the case of electrons, one cannot predict which path the electron takes at a point of time. He told him that it is the lack of determinism in Quantum theory and explained to him what it meant. 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 in every world, it might happen that an alternative world exists at the same time.
Hence, the professor was in two different worlds at the present time. He had real-life experience in an alternative reality and he came back from another world. Both the worlds had different histories and different sets of events. The professor wanted to know why he was the one to make the transition. Rajendra told him that at the time of the collision with the truck, the professor was thinking about the catastrophe theory and its role in the war. He was also thinking about the Battle of Panipat at that moment, so the neurons in his brain acted as a trigger and made the transition.
The professor was in that alternative world for the last two days.