The Adventure
By- Jayant Narlikar
Short and Simple Summary of the lesson in English– The Adventure/ Summary in simple Words/ Critical appreciation of the lesson – The Adventure
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The Jijamata Express train was running on Pune-Bombay route even faster than the Deccan Queen. The first stop came in 40 minutes. Then there was the Western Ghat section which Professor Gaitonde knew quite well. The train then passed through Kalyan station. it was, however, Gangadharpant’s first visit to Bombay.
Professor Gaitonde worked out a plan of action in Bombay. He was a historian who had published five volumes. He planned to go to a big library and find out what historical events had led to the present state of affairs. Next, he would return to Pune to have a long talk with Rajendra Deshpande for further clarification.
The train stopped beyond the long tunnel. At a small station called Sarhad, an Anglo-Indian ticket checker entered the compartment. The professor had a fellow traveller Khan sahib. Who was on way to Peshawar. Khan told gained that from Sarhad began the British Raj. The words painted on the blue carriages were Great Bombay metropolitan railway. The Union Jack was also painted on each bogey.
The train finally stopped at Victoria terminus. The station was neat and clean. The staff Was mostly made up of Anglo-Indians and Parsees. Gangadhar walked out of the station. He found himself standing in front of Head Quarters of East India Company. He hadn’t expected this. The company had been wound up after 1857 according to the history book. Yet here he found the company alive and flourishing. He wondered how and when it had happened.
He walked along Hornby Road. Lie found British firms and offices of British banks there. He then entered Forbes building. He wished to meet Mr Vinay Gaitonde, working there. The receptionist was sorry to say that there was no such person on the staff. This was a blow but not totally unexpected. If he himself was dead in the world, his son could not be alive.
He wanted to go to the Town Hall library. He took a quick lunch and reached there.
He now got all the five volumes he himself had written up to the death of Aurangzeb. There was no change in history. The change had occurred only in the last volume. He turned over the pages and came to the exact points where history had taken a different turn. The Battle of Panipat was fought between the Marathas and Abdali. Abdali was defeated and chased back to Kabul. The victorious Maratha army was led by Sadashivrao Bhau and his nephew, young Vishwasrao. This victory established the supremacy of the Marathas in northern India. The East India Company got the message to keep functioning for the time being. Its Influence was reduced to three cities—Bombay, Calcutta and Madras.
For political reasons, the Peshwas kept the puppet Mughal rule alive in Delhi. But in the 19th century, the Maratha rulers recognised the importance of science and technology. They set up their own centres of study and research. The East India Company grabbed the opportunity to extend its influence. It offered help as well as expertise.
The 20th century brought about further changes. India moved towards democracy and the grip of Peshwas grew weak. Gangadharpant began to admire the India that he had seen. He felt that India gave concession to Fast India Company from a position of strength and for commercial reasons. The Marathas leased out Bombay to the British in 1908. The lease was to expire in the year 2001. He could not help comparing the country he knew with what he was seeing around him.
He decided to find out how the Marathas won the Battle of Panipat. He found the clue in Bakhar. He read the three-line account of how close Vishwasrao had come to being killed. The young general guided his horse to the scene of actual fighting. A shot brushed past his ear, and he luckily escaped death.
The librarian reminded Gangadhar that it was time to close the library. The professor put some notes into his right pocket. Absent-mindedly he put the Bakhar also into his left pocket.
He put up for the night in a guest house. After a frugal meal, he set out for a walk towards the Azad Maidan, where a lecture was in progress. But table and chair on the dais were unoccupied. It was the presidential chair. The professor sank into that chair. There were protests. He proceeded with his lecture. But the audience was in no mood to listen. They hit him with tomatoes and eggs. It was his 999th lecture. He kept on talking. He was removed bodily and was thereafter seen nowhere.
When he finally met Rajendra at Pune, he had no Idea where and how he had spent the past two days. He had met with a road accident and collided with a truck. At that time he was thinking of that crucial moment when history could have taken a U-turn. He produced a page torn out of a book to establish that his imagination was not running amuck. The book Bakhar was, however, lost somewhere in the Azad Maidan. Rajendra read that account how vishwas rao was hit by the bullet. It was material evidence. The professor’s account was not a mere fantasy or a trick being played by his mind.
Rajendra tried to rationalise gaitonde’s experience. He called it a catastrophic experience. This theory could be aptly applied to the Battle of Panipat. The two armies of the Marathas and Abdali were equally matched. So a lot depended on the leadership and the morale of the soldiers. The point at which Vishwas Rao, the heir-son of the Peshwa, was killed, proved to be the turning point. His uncle was also perhaps killed. The loss of their two leaders killed the fighting spirit of the Maratha troops and they suffered defeat.
But Rajendra pointed out that Vishwas Rao was saved and the Maratha troops won the battle. Similar statements are made about the Battle of Waterloo which Napoleon could have won.
Rajendra then explained the second point—we experience the reality directly with our senses. But It is limited to what we see. There are other manifestations of reality. Take the example of the atom and its particles. Their behaviour cannot be foretold definitely. If an electron is fired from source, it won’t go in the given direction as does a bullet from a gun. In one world the electron is found here, in another itis over there. The observer bases his experience on one finding. But other worlds exist just the same. The electron can make a jump from high to low energy level. Such transitions are common. In other words, the professor also had made a move from one world to another and back again. So far as reality is concerned, all alternatives are true but the observer can see only one of them at a time. Professor Gaitonde was able to experience two worlds or periods of history although only one at a time. The one was his present, the other was where he had spent two days after the accident. He travelled neither to the past nor to the future. He was in the present, but he was experiencing a different world of what might have been.
But the professor wanted to know why he made the transition. Rajendra explained that perhaps at the time of the accident, he was thinking about the catastrophic theory and its role in wars. Perhaps he was wondering about the Battle of Panipat. The professor admitted that he had been wondering what course history would have taken if the result of the Battle had gone the other way. In fact, that was going to be the topic of his thousandth presidential address. But he wasn’t going to deliver that thousandth lecture. He had tried to do that at the Azad Maidan where he was hooted down. So he had informed the organisers of the Panipat seminar about his inability to attend it.
Adventure- Important Word-Meanings of difficult words
Adventure- Summary in Hindi – Full Text
Adventure- Important Extra Questions Short Answer Type
Adventure- Important Extra Questions Long Answer Type
