The Adventure by Jayant Narlikar
Quick answer: The Adventure by Jayant Narlikar, CBSE Class 11 Hornbill: Gaitonde in a Bombay where the Marathas won Panipat, the torn Bakhar page, catastrophe theory and exam answers.
A history professor steps off a train at Bombay's Victoria Terminus to find the East India Company still trading and no sign of the country he left that morning.
Jayant Narlikar, astrophysicist and science fiction writer, gives Class 11 Hornbill a text in which physics does the work of plot.
The story in brief
Professor Gangadharpant Gaitonde, a historian from Pune, notices oddities on the way to Bombay: a British soldier, an unfamiliar station, the East India Company's name on a building. At the Town Hall library he reads that the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761 was a Maratha victory because Vishwasrao, the Peshwa's heir, escaped a bullet, and India was never ruled by Britain. He tears the page recording the escape from the Bhausahebanchi Bakhar.
At an Azad Maidan lecture the presidential chair stands empty. He climbs up to occupy it; the crowd, which has abolished the custom, pelts him and drags him off, and he loses consciousness. He wakes in his own world after a truck collision. The physicist Rajendra Deshpande explains it through catastrophe theory and the many-worlds idea: thinking of Panipat at the collision, Gaitonde's mind crossed to another branch of history. The torn page is the evidence. Gaitonde resolves never to preside again.
The people in it
Two disciplines, two men.
- Professor Gaitonde: proud, curious, used to authority.
- Rajendra Deshpande: treats a fantastic report as data.
- Khan Sahib: a fellow traveller bound for Peshawar.
- Vishwasrao: the figure whose survival splits the two worlds.
Themes and meaning
Exam readings include history turning on small events and science explaining bizarre experience. The sharper point is that Narlikar's alternate India is not a fantasy of glory: prosperous and self-governing, it keeps British trade and rejects ceremonial habits Gaitonde takes for granted, so his beating is a lesson in pride.
The craft: the receipt from another world
The protagonist earns the premise in a library, so exposition reads as discovery. The turn is the empty chair, where a character trait collides with the world's rules. The torn page turns a theory into a checkable claim, and the story ends on changed behaviour rather than a verdict. A speculative premise anchored by one hard object reads as fully realised on the Storytelling and Structure lines of the Writory contest rubric.
For the exam
Quick material for Class 11 tests.
- Word meanings: blow-by-blow account, a detailed description; astute, shrewd; melee, confused fight; morale, confidence; euphoria, intense happiness; catastrophe theory, mathematics of sudden change from small causes.
- Character sketch of Professor Gaitonde in 60 words: A distinguished historian from Pune, Gaitonde is scholarly, methodical and used to authority, having presided over hundreds of meetings. Faced with an unfamiliar Bombay, he goes straight to the library and reasons from the books. His habit of taking the chair earns him a beating at Azad Maidan, and he ends the story humbler, resolving never to preside again.
- Q: How did Gaitonde's Bombay differ from ours? A: A British trading outpost with East India Company offices, because India was never colonised after the Maratha victory of 1761.
- Q: What explanation does Rajendra offer? A: Catastrophe theory plus many worlds: thinking of Panipat at the collision, Gaitonde's mind moved into an alternative branch of history.
- Q: Why does the torn page matter? A: It records Vishwasrao's escape as the other world knew it, the only physical proof.
- Summary in 100 words: Professor Gaitonde arrives in a Bombay still run as a British trading outpost in an India never colonised. At the Town Hall library he learns that the Marathas won Panipat in 1761 because Vishwasrao survived, and he tears out the page of the Bakhar recording it. At an Azad Maidan lecture he tries to occupy the empty presidential chair, is pelted by the crowd and loses consciousness. He wakes in his own world after a truck collision. Physicist Rajendra Deshpande explains his experience through catastrophe theory and alternative worlds; the torn page is the proof. Gaitonde vows never to preside again.
What writers can take from this
- Anchor your answer on the single divergence, Vishwasrao's survival at Panipat, and trace its consequences.
- Explain Rajendra's theory in two parts: catastrophe theory for the sudden change, many worlds for the alternative reality.
- Mention the torn page whenever asked about evidence or the ending.
- Writers, let a character discover your premise through research rather than through a narrator's explanation.
- Give your protagonist a habit the new world punishes; the empty chair uses character as plot.
Try it yourself
Write a story in which a character wakes in a version of their own city where one historical event went the other way. They must work out the difference by reading, not by being told, and must bring back one physical object that nobody can explain.
Questions
What is the theme of The Adventure by Jayant Narlikar?
How a single event can change the course of history, and how science can explain experiences that seem impossible. It also examines intellectual pride through Gaitonde, whose habit of presiding over meetings gets him thrown off a stage in a world with no such custom.
Why was Gaitonde beaten at the Azad Maidan lecture?
He tried to occupy the empty presidential chair on the stage, assuming every meeting needs a chairman. That world's audiences had abolished the custom, so the crowd pelted him and dragged him off, and he lost consciousness.
How does Rajendra Deshpande explain what happened to Gaitonde?
He combines catastrophe theory, which describes sudden shifts from small causes, with the quantum idea that many alternative worlds exist. At the moment of the truck collision Gaitonde was thinking about Panipat, and his mind moved into a world where the battle went the other way.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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