The Adventure
by Jayant Narlikar
Rapid Learn 2-Minute Revision
Perfect for last-minute revision
2-Minute Revision Video
Video coming soon
In this science-fiction story, Professor Gangadharpant Gaitonde, a historian, is involved in an accident and finds himself in a strange, alternative version of reality. In this world the Marathas won the Third Battle of Panipat (1761), and Indian history took an entirely different course, the British never fully colonised India, and India developed as a strong, self-governing nation. Wandering through this unfamiliar Bombay, Gangadharpant visits a library and reads history books to discover the crucial difference: in this reality the Marathas were victorious at Panipat. He experiences the strange world until, while attending a lecture and picking up a stray page, he is transported back to his own familiar reality. Discussing the experience with the scientist Rajendra Deshpande, Gangadharpant learns to interpret it through the ideas of catastrophe theory and the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics, which allow for parallel or alternative worlds branching from a single critical event. The story blends real history with imaginative science to explore how a single turning-point could change the whole course of a nation's destiny.
Detailed Summary
Detailed Summary Video
Video coming soon
The story uses science fiction to explore alternative history and the physics of parallel worlds. It imagines how a single decisive event, the outcome of the Battle of Panipat, could have completely changed India's history, and grounds this fantasy in the ideas of catastrophe theory and quantum physics.
A historian in a strange world
Professor Gangadharpant Gaitonde, a historian, finds himself, after an accident, in an unfamiliar version of India. Travelling to Bombay, he notices puzzling differences everywhere, the trains, the institutions, the very look of the city. He gradually realises he has entered a reality quite different from his own, and sets out to understand how it came to be.
The changed history
In a library he reads history books to trace the point of divergence and discovers that in this world the Marathas won the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761. Because of this victory, Indian history unfolded quite differently: the British never gained full control, and India grew into a strong, confident, self-governing nation. The whole political and cultural landscape reflects this altered past.
Return to his own reality
While attending a public lecture, Gangadharpant becomes involved in the proceedings, and in the confusion, as he stoops to pick up a stray page, he is suddenly transported back to his own familiar world. He returns puzzled and shaken, eager to understand the meaning of his extraordinary experience.
Science explains the adventure
Gangadharpant discusses his experience with the scientist Rajendra Deshpande, who explains it using catastrophe theory and the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics. According to these ideas, a critical event can cause reality to branch into different parallel worlds, and the human mind may, under certain conditions, slip from one to another. Thus the professor's 'adventure' is given a scientific, if speculative, explanation.