“You neither travelled to the past nor the future. You were in the present experiencing a different world.

This statement is made by Rajendra Deshpande to Professor Gangadharpant Gaitonde. Here he tries to give a
possible explanation to Prof Gaitonde’s unique experience in the two days following his collision with a truck.
According to the speaker, Professor Gaitonde did not travel in time. In fact, he was in the present but was
experiencing a different world.

Gangadharpant could not help comparing the country he knew with what he was witnessing around him.
This statement is made by the third person narrator of the story. Professor Gaitonde, who travels to another world
in the present, witnesses a different India which is completely different from the India he has known from this
childhood. The country he witnesses in the alternative world refused to surrender to the colonising powers and
stood up against them.
The people of this country are more honest, more efficient, well organised and quite modem. Everything that he
sees in this country poses a stark contrast to the country he lives in. This compels him to compare the country he
knows so well with the country he witnesses around him.

“The lack of determinism in quantum theory! ”

This statement is made by Prof Gaitonde in response to Rajendra Deshpane’s explanation of how indeterminable the
behaviour of electrons is. Here he maintains that even a person like him, who is not an expert of science, knows
about the lack of determinism in quantum theory. Quantum theory believes in the randomness or uncertainty of the
universe. This is quite succinctly explained by Rajendra Deshpande with the example of electrons orbitting the
nucleus of an atom. The electrons could move in any of the large number of specified states and could even jump
from one state to another. There is no certainty of an electron’s presence in a particular state.

‘That is, assuming that in this world there existed someone called Rajendra Deshpande!’ Why does Professor
Gaitonde feel so?
Professor Gaitonde had been literally transported into an alternative universe. In the alternative world the reality
was very different. History had altered its course. Now back into the real world Professor Gaitonde, as a historian felt
he would go to a big library and browse through history books and would return to Pune and have a long talk with
Rajendra Deshpande, to help him understand what had happened. After the queer happening, he was unsure about
the reality and wondered if Rajendra Deshpande existed.

How had the Marathas won the battle?

After reading about the consequences of the battle Gangadharpant felt that his investigations were incomplete. To
find the answer he went through the books and journals before him. At last, among the books he found one that
gave him the clue. It was ‘Bhausahebanchi Bakhar’. He found a three-line account of how close Vishwasrao had come
to being killed. However God had been merciful. The bullet brushed past his ear and he was saved by inches.

What did he take with him absentmindedly from the library? How did it help him?
At eight o’clock the librarian politely reminded the Professor that the library was closing for the day. Before
Gangadharpant left he shoved some notes into his right pocket. Absentmindedly, he also shoved the ‘Bakhar’ into his
left pocket. It helped the Professor convince Rajendra that the story was not a figment of his imagination. He
produced this as a very important piece of evidence.

What happened did Professor Gaitonde see in the Azad Maidan?

In the Azad Maidan, the Professor found a multitude of people moving towards a pandal to listen to a lecture. As the
lecture was in progress, people kept coming and going. But Professor Gaitonde stared at the platform, he noticed
that the presidential chair was empty. Like a piece of iron attracted to a magnet, he swiftly moved towards the chair.

What happened when Professor Gaitonde went ahead to occupy the chair on the dais?
When Professor Gaitonde went ahead to occupy the chair on the dais, the audience protested vehemently.
Professor Gaitonde went to the mike to give his views but the audience was in no mood to listen. However, he kept
on talking and soon became a target for a shower of tomatoes, eggs and other objects. Finally, the audience rushed
to throw him out bodily but he was nowhere to be seen.

Describe the observations made by the Professor as he entered the alternative universe.
-Professor Gaitonde was shocked when the train stopped beyond the long tunnel at a small station called Sarhad. An
Anglo-Indian in uniform was checking the train permits.

-The blue carriages carried the letters, GBMR, on the side that stood for ‘Greater Bombay Metropolitan Railway’.
-There was a tiny Union Jack painted on each carriage as a gentle reminder that they were in British territory.
-The staff comprised mostly of Anglo-Indians and Parsees along with a handful of British officers.
-Coming out of the station, he found himself facing the office of the East India Company.
-He found a different set of shops and office buildings.
There was no Handloom House building. Instead, there were Boots and Woolworth departmental stores, imposing
offices of Lloyds
- when he entered Forbes building and wished to meet his son, Mr Vinay Gaitonde. The receptionist searched and
said that that nobody of that name was either there or any of their branches.

What was the difference in the actual events of the Battle of Panipat and the ones reported in the alternative
universe?
Vishwasrao was close to being killed but the ‘merciful’ God had saved him. A shot had brushed past his ear and he
had missed death by inches..Their victory increased the morale of the Marathas. The East India Company
temporarily shelved its expansionist programme. The Peshwas expanded their influence all over India. The Company
was reduced to pockets of influence near Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. The Peshwas kept the puppet Mughal
regime alive in Delhi. With the dawn of the technological age in Europe, they set up their own centres for science
and technology.
However, in this world in which Gaitonde had written his volumes of history, ‘Bhausahebanchi Bakhar’ reported that
Vishwasrao had died fighting. God had ‘expressed His displeasure. He was hit by the bullet’. The entire history
seemed to have changed radically
In the nineteenth century the Peshwas realized the importance of the technological age and set up their own centres
for science and technology. They accepted East India Company’s help only to make the local centres self-sufficient. In
the twentieth century India moved towards a democracy. The Peshwas had lost their enterprise and democratically
elected bodies gradually replaced them. The Sultanate at Delhi was just a nominal head to rubberstamp
recommendations made by the central parliament.

Describe the scene that transported Professor Gaitonde to the alternative universe.
Answer:Professor Gaitonde, after a frugal meal, set out for a stroll towards the Azad Maidan. There he saw a pandal
where a lecture was to take place. Professor Gaitonde walked towards the pandal and noticed that on the platform
the presidential chair was unoccupied. Drawn to the stage like a magnet, he quickly moved towards the chair.

The speaker stopped in mid-sentence, too shocked to continue. But the audience shouted at him. When he insisted
on talking he became a target for a shower of tomatoes, eggs and other objects. But he kept on trying bravely to
correct this blasphemy. Finally, the audience crowded on the stage to throw him out. And, in the crowd
Gangadharpant was nowhere to be seen.

How did Rajendra explain Professor Gaitonde’s experience by linking it to ‘the lack of determinism in quantum
theory’?
- Rajendra felt that reality might not be unique as has been found from experiments on atoms and their constituent
particles.
-The behaviour of these systems cannot be predicted definitively
-This is the theory of the lack of determinism in the quantum theory.
-In yet another world it could be in a completely different location.
- Once the observer finds where it is, we know which world we are talking about.
-But all those alternative worlds could exist just the same.

What did Professor Gaitonde decide to do when the reality that he was living seemed very strange?
What books did he browse through in the library? What did he discover?
How did Professor Gaitonde make the transition from one reality to the other?