II. Briefly explain the following statements from the text.

Answer:1. This statement was made by Rajendra Deshpande to Professor Gaitonde and meant
that Gaitonde had made a transition from one world to another and back again. Thus, he was
able to experience two worlds, but only one at a time. He did not travel either to the past or the
future. He was in the present but experiencing another world for two days.
2. This statement was made by Rajendra Deshpande to Professor Gaitonde and meant that
Gaitonde had passed through a strange experience of living successively in two worlds, one in
which he was now and the other in which he had spent two days.
3. Professor Gaitonde knew the India in which the power of the Peshwas declined and the
British colonised the country. But the India he had seen during the last two days was
completely different. The country had not been colonised by the British. Instead, it was self-
dependent and enjoyed self-respect. He compared the two states of the country with each other.
4. This means that if a bullet is fired from a gun in a given direction at a given speed, one will
know where it will be at any time after this, but such an assertion cannot be made for an
electron, where Quantum theory applies. When an electron is fired from a source, it may be
here, there or anywhere else. This is called lack of determinism in Quantum theory. This
theory asserts that reality is never one-sided. Alternative worlds may exist at the same time.
5. Professor Gaitonde made a transition, which, according to Rajendra Deshpande, had
happened because of the interaction happening in the professor’s mind at the time of his
collision. When the collision took place, Gaitonde was thinking about the Catastrophe theory
and its role in wars. Probably he was wondering about the third battle of Panipat and its
consequences. The interaction in his brain acted as a trigger to cause a transition.
The Adventure Talking About The Text
Question 2. (i) The story is called ‘The Adventure’. Compare it with the adventure described in
‘We Are Not Afraid to Die…’
Answer: The underlying theme of both the stories, ‘The Adventure’ and ‘We Are Not Afraid to
Die’ is the same. However, the application of the theme to events is different in both. One deals
with the adventure in a real-life situation and the other one is about the adventure that was
mentally experienced.
In the story, ‘We Are Not Afraid to Die’, the characters take a hazardous sea voyage, overcome
the odds and survive. Whatever the dangers were, they were very real. In the story, ‘The
Adventure’, the protagonist (Gaitonde) does not embark upon an adventurous journey. His
collision with the truck triggers his mind to travel to a world which is different from the world
that he lives in.
(ii) Why do you think Professor Gaitonde decided never to preside over meetings again?
Answer: Professor Gaitonde had recently had a harrowing experience in the parallel world
which was contrary to the conventions in the normal world, where a lecture session always has
a chairperson. In this experience, he was pelted with various objects because he tried to occupy
the Chairperson’s chair, which he felt was rightly his. Due to this attack by the public,
Gaitonde realised that such a speech would not be welcome at the seminar and so decided to
never preside over such meetings again.
The Adventure Thinking About Language
Question 2.
In which language do you think Bhausahebanchi Bakhar was written?
Answer: Bhausahebanchi Bakhar was written in the Marathi language, as the words are
Marathi words and Bakhar is a form of historical narrative written in Marathi prose.
Question 4. Do you think that the ruled always adopt the language of the ruler?
Answer: No, they do not, as a new language would be difficult to learn, especially if it is written
in a different script. This is the case here, as Marathi, English, and Urdu are written in three
different scripts.
The Adventure Working With Words
II. Distinguish between the following pairs of sentences.
Answer 1: Sentence (i) means that the concerned person’s behaviour was perceptibly affected.
Sentence (ii) means that the concerned person’s sight was perceptibly affected, i.e. he was
partially or fully blind.
Answer 2 : Sentence (i) means that green and black stripes were used one after the other.
Sentence (ii) means that either green stripes could be used or black ones.
Answer 3 : Sentence (i) means that the team played two matches with success, i.e. they won
both the matches. Sentence (ii) means that the team played two matches one after another.
Answer 4 : Sentence (i) means that the librarian spoke with respect to the learned scholar.
Sentence (ii) means that one will find the historian in the archaeology section and the scientist
in the natural science section of the museum.
The Adventure Short Questions and Answers
Question 1. How was Professor Gangadharpant Gaitonde planning to find out how the ‘present
state of affairs’ had been reached?
Answer: Professor Gangadharpant Gaitonde had been mystified to realise that Bombay was
British territory whereas the rest of India was independent. He planned to find out how the
‘present state of affairs’ had been reached by visiting a big library in Bombay and going
through history books on the subject. Then he would go back to Pune and consult Rajendra
Deshpande to help him understand what had happened.

Question 2. Why was a permit required to enter Bombay for the passengers in the train?
Answer: In this story, Bombay is shown as British territory while the areas surrounding it are
Indian territory. In a normal situation, a passport and visa are required to enter another
country’s territory. Here it has been assumed that only a permit is required due to the frequent
journeys Indian citizens make to Bombay.

Question 3. How did the train passengers understand that they were in British territory when
the train was passing through the suburbs of Bombay?
Answer: When the train was passing through the suburbs of Bombay, the train passengers
observed that the suburban trains had the English flag (Union Jack) painted on each carriage,
which indicated that they were in British territory.

Question 4. To solve his riddle, what books did he consult and where? In which building was
this place located?
Answer: To solve his mystery, Gaitonde consulted the five books he had himself written on
Indian history which were available in the library of the Asiatic Society located in the Town
Hall building.

Question 5. What did Gaitonde find in the history book he consulted about the exact time when
history had changed from what he knew?
Answer: In the fifth book which he himself had written, Gaitonde found the exact event which
was different from what he knew. This was the third battle of Panipat in 1761, in which the
history book mentioned that the Maratha forces had defeated the invader Ahmed Shah Abdali.
However, Gaitonde had known that the Marathas had lost this battle. So, this was the event
which had changed all future historical events in India.

Question 6. In this parallel world, how is India described, as seen by Gangadharpant

Gaitonde?
Answer: Gangadharpant describes India as a country that had not been colonised by the
British. Instead, it had learnt to remain independent and respected as a country. From a
position of strength and for purely commercial reasons, it had allowed the British to retain
Bombay as an outpost on lease till 2001.

Question 7. What finally happened to Gaitonde at the Azad Maidan lecture?

Answer: When Gaitonde insisted on continuing his speech, the audience pelted him with
tomatoes, eggs and other objects. When Gaitonde still did not stop speaking, the audience
swarmed on to the stage to remove him. During the commotion, Gaitonde disappeared.
Question 8. What evidence did Gaitonde show: Deshpande to convince him that he was
speaking the truth about his experiences in another world?
Answer: The evidence Gaitonde showed to Deshpande to convince him that he was speaking
the truth about his experiences in another world was a page torn out of the Bhausahebanchi
Bakhar which mentioned that the bullet missed Vishwasrao, although in the actual book which
Gaitonde had written, Vishwasrao was hit by the bullet.

Question 9. What actions does the Catastrophe theory explain?

Answer: The Catastrophe theory models the mechanisms of sudden and discontinuous changes
of state in very different types of systems like freezing of a liquid, melting of metal under
pressure, fall of a government, or riot by a mob. It explains that a series of gradual changes
(such as frustration of people in a nation) trigger rapid and large-scale (catastrophic) changes
such as the collapse of an empire.

Question 10. What was Rajendra’s conclusion about why Gaitonde made the transition to
another world at that period in its history?
Answer: Rajendra explained that Gaitonde made the transition to another world at that period
in history because probably he was thinking about the third battle of Panipat at the time of his
collision, as he had been asked to chair a seminar on what would have happened if the battle
had gone the other way.

The Adventure Long Questions and Answers

Question 1 . What shocks did Gangadharpant Gaitonde get in the Bombay in the parallel
world?
Answer: One shock Gangadharpant Gaitonde got in Bombay in the parallel world was that the
East India Company still existed and was flourishing. Another shock was the sign of British
rule everywhere in Bombay, from the suburban railway carriages having a British flag painted
on them to the British road names and building names.
The third shock occurred when he found that nobody with his son’s name worked in the
company in which he had been working in the real world. Gaitonde got another shock when, in
the library of the Asiatic Society, he read a history book written by him which described the
third battle of Panipat ending in a different way from what he had actually written in his book
in the real world. The final shock which Gaitonde got, which enabled him to return to the real
world, was when he tried to chair a seminar at the Azad Maidan. He was vociferously opposed
by the audience, but when he stood his ground, the audience stormed the stage. He was
concussed in the melee and found himself in the real world when he regained consciousness.

Question 2. What has the author been trying to tell the reader in the story, ‘The Adventure’? Is
it possible for such a transition to occur?
Answer: The author has tried to explain two theories of science, the Catastrophe theory and
the lack of determinism in Quantum theory, through an imaginary set of events which
occurred in the life of a professor of history. The author wanted to show what would have
happened if the Marathas had won the third battle of Panipat.
India (in 1986, when this story was written) would have differed from the India which we know
due to the catastrophe of the Marathas losing the third battle of Panipat. Our lifestyle would
not have been that much influenced by the West, there would have been no partition of the
country and so on. The author has tried to show how a single but small turning point in history
would have resulted in a completely different set of events later on.
From what we know at present about the Quantum theory, it can only be applied to sub-atomic
particles and not to discrete objects. Thus, it cannot explain what happened to Gaitonde. Even
the theory of Catastrophe only tries to explain the behaviour of various systems when they
undergo catastrophic stress. It cannot explain the transition to a parallel world. Thus, we can
conclude that it is not possible for such a transition to occur.