The Adventure Class 11 Notes Summary English Hornbill Book Lesson 7

The Adventure Class 11 Notes NCERT English (Hornbill Book) Lesson 7 Chapter CBSE – Summary, Important and Difficult Words with their meaning, Extra Question Answer, Full Explanation with terms.  ‘The Adventure’ is a story about Professor Gangadharpant Gaitonde.  He is strangely in a different world. He knows very well that it is Pune but the facts are different from what he believes. He decided to go to Bombay via train ‘Jijamata Express’. When he reached Bombay, things were different. When he decides to investigate the history, he finds some surprising facts. The East India Company was still ruling and the Battle of Panipat had been won by Marathas. It was different from what he knew and had studied. The East India Company was taken aback after events of 1857 and the Battle of Panipat had been won by Mughals.

The Reality Side of Professor Gaitonde

• Professor Gaitonde was an eminent historian from Pune, India. He was a known author of tomes of books on History and had presided over 998 meetings, seminars, debates, jubilee, college days, birthdays and other similar functions. And now, he was waiting for his 1000thfunction, a seminar devoted to the Third Battle of Panipat.
• The incidents in the story happened between the 998thand the 1000th, that is, on the occasion of his 999th public function on which he was to preside over a seminar on Catastrophe Theory in the Mathematic Department, Pune University.
• In fact it was a chance that chanced! The other professors of the University, especially the Professor of Mathematics, had no idea what this catastrophe Theory was so they requested the historian, Professor Gaitonde, to preside over it. They knew, you know, that he would be ready and they were right.
• “Well,” said Gaitonde, “What is this catastrophe Theory?” To get a good deal of information about Catastrophe Theory, Professor Gaitonde approached a research fellow, Dr. Rajendra Deshpande. The two discussed and debated and finally Professor Gaitonde understood this much: a little deviation in any course of act can cause unexpected effects.
• “That is,” said Rajendra. “Like, a cricket side collapses all of a sudden, a mob gets out of control and runs amuck, share prices crash down unexpectedly, something happens to turn the tide in a battle…”
• Professor Gaitonde got enough, because the Catastrophe Theory was not just Mathematics, it is history, too! It had always been a hobby of his to speculate what would have happened if some crucial battles had ended differently. Professor Gaitonde’s eyes lit up. He now wanted to know more about catastrophe theory. When he heard all, he liked it and agreed to preside over the seminar.
• The 999th Seminar was another great event and now Professor Gaitonde was thinking about the 1000th That evening, walking home, Gaitonde’s mind was full of the third Battle of Panipat and Catastrophe Theory. He had this question – How could history have taken a different course if the Maratha troops defeated the troops of Abdali, the Afghan invader?
• Thinking, lost in thoughts, Professor Gaitonde lost sight of the sidewalk and invaded the busy Bombay – Pune highway, and was hit by a passing truck. Though the driver and cleaner of the truck searched for the Professor, they could not find him. He vanished but 60 hours later, people in Bombay found him lying on the roadside and someone in the crowd recognized him.
• Professor Gaitonde recalled his memory and contacted his son Vinay who worked at Fobes in Bombay. Though Vinay requested his father to stay in Bombay for a few more days, Professor Gaitonde boarded the Deccan Queen that passed Karjat, to Pune.
• Still worried about how he had reached Bombay, Professor Gaitonde found his experience critically unbelievable. At Karjat Station, he found a very prominent material evidence to track the mystery. It was torn off page that he had stolen from Bombay! Slowly, the broken pieces of incidents, imagination and mystery came closer.

The Super Mystery Side, Science and Fantasy of Professor Gaitonde

When Professor Gaitonde was hit by the truck, he had been thinking of the possibilities of India’s fate if the Marathas had won the third Battle of Panipat. With the collision, something in his brain got mislaid, some neurons got misplaced and he got into a different India where a different government existed, a different currency was in use, a different culture existed. Yes, the Marathas had won the third battle of Panipat, there was no Congress, no Gandhiji, no British (they could occupy only Bombay) and no Independence.

What happened to Professor Gaitonde after the accident?

• Professor Gaitonde, after the highway accident, was admitted at Vishwasrao Peshve Hospital on Vishwasrao Peshve Marg, Pune. The doctor informed him that he was found in the Ganeshkhind Forest and wished to know how he got into the forest.
• Having learnt from Dr. Modak that the Marathas had defeated the Afghans, Professor Gaitonde was confused. He traveled to Bombay (with special permits) and got into the library to check what had gone wrong in the History books that he himself had written.
• In the library, he discovered a tiny book and in that he saw that Peshwa Vishwasrao was not hit by a bullet. While getting out of the library, he made sure that he had stolen that tiny book, Bahusahebanchi Bakkar.
• Out of the library, Professor Gaitonde passed the Azad Maidan where some people were conducting a seminar, explicitly protesting the old custom of a dignitary to preside over the meeting. There was an unoccupied chair!
• A man who had taken chairs as the presiding dignitary over 999 seminars, Professor Gaitonde went to the stage and sat in the chair against the protest of the people who finally threw him out of the stage.
• And this was how Professor Gaitonde was found on the roadside.

How did the page of the Bakkar travel to the normal world?

Well, the answer is impossible. Only know this much, there is none like a specific ‘normal world.’ Both worlds are normal!

The concept of lack of determinism helps us understand the world better. Always remember, truth is relative. There is no commonly accepted truth. Your truth and my truth are different. Like an electron’s movement is unpredictable, truth is, unpredictable.

Extra Question And Answer

2 marks

Describe the debacle at Azad Maidan.

Professor Gaitonde was very fond of chairing public lecture meetings. He strolled in Azad  Maidan and found a lecture in progress there. He saw a table and a chair on the platform but the presidential chair was unoccupied. He occupied the vacant seat. The public roughed him up, hurled tomatoes and eggs at him. Finally, the audiences warmed to the stage to eject him bodily.

What plan of action had Professor Gaitonde arrived at?

Professor Gaitonde, as a historian felt he should go to a big library and browse through history books. That was the surest way of finding out how the current state of affairs was reached. He also planned to return to Pune and have a long talk with Rajendra Deshpande.

List the various things noticed by Professor Gaitonde when he was wandering in the British Raj.

Professor Gaitonde noticed an Anglo Indian in uniform checking permits. There was a tiny union Jack on each carriage. He saw the headquarters of the East India Company.The buildings were of Victorian style and there were offices of British companies.There were Boots and Woolworth departmental stores and British banks.

How did the shops and offices along Hornby Road differ from those he knew well?

Professor Gaitonde found a different set of shops and office buildings along Hornby Road. There was no Handloom House building. Instead, there were Boots and Woolworth department stores. There were offices of Lloyds, Barclays and other British banks as can be seen in a high street in England.

What µwas a blow at Forbes building?

Professor went to the English receptionist at Forbes building and asked to meet Mr.Vinay Gaitonde, his son. He was unable to meet him as he was at his office in modern day Bombay. The receptionist told him that she could not find his name there. It was a blow but not an unexpected one as his son was not even born then.

Which facts of history surprised the Professor?

At the library, Professor Gaitonde went through the different volumes of history. The fifth volume claimed that the Battle of Panipat was won by the Marathas led by Sadashivrao Bhau and his nephew Vishwasrao and that Abdali was chased away.

Which account did Professor Gaitonde read through eagerly? Why?

Professor Gaitonde read the account of consequences for the power struggle in India.It was in the book describing the Battle of Panipat. The style of writing was unmistakably his own, yet he was reading it for the first time. So, he read it eagerly.

How did the Victory in the Battle of Panipat affect the balance of power?

The Battle of Panipat established the supremacy of the Marathas in northern India. It was a great moral booster. The East India Company temporarily shelved its expansionist programme.

How did the East India Company meet its match in the new Maratha ruler?

The new Maratha ruler Vishwasrao and his brother Madhavrao combined political
acumen with valour and systematically expanded their influence all over India. The
East India Company was reduced only in areas near Bombay, Calcutta and Madrasjust like its European rivals, the Portuguese and the French.

How did the Peshwas involve the East India Company?

The Peshwas were rulers from Pune who were shrewd enough to recognize the importance of the technological age beginning in Europe. They set up their centres for science and technology. The East India Company offered aid and experts. The Peshwas accepted it only to make the local centres self sufficient.

What were the changes brought about in the twentieth century India?

In the twentieth century, India moved towards a democracy as changes were inspired by the West. The Peshwas had lost their enterprise and were replaced by democratically elected bodies. The Sultanate of Delhi survived the transition because it wielded no real influence. The Shahenshah of Delhi was a figurehead to give official approval to recommendations of the Parliament.

Why did Gangadharpant begin to appreciate the India he had read about?

India had not been subjected to slavery. It had learnt to stand on its feet and knew what self-respect was. From a position of strength and for purely commercial reasons,it had allowed the British to retain Bombay as the sole outpost on the subcontinent. Sohe began to appreciate that India.

How did the audience react to Professor Gaitonde’s remark µan unchainedlecture is like Shakespeare’s Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark?

The audience was in no mood to listen. That lecture series had no chairperson. They were sick of remarks from the chair, of vote of thanks, of long introductions and had abolished the old custom long ago. The chair was symbolic. They only wanted to listen to the speaker. They firmly asked him to vacate the chair and keep the platform empty and finally ejected him bodily.

Why was Rajendra’s smile replaced by a grave expression?

Professor Gaitonde narrated his strange experience. Rajendra was smiling. He assumed that his friends’ mind was playing tricks and his imagination was running amok. On seeing the printed page, Rajendra¶s face underwent a change and he was visibly moved.

How did Professor Gaitonde meet with an accident?

Professor Gaitonde was hit by a truck while he was going for his evening stroll. He lost consciousness. Though physically he was inactive, his mind was moving from place to place.

Why did Rajendra Deshpande say that Gangadharpant neither travelled to the past nor the future?

Professor Gaitonde after a collision with a truck saw different mental pictures in his active mind. He had made a transition from one world to another and back again. He was in the present but experiencing a different world.

After listening to Professor Gaitonde, what logical explanation was given byRajendra Deshpande?

Rajendra Deshpande connected science with history. He applied the theories of catastrophe and non determination in quantum theory to explain Professor Gaitonde’s experience.

How according to Rajendra was Gangadharpant able to experience two worlds?

According to Rajendra, Gangadharpant thought process was focused on one particular event of the history and the mind elaborated these very points to create a differentworld picture. Gangadharpant had made a transition from one world to another andback again. By doing so, he was able to experience two worlds although one at a time.

What had Professor Gaitonde been thinking at the time of the collision?

At the time of the collision with a truck, Professor Gaitonde was preparing for alecture on the course history would have taken in the result of the Battle of Panipathad gone the other way i.e. if the Marathas had won and so he visualized a verydifferent India from the present one.

10 marks Question, Answer

How does Rajendra Deshpande try to rationalize Professor Gaitonde about histransition to another world and back?

Rajendra Deshpande was a physicist and felt that everything that occurred to us had a logical and scientific explanation. He felt that Professor Gaitonde had passed through a fantastic experience and tried to rationalize it on the basis of two scientific theories.One was the catastrophic theory which explained the Battle of Panipat and its result.The result of the Battle was determined by the act of leaders and the morale of troops.If Vishwasrao had not died, the morale of the troops would have been boosted and they might have won the battle. Next he talked about Quantum Theory. Lack of determination in the Quantum Theory when applied to history suggests that there can be many views of the world at one time. All alternatives are viable as far as reality is concerned. However, the observer can experience only one at a time. Professor made a transition from one world to the other as he had been thinking of the Battle of Panipat but he experienced them one at a time.