2. What is common among the following
works of fiction?
• ‘1984’ by George Orwell
• ‘The war of the worlds’ by H G Wells;
• Frankenstein, or, The modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
• Time Machine by H. G Wells
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
3. Science Fiction Movies
• E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial by Steven Spielberg
• 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
• Men in Black 3 by Barry Sonnenfeld
• Planet of the Apes by Franklin J. Schaffner
• War of the Worlds by Steven Spielberg
• Blade Runner by Ridley Scott
• The Matrix by Wachowski brothers
• Jurassic Park by Steven Spielberg
4. What is science fiction?
• Science fiction is a genre of literature which combines
science and fiction
• Science fiction’ s content is imaginative, but based in
science. It relies heavily on scientific facts, theories, and
principles as support for its settings, characters, themes,
and plot-lines, which is what makes it different from
fantasy.
• So, while the storylines and elements of science fiction
stories are imaginary, they are usually possible according
to science—or at least plausible.
5. Some sub genres of science fiction
• Alien invasion
• Alternate History
• Artificial intelligence
• Colonization
• Dystopia
• Hard science fiction
• Soft Science fiction
• Time Travel
• Utopia
• Nano technology
• Space exploration
etc….
The Adventure
6. Born 19 July 1938 (age 77) Kolhapur,
India (1938-07-19)
Institutions: Cambridge University Tata
Institute of Fundamental Research
Inter-University Centre for Astronomy
and Astrophysics
Alma mater: Banaras Hindu University
Cambridge University
Awards: Padma Vibhushan, Padma
Bhushan
Education: University of Cambridge,
Banaras Hindu University
Books: The return of Vaman,
introduction to cosmology, The lighter
side of gravity, An Introduction to
Relativity, Seven Wonders of the
Cosmo
Similar People: Fred Hoyle, Geoffrey
Burbidge, Thanu Padmanabhan,
Chandra Wickramasinghe, Jean‑Claude
Pecker
8. On July 19,1986 Professor Gangadharpant Gaitonde
collides with a truck and vanishes into thin air
9. Prof. Gaitonde
• An eminent historian
• Has written massive tomes on Indian history
• Leading public figure
• Much in demand for presiding over public
functions.
• Has presided over 999 functions
• Well established as leading orator in Pune.
10. • Has decided that his
thousandth appearance
on the platform would
be for history, his
favourite subject.
• The occasion was two
weeks hence at a
seminar devoted to the
Third Battle of Panipat
11. But what happened during 999th
appearance?
• Occasion – a seminar by the mathematics
department of Poona University – a seminar
on Catastrophe Theory.
• But how should a professor of history be
presiding at a mathematics seminar?
12. It came about this way.
• According to a mathematics professor,
catastrophe theory is not mathematics.
• So they approached Gangadharpant
• Catastrophe models real life situations
involving sudden dramatic changes.
13. examples
• Cricket side collapses all of a sudden
• Mob gets out of control and runs amuck
• Share prices crash down unexpectedly
• Something happens to turn the tide in a battle
15. • Rajendra Deshpande a young research fellow
who was an expert on catastrophe theory
gives him some ideas and some articles to
read.
• Gangadharpant enjoyed the seminar and was
looking forward to his thousandth occasion –
the Panipat seminar, the third battle of
Panipat
16. • He was making his way home thinking about
the 1000th
seminar when the accident took
place
• He didn’t hear the warning of the cleaner.
• The truck driver attempted a last minute
swerve but could not avoid a glancing blow.
17. • The driver and the cleaner had a momentary
glimpse of the professor before the collision.
They searched thoroughly. But they could not
locate the professor either below the truck or
on the sides
• He simply vanished into thin air
18. • Sixty hours after this event Professor Gaitonde reappeared in
Bombay’s Azad Maidan.
• He was lying on the grass with torn clothes and empty pockets.
• Passers by had gathered around him.
• Someone in the crowd recognized him as the history professor who
disappeared three days ago
• But Gangadharpant could not remember anything
19. • He managed to remember his son Vinay
Gaitonde worked in Bombay. He was
contacted. He came, identified his father and
took him home.
20. • A doctor examined him and found him
essentially unharmed except for a few bruises
• A famous psychiatrist probed his mind and
found it blank for those 60 hours.
• The professor could not remember anything
• Proud of his extraordinary memory found this
extremely disconcerting
21. • How could he forget everything that happened to
him in those 60 hours?
• Could he find the answer in Bombay?
• But Pune was beckoning him, he had not forgotten
the next seminar he had to preside over – 1000th
• He booked a seat on the Deccan
Queen the next afternoon
22. • At Karjat station, put his hand in the inner
pocket for money to buy vadas and took out
his wallet. His hand felt a piece of paper. He
extracted the paper. It was the torn page of an
old book
23. • He found the page familiar and soon regained
his memory
24. • ‘Nobody will believe my story’
• Is this paper factual history or fiction?
25. • ?
As the train reached Shivajinagar station, Professor
Gaintonde made two resolutions
1. to see Rajendra Deshpande; only he could elucidate this
mystery
2. he would not chair any function ever including panipat
seminar
What lay behind this historic decision
26. The third person account of what
Gangadharpant told Rajendra Deshpande
• Lost consciousness when the truck struck him a
glancing blow
• He found himself on hospital bed.
– Vishwasrao Peshve Hospital, Veshwasrao Peshve Marg
, Pune
Gangadharpant had not heard the names of the Hospital
and the road.
When he said he was walking along the Senapati Bapat
marg when the truck hit him, the nurse could not
recognise this name.
27. • The doctor could not recognize
Gangadharpant who was famous historian and
professor.
• When Gangadharpant reveals his address
Varun Housing Society, behind Fergusson
College, the nurse and the doctor seem
unaware of the famous college in Pune.
• The doctor suspects that Gangadharpant
suffers from mental relapse
28. • Many things the doctor revealed puzzled
Gangadharpant.
• Doctor found Gangadharpant’s history books rather
tedious especially the minute details in the regimes of
17 peshwas and 20 Mughal emperors. The figures
puzzled Gangadharpant
• The doctor said the date that day was Ashadh Shukla
Charurdashi, Shaka 1908 in Pune, and July 20, 1986 in
Bombay; Why two calender puzzled him. But the date
is correct. One night has elapsed since his accident
29. b
• The next day he was examined and found
perfectly alright.
• The doctor offered to drop him
• The hospital looked different
• The car model was ‘Chakravarti’, the most
common model
30. Introduction by Dr.
• The doctor’s name is Arvind Modak
• He says he stays near Swargate.
• Gangardharpant knew this place so well.
• He asked Dr. Modak to drop him at the ST stand.
• Dr. Modak had not heard of it.
• ST stands for State Transport Buses run by
Maharashtra. But according to the doctor, the
buses are run by private companies and they run
from the railway station.
31. • Dr. suspects Gangadharpant of mental
aberrations and thinks of recommending him
to see a psychiatrist.
32. The thoughts of Gangardharpant
• The accident changed the environment
around him
• The date and place had not changed but the
city of Pune and the inhabitants had
• Probably the changed extended to beyond
Pune to the whole of India – he had to find out
33. • Gangadharpant asks the doctor to drop him at
Shanivar-Wada.
• Luckily for him, such a place exists
36. Doctor’s apology
• Apologies on his remarks about
Gangadharpant’s books
• The background for making these remarks: In
high school they had a series of books written
by his namesake. 4 volumes of intricate
details; relieved that the author’s untimely
death spared us the fifth and final volume.
37. • Gangadharpant had written a five volume
Concise History of India, but the author Dr.
Modak mentioned was dead.
• Dr. Modak also reveals the name of the series
Concise History of India
• Gangadharpant doubts if he has travelled 25
years to 30 years in the future but finds that
he lives in the present ‘Ashadh Purnima, Shaka
1908.
38. Shanivar Wada
• The guardsmen in old uniform -not the
rehearsal of a play
• They are changed at regular intervals just like
the guard at Bunckingham palace.
• The Shanivar Wada stood before him in all its
glory reminiscent of the times of Bajirao I who
built it
39. • Since he was already dead in this world where
will he go now?
• He decided to go to Bombay where his son
worked with a firm called Forbes & Campbel
Company
• Dr. Modak confirms that such a firm exists
• He offers to take the professor to the railway
station and help him board Jijamata Express
40. • Dr. Modak replaces 10 rupee notes with the
‘real ones’ These notes carried the picture of
Kutub Minar and inscription “As the treasurer
of the Shahenshah of India I promise to pay
the bearer of this note the sum of 10 rupees’.
The main inscription was not in English but in
Hindustani
41. • At the railway station, Dr. Modak took him first
to an office which was simply labelld ‘Permits
for Bombay’
• They need a permit to go to that British
outpost.
• Then the ticket
• Gangadharpant thanks Dr. Mokak profusely
42. • The décor inside the carriage of Jijamata Express
was far superior to that of the Deccan Queen
• His fellow passengers included two whites and
one bearded Muslim gentleman.
• The Muslim gentleman said he was going to
Peshawar
• To Peshawar via Bombay.
• Is it difficult to get a passport to go to Peshawar?
• Khan Sahib replied that one needs no passport to
travel in ones own country.
43. Questions???
• So Peshawar was in India, but Bombay
belonged to the British
• Who was this shahenshah of India?
• Why was Pune so changed/
• Was this an epoch in the past because the
Shanivar Wada was still in its full glory and the
British had not left the subcontinent?
44. • Gangadharpant glanced a the Bombay Times
held up by the white man facing him
• The date on it confirmed that it was July 21,
1986
46. The Adventure an overview
• Professor Gangadhar Pant Gaitonde finds himself in a
strange world.
• No doubt he is in Pune, but the facts do not agree with
history.
• He decides to go to Bombay and consult history books.
• Bombay is not what he expected to find it. East India
Company is still ruling there. According to the history known
to him, the East India Company was wound up just after the
events of 1857. He goes to the library and finds the answer.
• The events took a different course after the battle of
Panipat. The Marathas had won the battle, not lost it.
• Rajendra Deshpande rationalizes Gangadharpant’s
experience with the help of two scientific theories ,
catastrophe theory and lack of determinism in quantum
theory.
47. The Adventure – an overview
• Professor Gaitonde: Professor Gaitonde, a historian is
going to give a lecture on the implications of
Catastrophe Theory in the Third Battle of Panipat. On
the way his car collides with a truck and he goes into
coma. In his unconscious state, he experiences another
world where history is different from how we know in
the real world. In the Third Battle of Panipat, Afghans
defeated Marathas killing their leader Viswas Rao. But
in the parallel world, Marathas win the war as Viswas
Rao escapes narrowly from the bullet. The victory of
Marathas brings about diverse changes and reforms in
the country. He gains consciousness and his friend
Rajendra Deshpande rationalizes his strange
experience on the basis of two scientific theories, viz.
Catastrophe Theory and the lack of determinism in
Quantum Theory.
48. The Parallel world
Professor Gaitonde is on his way to Bombay from
Pune.
The stations en route
– Lonavala
– Karjat no change
– Kalyan
– Sarhad an Anglo-Indian un uniform went
through train checking
permits
Dadar
Victoria Terminus - The destination
49. Khan Sahib’s journey and what it
signifies
• Bombay to Delhi
• Delhi to Lahore
• Lahore to Peshvar
India in the parallel world is undivided and free
from the bloody legacy of partition
50. The East India Company - alive and
flourishing
• In his familiar world, the East India company
had been wound up after the events of 1857.
• In the parallel world, the imposing building of
East India House, the Headquarter of the
company proves it is alive and flourishing.
So Peshvar is in India but Bombay is under the
control of the British
52. His investigations at the Town Hall
• Volume 1 - Ashoka
• Volume 2 -Samudragupta
• Volume 3 - Mohammed Ghori
• Volume 4 - Aurangazeb
• The last volume ------- changes observed
History
as
he
knew
it
53. The precise moment of history
• The Battle of Panipat
• Marathas won it handsomely
• Abdali was routed and chased back to Kabul
• The triumphant Maratha army was led by
Sadashivrao Bhau and his nephew the young
Vishwasrao
54. The consequences for the power
struggle in India
• Victory
– a great moral booster to the Marathas
– Established their supremacy in northern India.
– Made the East India Company shelve its expansionist
programme.
– The company was reduced to pockets of influence
near Bombay, Calcutta and Madras like other
Europeans
55. • The peshwas kept the puppet Mughal regime alive
in Delhi.
• Set up their own centres of science and
technology
• Took aid and experts from The East India Company
to make the local centres self sufficient
56. Twentieth Century Reforms
• India moved towards a democracy
• Peshwas were gradually replaced by democratically
elected bodies.
• Sultanate at Delhi survived even this transition.
Shahenshah of Delhi was the figurehead to
rubber-stamp the ‘recommendations’ of the Central
government
• Marathas allowed the British to retain Bombay as the
sole outpost till 2001
57. How did the Marathas win the Battle?
The one that gave him the clue
Bhausahebanchi Bakhar
It describes how Vishwasrao came close to being
killed. A bullet missed him.
58. The closing time of the library
When the closing time for the library arrived,
the professor shoved some notes into his right
pocket. Absent-mindedly shoved the Bakhar into
his left pocket.
59. Azad Madan incident
• During his stroll , he reaches the Azad Maidan where a
lecture is going on.
• The absence of chairman for the meeting grabs his
attention
• The crowd does not want one
• The professor protests
• He gets on to the stage, snatches the mike and starts
speaking
• The crowd throws him out and he is lost on the crowd
• The Professor’s strange experience ends
60. Rajendra’s explanation
• Rajendra explains the bizarre experience of
the Professor on the basis of two scientific
theories, viz. Catastrophe Theory and the lack
of determinism in Quantum theory.
61. • Catastrophe theory states that a small change
in circumstance can bring sudden shift in
behavior. If we apply this theory to the battle
of Panipat, we can find that there was a crucial
moment when the Marathas lost both their
leaders-Viswas Rao and Bhausaheb. So, the
Marathas lost their morale and lost the battle.
62. • But in the parallel world Prof. Gaitonde saw
the bullet missing Viswas Rao and Marathas
winning the battle. A crucial event gone other
way can change the course of history (the
bullet missing/hitting the leader). The
Professor produced a torn page of
Bhausahebanchi bakhar from his pocket. The
bullet hitting Viswas rao was the catastrophic
incident in the battle.
63. • The present state of affairs has been reached
because of such catastrophic incidents in
history. We can apply this theory to any other
battle or historical incident and see how
history takes a different turn
64. Lack of determinism in Quantum
theory
The behaviour of electrons orbiting the nucleus in
an atom cannot be predicted. There are different
states of energy-higher and lower. It can make a
jump from high to low energy level and send out a
pulse of radiation or a pulse of radiation can
knock it out of state no.2 to state no. 1. The
transitions are common in microscopic systems. If
it happened on a macroscopic level, it could be an
interesting food for thought.
65. • Professor Gaitonde made a transition from the
world we live in to a parallel world. One world has
the history we know, the other a different history.
He neither travelled to the past nor to the future.
He was in the present but experiencing a different
world. At the time of the collision with the truck,
he was thinking about the catastrophe theory and
its implications in war. He was probably pondering
about the battle of Panipat. Perhaps the neurons
in his brain acted as a trigger.
66. Like the electron jumping from one
state to another, he made a jump from this
world to the parallel world. Any catastrophic
situation will provide various alternatives for us
to proceed. But only one can be accepted by us
at one time as we live in a unique world with a
unique history.
67. But why did he make such a transition? An
interaction is must for any such transition. The
collision and the thoughts at that moment
brought it about.
68. Will Gangadharpant recount his real life
experience in the seminar rather than just
speculating?
No,he would never again preside at public
functions .
He has conveyed his regrets to the organisers of
the panipat seminar
