Chapter 7 – The Adventure Questions and Answers: NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English (Hornbill Prose)

I. Tick the statements that are true :
1. The story ……………. is an account of real events. ( )
2. The story ………………. hinges on a particular historical event ( )
3. Rajendra Deshpande was …………….. a historian. ( )
4. The places mentioned in ……………. the story are all imaginary. ( )
5. The story …………. tries to relate history to science. ( )

Answer:
1. (✗) 2. (✗) 3. (✗) 4. (✗) 5. (✓)

II. Briefly explain the following statements from the text:
1. “You neither travelled to the past nor the future. You were in the present experiencing a different world.”
2. ‘You have passed through a fantastic experience : or more correctly, a cata¬strophic experience.”
3. Gangadharpant could not help comparing the country he knew with what he was witnessing around him.
4. “The lack of determinism in quantum theory!”
5. ‘You need some interaction to cause a transition.”

Answer:
1. The statement was made by Rajendra Deshpande for Professor Gangadharpant Gaitonde. The Professor went to Mumbai where he was interrupted rudely during his presidential speech. He was quite unaware of the fact where he spent two days afterwards. At this Rajendra tried to rationalise his experience on the basis of scientific theories.
2. The statement was made by Rajendra Deshpande to and for Professor Gangadhar Gaitonde. The latter had been absent for two days from Pune. He had gone to Bombay. He also produced an evidence of his visit to Bombay. He also talked about his experience there. But he actually didn’t know where he spent his time after his collision, while he was absent from Pune. At this Rajendra tried to co-relate his typical experience with Catastrophe theory calling his experience a catastrophic experience.
3. Gangadharpant seemed to be known to Bombay pre-British Raj. Then possibly he was posted at Pune. But as he came to Bombay he found many new buildings and new sets of shops just like the ones in Britain. He was naturally surprised and couldn’t help comparing it.
4. Gangadharpant felt moving between two different worlds. He was surprised how that occur could. He also failed to understand why history took a different turn in volume five, from that what was reality. At this his friend, Rajendra Despande tried to explain.
He told that such incidents could take place due to lack of determinism in quantum theory. As Alxendor could have won the battle  and Marathas really won the battle proving the same theory. According to this theory, the electrons don’t take the same trajectory path, shot from the same neucleus like the planets. They take different routes. Same happened in the war of Waterloo and the war of Panipat

5. Professor Gaitonde failed to understand where he spent the time while returning . to Pune. His memory was blank as to recollect his experience after his collision till his return to Pune. Moreover he also failed to understand how a person could move between two totally different worlds at a time.
At this Rajendra explained that it happens due to transition. On being asked he told that transition could take place due to interaction. Suppose a person is interacting about some incident, he might undergo the transition phase and the catastrophic theory.
Talking about the text

Question 1.
Discuss the following statements in groups of two pairs, each pair in a group taking opposite points of view :
(i) A single event may change the course of the history of a nation.
(ii) Reality is what is directly experienced through the senses.
(iii) The methods of inquiry of history, science and philosophy are similar.

Answer:
(i) We can call history an epic of humanity. Historical events are not isolated phenomenon. History is one of the highest and richest social arts. It is rightly said that a single event may change the course of the history of a nation. India’s attaining independ¬ence from the tyranny of British rule is a single event of history. It was made possible by a long series of sacrifices made by our freedom fighters.

When finally India was declared independent on 15th August, 1947 it changed the course of history of a nation. Now India is the largest democracy in the whole world. Similarly a single event-Russian Revolution- Changed the entire course of the history of a nation. Thus we can say that a single event may change the course of the history of a nation.
(ii) Reality is the state of things as they actually exist. For instance if we touch fire with our hand, it will have a burning sensation. This is reality or an estabilished fact. But we come to know about this fact only when it is experienced through the senses.
When we go out in rain, we will get wet. This reality also is directly experienced through the senses. When we keep water in the refrigerator it gets cold. But how can we prove it is true. Either through touching it with our fingers or by drinking it. In most of the cases we can say that reality is what is directly experience through the senses. However a spiritual truth becomes a reality when it has been proved with the mental state of mind of most of the people.
(iii) Self-attempt.

Question 2.
Professor Gangadharpant Gaitonde was a historian. He would attend public meetings and would address people awaring them about the important occurrences in history. He had also written history books. The audience was never same during his various addresses. Sometimes it was hostile. He was also greeted warmly in some of the meetings. ’
Once he went to Pune to find out some historical fact. Thereafter having his meal in the evening, as he was strolling, he found a meeting being assembled at Azad Maidan.

Answer:

Instinctively he moved towards the platform and then to the unoccupied presidential chair as an iron plate is attracted towards the magnet. He started speaking on the mike in spite of public verbal protest. But the public was not in a mood to listen to the presidential introduction. He soon became the target of the shower of potatoes, eggs and other articles.
But that also didn’t deter him. Valiantly he cleaned that dirt and kept on speaking. Now the public grew so hostile that they physically pulled him. Next, he didn’t know what happened to him When he gained consciousness, he found himself lying on the ground.
Later, he met Rajendra Deshpande and tried to get what actually it was. Rajendra tried to rationalise it, which the former didn’t take and announced that he won’t address any public meeting in future as he was so rudely interrupted in his speech by the public at Azad Maidan. He also told that he had sent his letter of refusal regretting his denial to address at meeting in Panipat.
Thinking About Language

1. In which language do you think Gangadharpant and Khan Sahib talked to each other ? Which language did Gangadharpant use to talk to the English receptionist ?
2. In which language do you think Bhausahebanchi Bakhar was written ?
3. There is mention of three communities in the story, the Marathas, the Mughals, the Anglo-Indians. Which language do you think they used within their communities and while speaking to the other groups ?
4. Do you think that the ruled always adopt the language of the rulers ?

Answer:
1. I think that Gangadharpant and Khan Sahib might have talked to each other in the then layman’s language. They both were well educated so they might have conversed in English in between. Khan Sahib was Muslim, so it was quite natural on his part that he could have used some Urdu words. But most prominently they might have conversed in English.But with the English receptionist, he must have talked in English language solely, as the former was not supposed to be well aware of Hindi or any other language.
2. ‘Bhausahebanchi Bakhar possibly was written in Marathi language.

3. I think the Marathas used Marathi language within their communities. The Mughals used Arabic language and Anglo-Indians used English language within their communities.
4. Yes, I think that the ruled generally adopt the language of the rulers.