The Transition: Professor Gangadharpant Gaitonde, a historian, meets with an accident when his car collides with a truck. He falls into a coma but his mind transitions into a parallel universe. In this alternate reality, he travels on the Jijamata Express to Bombay. To his surprise, he finds that India was never fully colonized by the British, and the East India Company only controls a small area around Bombay.

The Alternate History: Reaching Bombay, he goes to the Town Hall library to figure out how history changed. He reads history books and discovers that the turning point was the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761. In real history, the Marathas lost. But in this alternate world, the Marathas won, led by Vishwasrao, who narrowly escaped a bullet. This victory kept India independent, leading to a strong, democratic nation.

The Azad Maidan Incident: After reading, the Professor visits Azad Maidan where a public lecture is going on. He notices the Presidential chair is empty. Being a traditional historian used to presiding over meetings, he steps onto the stage and sits in the chair. The crowd, which believes in a purely democratic setup without a “President” figurehead, gets angry and throws him off the stage. At that very moment, he wakes up in a hospital bed in the real world.

The Scientific Explanation: Gangadharpant narrates his experience to his friend Rajendra Deshpande and shows him a torn page from an alternate history book as proof. Rajendra explains this using two scientific theories: the Catastrophe Theory (a small change in circumstances—like a bullet missing Vishwasrao—leads to a massive change in outcome) and the Lack of Determinism in Quantum Theory (suggesting parallel worlds exist simultaneously, and the Professor’s mind temporarily transitioned from one to another during the accident).