Another Bombay

Jayant Narlikar's story 'The Adventure' begins with Professor Gaitonde, a historian, travelling from Pune to Bombay on the Jijamata Express. Nothing seems unusual, until the train stops at Sarhad, a station that should not exist. An Anglo-Indian officer comes round to check everyone's permits, and explains: 'This is where the British Raj begins.'

Gaitonde's companion in the compartment, Khan Sahib, a businessman going on to Peshawar, talks easily about life in this India, as if it were perfectly normal. The local trains in Bombay carry a small Union Jack, the British flag.

Outside Victoria Terminus, Gaitonde gets a real shock. There stands East India House, the headquarters of the East India Company. In the history he knew, the Company was wound up after the revolt of 1857. Here, it is flourishing.

Along Hornby Road, the shops and banks are British. At the Forbes building, where his son Vinay works, nobody has heard of Vinay.

Gaitonde, a historian to the core, decides to find out where history changed. He goes to the library of the Asiatic Society, in the Town Hall.

Each small difference he notices adds up to one big truth: he is in an India with a different history.