The empty chair

That evening, Gaitonde goes to a lecture at Azad Maidan. On the stage, he sees an empty chair for the president of the meeting. Gaitonde, a veteran of 999 meetings, cannot resist: he walks up and sits in it.

But in this world, lectures have no chairperson; speakers address the audience directly. The audience is outraged by this strange man taking the chair. They shout at him, pelt him with tomatoes and eggs, and swarm onto the stage.

In the confusion of the crowd, Gaitonde vanishes, and wakes up back in his own world. Two days have passed.

Did it really happen? Gaitonde had slipped the Bakhar into his pocket in the library. Only a torn page of it survives, and it says the bullet missed Vishwasrao. Gaitonde's own copy of the Bakhar, in his world, says it hit him.

Gaitonde had made his thousandth speech at Azad Maidan, in a world where it was not welcome. He resolves never to preside over a meeting again.