#Sarareads: I am bored of stories that start with ‘IF I HAD A TIME MACHINE’

‘If I had a time machine..’…ugh! Same old, same old.
They all sound so similar and seem to be a convenient tool to bring some action into the story. But these days, I must admit, I have been dreaming of a time machine. Not for some adventure, but for an escape.
I was half awake at night when I heard the ticking of the wall clock in my room and right then I was reminded of the time turner that Hermoine and Harry were given by Albus Dumbledore in the Prisoners of Azkaban.

I wished if I had one too, then maybe I could get out of this lockdown and peek at the world on the other side of this pandemic.
Yes, I have learnt enough in the past month from all the grown-ups in my  house about the coronavirus and the worldwide lockdown.

At first, staying at home all day, reading books under the cover way past my bedtime, sleeping-in till late hours of the day and having endless playtime seemed to me like a dream come true, but now I can tell you that I am ready to get out in the sun, go to school and get back to my after- school activities. So, all I could think of that night was about a wishful time machine that could help me travel to the future and see the world free from the coronavirus pandemic.

My mind was racing so fast that I barely noticed that there was a pale capsule lift, parked in the corner of my room. It looked a little like the ones we have seen in old Hollywood movies. It had a lot of gears that the time traveler could put on while travelling, like the “octopus head gear”, the automatic seat strap to hold you tight while you are travelling with a speed faster than the rocket. The swan shaped microphone that you can use to talk to others travelling with you (maybe to tell them you are scared or excited) and then right at the front of the glass door my initials PM were engraved in shiny silver colour.
With my new machine in front of me, now I was ready to start my time travel. I could almost hear Dumbledore saying his lines, “three turns should do it, but remember you must not be seen.”I knew who all I would have taken along under different circumstances- Aayushi, Sonakshi, Sanchi, Mishika, Suhani, Rishav, and Rajdeep- a small group of my best friends.

But for now, this is my mission and I will call it ‘from darkness to hope’. This fearful world that I know we all are living in today, needs some time-out, a term my mother keeps using on me. So this scary virus that is causing so much pain to everyone needs to leave. My parents had told me that we still do not have a medicine to fight this virus. So I asked the time machine to take
me to best doctors and scientists of the future. I took off with less huff and puff than I had expected.

I didn’t waste much time and after asking the head doctor for her permission, I time traveled back with both the cure to treat the virus and the vaccine to prevent it from affecting us ever again. Hurray, I
delivered the entire kit to the Prime Minister and decided to let the adults save the world from this horrible sickness!

Now, I had one more thing to do before saying bye to time machine. Can you guess what? Head out to pick up my best friends and time travel into the future one last time, but now for some fun with them. Visit few places while we are there in the future, our school would be one for sure. We would want to check the play area and the classrooms to find out if they have changed. I am sure the ‘naughty castle’ (that is what we call our play area) will have those new swings and see-saw that we have been eagerly waiting for all this time. I am guessing the roads, parks and even the school and its surroundings would be much cleaner.

Yeah, time machines are boring in stories. They are awesome in real life!