My Time Machine

 The wooden clock hung right overhead as I took off my shoes and placed my school bag aside. "What news today?" mom called from the kitchen. "Nothing new ma..." I said, "A few long lectures all day, and a huge pile of work to do." and I sat down for a snack. Once I felt refreshed enough to tackle the workload of the day, I entered my room.


  There it was, standing right by the window, bathed in the afternoon sunlight, showing off its glimmering brown veneer. Books, small and big, fat and thin, lay dusted in stacks, waiting to be opened and flipped over. The globe sat on the top, expecting to be twirled and studied any moment. The pink table lamp stood ready to be switched on, so it's spotlight could make it seem like the rest of the world did noto exist.

Yes, that was none other than my very own study table. My secret 'Time machine'. Confused? Worry not, for an elaboration is on the way.
I went and sat on my poor blue rolling chair, which had lost quite a few screws since I started using it. Grabbing the nearest book and a pencil, I ventured to study. Ten minutes later, the charm began. My eyes caught sight of the pen-stand right in front of me, made out of newspaper rolls. And then, my time machine took me four years back..

 "Dashy pass the fevicol!" my sister gestured to me. I passed the big bottle of glue over to her happily, while she finished rolling her paper. I continued rolling my first piece for the fourth time, still unable to perfect it like she did. "Mine's still fatter than yours! " I whined, comparing my loose paper roll with her's. "That's okay...we could still use that." my sister said. I looked at my roll with no satisfaction. "Or..." my sister continued, " You could cut out the papers and keep them ready for me." That sounded fine. So I began cutting the newspapers into equal squares. This time, our pen stand was going to be way better than the last one! "Dashy..we could stick our photos on it too!" said sissy, as if she was reading my mind. "Great idea!" I beamed. 

And I'm back to the present. My sister smiled at me from the photo in the pen stand, a younger me stood next to her. I decided to study again. This time my time machine kept me focused for half an hour. My phone beeped. Someone had turned the Wi-Fi on at home. A quick surf through my FB notifications exposed me to a status update "Off to Ootty with buddies...gonna rock! <3 ;)" My time machine now took me to the future, but it kept the time vague...

 The wind rushing past was deafening. My hair flew in random directions, forming a complete mess. It was biting cold despite the heavy jacket I wore. But it only made it all the more amazing. Sitting in the backseat of the bike, I closed my eyes. It was finally happening...our dream ride to Goa. "Daaaash!!" I opened my eyes to see my bestie grinning at me from my left. I raised my hand to hit her high-five, but it was too small to reach hers, much to my dismay while the others laughed. The three bikes were now parallel. I raised my hands up high... swaying in the wind...flying...woohooo!

I felt a tap on my shoulder. Mom had brought me some salted cucumber. She left soon enough. I closed the book on the table. They say it's good to switch subjects to escape boredom. So I took the next immediate book from the stack. Whoops. Chemistry...I was definitely not in a mood for that. So I looked around for something to engage me. The large periodic table of elements pasted on the wall looked down at me. People think I stuck it out of interest. Who knew that it was a gift from my dear sister! Right next to it was a painting made by my friend, another gift for my birthday. 'Keep smiling', it read. She'd drawn our group of ten, so I could always remember them, even if we were in ten different directions in the future...

 I was sitting in front of my PC, reading comments of my latest published book about my career life. Surprisingly, it sold in great numbers in the very first week. There was a comment from the IFS officer, "You've made it Dash! And remember, keep smiling! :) " You've made it too dear, I thought. I looked up at the wall where the painting hung, the very same IFS officer's painting. Just then my phone rang. "She got the job!" A voice screamed into my phone, "She finally got it!" I shrieked with delight, "That makes the ten of us! We've made it to our dreams!" "I love us!" she screamed back. "Party mode on!"

A half orange appeared before me. "Want it?" my dad asked. "Of course!" I said, taking it from him. "It's okay if you say no sometimes you know!" he quipped. I laughed. Oh how could I say no! It was like a custom for me to eat the other half of dad's orange, whenever he wanted one. Chewing the fruit, I started working out math problems. Soon I started searching for an algebraic identity among the sticky notes to solve a problem. During the search, I noticed how the shuffled Rubik's cube did not  look neat on my table. So I picked it up to solve it. I was then taken six months behind.

 "R..U...R'..U..R..UU..R'..U...and that's how you get the cross." I told my cousin brother, showing him the way to solve the last side of the Rubik's cube. He shook his head, "I won't remember...write it down for me." I grinned. "Speed up the first part, I'll write it down after you've done that!" I said. "Right." he gave a small nod, taking the cube from me and turning the whole of his attention into it. That would keep him occupied for a while. I went back to my study to complete my homework. The sun was setting. The soothing evening rays lulled me to sleep right on top my notebook.

The Rubik's cube was done and I placed it back on top. The open chemistry textbook was staring at me. I stared back at it for a while, until I decided to close that too. Time for a break. I'll travel again some time later. 


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An older post published again. Connecting with #MondayMusings at Corinne's :)