Sixty Seconds of Change

In the core of Kolkata, amidst teeming traffic, deafening wails of hawkers, and unceasing bustle of people, there was a boy named Arjun. An egoistic adolescent with no prior experience in anything, Arjun had always lived amidst luxury without any necessity to consider anyone except himself. He treaded on like someone born with a silver spoon in his mouth believing that everything revolved around him solely due to his fanciful dreams and demands. He never bothered to care about what was happening around him because he was always preoccupied with something on his mobile phone or lost in his cosmos.

In an evening slanted towards the sunset orange colors of warmth emanated towards his hometown Arjun had a choice between enjoying the company of his friends or being the only one without them at that age. Finally, he chose to join them even though it was against his wishes since they had persistently insisted that he should come out of the house. All these thoughts went on in his mind while at the same time having no other option apart from participating in their game out of boredom rather than any interest. When it reached his turn to start chasing others, Eyelids were rolled back but deep down Arjun just pretended to be counting as if time could stop itself; every millisecond felt like a millennium for him as they passed by slowly because he did not want to play nor spend time looking for those who played this silly game.

Typical of Arjun, he simply left as usual. Silent, he walked out of the game while his friends were still hiding oblivious to the fact that they could have been waiting for him; they could also be enjoying themselves in reality. He began strolling around in the streets of his native town deep in thought not even thinking about whether the other guys could be feeling bad or strange because they never saw him leave.
He walked for a while, his mind drifting from one thought to another until he found himself near the outskirts of the town, at a landfill. He wasn’t even sure how he had ended up there, but before he could turn back, the skies opened up, and a heavy downpour began. Caught off guard, he quickly searched for shelter, his clothes getting soaked by the second. As he darted around, looking for a place to stay dry, something caught his eye—a box, half-buried in a pile of discarded items.

Curiosity burned within him and he stretched forth his hand to yank the container out of the rubbish. It looked odd, ancient, and shabby; there was a button on one side that could be pressed and there was a timer on top that showed ‘60’. Although it was raining heavily on Arjun’s face, at an intuitive level, he wanted to press the button. His finger hovered there momentarily just before he gave in to his inquisitiveness.

Everything around him seemed to disappear as soon as he pressed the button. Thereafter, rain, garbage dumps even the faint sounds of a big city vanished from his hearing range altogether. When the world came back into focus, he found himself standing in a playground that was new to him. The air was warm and the sun shone brightly above him. Unloved children played soccer around him whose laughter filled the space. Or, in other words, at that point Arjun was there confused trying to understand what had happened a moment before contiguous to the change of siding picturing.

Out of the blue one of the flats fell a little too hard and landed awkwardly. The boy yelled out holding his leg which was aching badly and in just no time laughter turned into murmurs of concern. In a twinkling, the other children ran to call for help. Noticing Arjun who was the only one nearby they began yelling at him to do something.

For an instant, so did Arjun stop in his tracks. He had an urge to help, but as he stood frozen like a stone there came over him a strange compulsion of being self-serving. Why should he bother? It was not his affair. But then he noticed that the injured child was crying and a new feeling came upon him – shame. He felt a sense of burden coming from being indifferent; from always shunning away; from never caring at all.

From the moment he decided to step forward to assist, he felt a sudden jolt in the opposite direction. The play area disappeared and all of a sudden, he was back at the tip, rain pounding. Arjun blinked, trying hard to understand what had just happened. He looked for the brown box that wasn’t there anymore but was taken by the trash.

His heart raced with the strange and unclear inscription that he had come across previously; now it was clear: “One Minute Time Machine”. It suddenly dawned on him that this was how he had been living his life; it felt deep inside himself that it was true but only for the first time. In those few seconds spent on that strange ground amongst strange children, he faced himself squarely like never before. There was his selfishness, lack of concern about others, and its resultant repercussions.

It was pouring rain and then he stood there, a new awareness dawning on him. His ego and self-centeredness had made him blind to his surrounding people, not caring and connecting with them. He realized he needed to change, he wished to change.

Arjun was looking for the box madly, desperately hoping for another chance and another moment but it was no longer there. He gazed at the site of garbage seemingly feeling both loss and ascendance. Although he could not go back again; however, he could advance as a different person than he had been just before. Rain washed away everything when he turned around and left but one thing was certain – this man would never be the same conceited boy who got into that game of hide and seek.. The lesson fetched along with it was that sometimes it takes only one minute to alter your entire life.