Who said time travel is’nt possible?

 Who said time travel is’nt possible?

Have you ever visited your college, after years of graduating? Through the same gate besides the guardroom under dense plantations and same chaos of vehicles outside and subconsciously you started humming the same old atif melody that once played on loop and is now forgotten to even be a part of your playlist.

Who said time travel is’nt possible? Because i certainly did that day.

Have you ever parked your car at the same spot that once homed your little white activa and walked across the same canteen and a gush of wind brings the smell of the same samosas that once you were so sick off , now making you wonder , ‘was it really that bad?’. Walked inside the same little door of your college building only to notice the first thing that your friends projects that they made right in front of you while complaining tirelessly how they hated doing this, with unkept hair on a sleepless nights, was still on display. Walked ahead towards the corridor to look at an array of doors towards various studios and submissions rooms and lecture halls, I could literally see faces of all my batchmates walking in chaos, i could hear the voice of them gossiping, giggling , pranking. Carefree as if there was no tomorrow, no yesterday, just this present. It is fascinating how quickly the present becomes the past without a warning.

Who said time travel isn’t possible? Because i travelled to my past that day, i just could not interact with it.

Haunted by beautiful hallucinations, I turned towards the stairs only to notice that they have a lift now. It was probably the only thing that had changed in that building and for some reason i wasn’t happy to see it. I wonder what is it about us and the places that we love, that we just don’t want it to change even one bit, even if it is for good. I wanted that place to freeze in time, in the moment that i left, i wanted everything to be just as it was , how it was , where it was. I took the stairs, took the first step and instinctively started rushing , as if i was getting late for a lecture. Maybe it was just force of habit or maybe its just fun to run on stairs while your knees still allow you.

I walked into my class and so did four of my friends , the first thing i saw was my locker that still had my name that my friend with a good handwriting wrote for me. I could recall that day clear as yesterday. What an uncontrollable , indescribable rush of happiness that gave me, Its just inexplicable and i don’t even try to understand it. I took to my desk and sat on my stool, my friends took theres. One was on the last desk of my row, one on the farther end of the class, my roommate just beside me, five of us in our respective desks while 35 stayed empty but it was enough for me.
For a moment there i was completely back in college. Completely carefree, in that moment i did not care about work, career , money, taxes, after god knows how many years i was once again just in the moment with no regard of anything that was not within my vision. I turned back, trying to recall who sat beside me, i could not. I looked ahead to recall who sat there, i could not. And then all across , i could not recall any of my friends desk except perhaps of that one girl who I had a crush on. And i could not recall the name of that old professor who always yelled at me, and that new teacher who once caught my proxy, and the name of the subject which i flunked.
These memories that i have always treasured as my most precious possession had slyly fleeted away. All that remained was a locker with my name on it.

Who said time travel isn’t possible? Yeah sure you can’t interact with the past, and ok , the visions are a little blurred , i agree its not as ideal as you would want it to be, but i sure did travel back in time that day.

I exit the building with a bittersweet heart, walked towards my old hostel. It was nothing like it used to be, they had built additional floors, the recreational zone removed, our warden had left and among the young students that I saw, wandering around unbathed in unwashed shabby clothes , patchy beards, stinking of sweat and yet glowing with happiness. I stood watching them in my ironed formal shirt, unrealistically expensive shoes , smelling of branded perfume. The dichotomy was clearer than ever . The delusion that my youth would never end and i will forever be 21 was shattered. And to put the final nail on the coffin , i was also denied entry in the hostel by the guards. The tiny room that i once called my home was 40 feet away from me but so far away in time that I can’t even peep into it for a moment.

Who said time travel isn’t possible? Because I’m scared he/she might just be right.    Every living cell of mine tried tooth and nail that day to go back in time.I wonder why we do that, find traces of past at places from history and try to fold ourselves into tiny subatomic size to relive and reside in the moments that are long gone ? And then we just call it nostalgia and get away with it. Do we not understand the science of time, or is just hope too strong?

Maybe time travel isn’t possible, but trying isn’t so hard, is it?