Ihad always wished to go back into the past. To ask Florence Nightingale how she got the courage to attend to soldiers who were in a pathetic state, to tell Hitler to stop World War II and meet Albert Einstein.

One day, I found a broken watch lying on the pavement. Interested in mechanics, I took it home to find out what was inside it. The watch was quite heavy and I toyed with the idea that it was made of gold and if I could sell it, I could go for a vacation to some exotic country.

When I got home, I took out my toolbox and tried to open it. It was not a regular watch, so I scrutinised it from every angle. The dial was the most unusual I had ever seen. Rather than numbers to see the time, on it was written, ‘Where you want to be’.

I found everything unique about the watch, so tried to fix the broken parts and then wore it on my wrist. The glass was still a bit broken but I couldn’t replace it myself so I decided to take it to the shop the next day. I then lay down on my bed thinking about what else I could do on this long summer’s day.

Then I started thinking about the Crusades. I had been reading a book on them so was thinking about Saladin Ayubi and the war he waged. I closed my eyes for a minute … suddenly I felt warm air so I quickly opened my eyes and found myself in a desert! I thought I was dreaming so I pinched myself hard. It hurt really bad!

I was really in a desert. Within seconds, I saw a cloud of dust rising on both sides, along with the dust clouds I saw bright, shiny armoured men furiously riding on horses. I was scared, as I realised I literally was present on the war ground — none other than one of the Crusades! Now greatly alarmed for my own safety, I closed my eyes and wished to get back home and lo, I was back in the safety of my room.

I was too amazed to understand what was happening, whether it was real or was I dreaming. I heard a beep and glanced over at the watch I was wearing. The place where it was written ‘where you want to be’ now blinked ‘home’! I realised that it was actually a sort of time machine, and what was more unusual was that it could read my mind and didn’t need commands or any buttons to work.

I was puzzled at how the previous owner had managed to lose such a valuable asset. So to check it again I thought about various things …

and in next 30 minutes, I saw Kublai Khan and Marco Polo having tea in the kings garden, I saw Amerigo Vespucci trying to convince some important mapmakers to put a new continent on the map, I also saw Napoleon at the height of his power, the misery of the people during the Great Depression, the historic occasion of the Lahore Resolution and I also saw Dr Abdus Salam receiving the Nobel Prize....

I woke up with a jerk. My pet parrot ‘Beard-man’ was on my chest squawking my name!

“Oh no, it was just a dream!”

I sighed. “But a beautiful dream!”

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 14th, 2017