If Time Machine Were Invented

I sat down to gather my thoughts on the question that given an opportunity whether I would like to travel back in time or ahead while watching the news on BBC World. There was a news item, which sent shivers through my spine. Six white policemen in South Africa were shown mercilessly beating a black helpless boy and at the same time unleashing their dogs on him. I could not stand the sight when I saw the dogs attacking and dragging the already bruised boy. I turned off the TV in disgust.

To side track my mind a little I picked up a newspaper and started sifting through the pages. I came across an article about the killing diseases which have plagued the world in the last millennium. The article mentioned that although Polio, TB, Smallpox etc have been harnessed, but Cancer, AIDS, Hepatitis, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and many more diseases are still prevailing in the world, which are incurable. 

After I finished up with the newspaper I picked up a magazine to read something light for relaxing. But I was in for a difficult evening. As luck would have it, again I came across an article describing the poverty and famine in the world. There were pictures of starved and under nourished children of Somalia and Ethiopia, the women carrying water on their heads from distant places in Pakistan, the scantily clothed people living in straw huts in densely populated villages of Bangladesh, the people of poor South American countries living in towns with stagnant sewerage water, and so many pictures showing the unlivable conditions in which the major portion of the world population is living. Although these people work hard from dawn to dusk but it makes no difference due to uneven distribution of wealth in the world they cannot make it to the other side of the poverty line. The pictures in the magazine showed the bleak side of humanity. The long strides of progress, which the world has taken due to technological developments, have not been transferred to common man.

I dropped the magazine and asked my father to take me out for a drive so that I could relax a little. Well, we were smoothly driving in the lit up environment of a metropolitan city and I was observing the people of this busy bustling city. Besides many other things, one thing was surely evident - they were not relaxed, satisfied and comfortable people despite of the fact that they are the citizens of technology age. They looked exhausted and tensed which was evident from their body language. I keep on thinking why it is so. Is it due to the increased pollution in the environment, or is it due to difficulty in coping with ever improving life styles? Is it due to unequal distribution of the goodies of life or is it due to increase in our own threshold of satisfaction?

Whatever the reason may be, my conclusion that evening was that at present majority of the people in the world are not living happy and comfortable lives. From olden times of jungle survival they have progressed on the modern times of urban survival. And for me this is not an ideal world to live. So what is the solution? Should I travel back or forward in time? If we review the history of past millenniums we found the inhuman treatment of human beings had been much more in past. Slave trading, Colonialism, Apartheid, forced labor and Feudalism are few examples. Over the centuries the world has improved and is still improving but still we are far from ideal. The injustices at international, regional, national and domestic levels are still there. The poor is still being suppressed and exploited. The ‘might is right’ which is law of jungle is still prevalent in the present day.

Now there the question arises and that is IF A TIME MACHINE WERE INVENTED, WOULD YOU TRAVEL INTO THE FUTURE OR IN THE PAST???




(P.S from Muhammad Israr: I have included a video in my last post on Anarkali portraying the original story. Hope you will find it useful)