The Doing of the Un-doing

  "so you say you were a time traveler," Noor asked his grandfather "then answer just this one question. Why didn't you just go back in time and killed off Hitler before he ever joined the army? It would have saved a lot of innocent lives, prevented a world war" Noor's grandfather who was sitting on a leather sofa while seven of his grandchildren were all sitting in front of him on a carpet looking up at him, waiting for him to answer another one of their questions about his adventures in time. he cleared his throat before answering. "first of all I wasn't a time traveler." he said with great relish "I still am" Zain the oldest of the grandchild sat with his back to the sofa opposite the one his grandfather was sitting on, with his wife Khadija sitting beside him and on her lap, their 10 month old daughter, Fatima Noor the second grandchild was sitting with his hand locked around his knees looking up at his grandfather with inquiring eyes. Hussain the third grandchild sat silent practically gaping at his grandfather like a fan would look at his role model. The came Haris who sat beside Hussain waiting for the story to proceed and secretly hoping that no one would disturb the story this time. Then came Ruhma who sat cross-legged beside Haris looking happily at his grandfather, her hair trailing down her shoulders almost touching the carpeted floor. After her, came Zaid who sat there waiting for a joke to pop in his mind in this rather serious enviroment so he can say it at precisely the right moment and crack everyone up. And then, at last, came the seventh grandchild, Amina. her legs in front of her supporting herself by planting her hands firmly on the carpet just behind her, the cleverest brain in the room, already bursting with questions. All of the seven grandkids looked up at their grandfather, waiting for the story to begin. "I was 29 years old, your grandmother gave me the idea. Not that I hadn't already given it much thought. So when I made up my mind, I suited up and jumped to 1908, the year Adolf Hitler turned 20 years old. The first six months I spent traveling to Germany, it was a very ha......." "you traveled there! I thought you can just end wherever you want" Hussain inquired before he could stop himself. "No son, I had to travel there. Time travel can only take you through time, not through places. It was a very hard journey I had to travel on foot for days, I slept wherever I could find a roof over my head, I stole food just to go through the day. After promising your grandmother my safe return I started on my journey on 29 august 1908. Getting out of the subcontinent was easy enough because I knew the language apart from a couple encounters with the British soldiers but once I entered Persia, present-day Iran, i got kidnapped somewhere in Kabul. I stayed there as a captive for about 6 months before barely escaping with my life. Kazakhstan was not much problem as long as I was away from the local wars. in about 10 month time I had reached the ottoman empire, present-day Arab" "but Arab in 1909 was not much populated," asked Haris closely inspecting his grandfather's adventure. "Exactly," said his grandfather impressively. "when I saw a stretch of a never-ending desert I knew I had reached Arab or ottoman empire in 1909. I asked some of the locals how far was madina.." "I know that you know Arabic language" added Ruhma answering the question before anyone asked it. "Exactly, but at that time I didn't know much of it. I only knew some words, just enough to start a basic conversation and that was the reason I decided to stay in Arab. I changed my direction from northwest to hard south which lead be direct the blessed city of Madina. The first thing I did there was to perform Umrah. Hajj was due in six months so I extended my quest another six months. The people there at the time were very generous to me. They fed me, clothed me and gave me a roof to sleep under. One of the best experiences of my life. On the day my Hajj was completed, having recovered my health and even earned a little money by selling dates as a part-time job.  I packed my newly bought leather bag, full with dates and a another one with as much water as I could carry I got on my camel, which I bought for some dinar i'd earned by selling dates and once again I was back on my way to kill a person who would, in the future, be the reason of hundreds of thousands of deaths" "How was your Eid day in Madina and which animal did you slaughter?" asked Ruhma, eager to hear every detail on his grandad's adventure. "It was one of the most peaceful Eid of my life: I slaughtered a Lamb" "What color was it?" asked Amina, challenging her granddad's memory. "It was snowy white and a little fat" "Just like Fatima" everyone laughed except for Khadija, zain's wife, who eyed Zaid threateningly. "What happened then grandpa?" asked zain eager to hear the whole story. "after you left Madina" "Well getting out of Madina was not a very big challenge, but crossing the desert after, was. More than Half of the health that I had gained in the blessed city was once again gone along with the dates and water which ran out while i was third of the way out of the desert. But at last, i reached a town where i spent two months in a local hospital.," "There was a hospital there in that town" Asked Amina surprised. "It was more of a tent with some bandages and a couple of ointments but i was young back then, and ambicious, so i got back on my journey as soon as i could walk" Her grand-father continued "When I got out of the scorching heat of the desert and into Europe i realized that winter was almost upon this land. I think it must be late October or early November of the year 1910. But Europe's temperature was not as hard as the heat of the desert I had left behind. Although entering these countries was a different matter. During that time Europe had progressed a lot as compared to the subcontinent or ottoman empire, which was once the place that brought us one of the greatest minds the world had ever seen back then but the Mughal emperors lost the ability to rule a long time ago and along with it the ability to progress and Europe had taken the lead in almost every front except maybe for the dishes or the spices. I had to make sure that I was well away from all the ports and the main roads because they were always checked and kept in order. I had nothing by then except for the clothes I was wearing or some fruit I had stolen from a shop" "How much did you steal throughout your journey," asked Noor, smiling mischeviously. "I only stole when I had absolutely no other choice, most of the times I would just beg, pretending to be a mute or sometimes if I was around the countryside, some farmers would take pity on me and sometimes they gave me food enough to last me a week." "How much exactly," asked Noor again, clearly pushing his luck. His grandfather looked at him and said: "I stole enough to have become very good at it," "What happened then, did you reach Germany?" Asked Hussain trying very hard to sound not very thrilled to hear the rest of the story "At that time it was Austria-Hungary and yes, I did. but I reached France first. that's where I saw a car for the very first time. I was a big old thing, a steam engine, making enough smoke that cast a never-ending shadow over the car. I took me another half a month to reach Austria-Hungary or Germany, many times I had to change my route to stay away from the police, because if they'd caught me without any proper credential, they'd put me in jail, again halting my journey towards Germany. But miraculously i managed to escape their grasp, sometimes barely but still." "I entered through one of the borders in Austria-Hungary on 26 February 1911......" "It took you three years to reach Germany?" asked Amina, astounded. "Yes. my target was now 23 years old, still dreaming about becoming an artist, not yet knowing that he'd be the one who would invade almost all of Europe, a part of Russia and cause the kind of destruction never see before in known history, ever" "He could be one of the reasons the British left the subcontinent," asked Hussain.