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Can't change everything!

About Time

Director: Richard Curtis


You start life telling yourselves you must try to make everything perfect. You think and overthink where anything can go wrong anywhere and make precautionary changes. Still, there will be some black swan events beyond your control that you must overcome. What would you think at the end of it all, at the end of days, that you would have it any better? 


What if you have a special gift where you can time travel? Would your life then be perfect, with the ability to travel back and forth to twit events and prevent mishaps when deemed fit?


A millionaire who has made millions would dispense unsolicited advice that earning money is not everything. He will say that one has to enjoy life with all its spills and thrills, not go after money at all costs. Of course, all these make no sense to a struggling youngster working hard to make something out of his life. In the youngster's mind, he needs the blessings of the Monkey God, not life lessons. 


The same thing applies to time travel, I suppose. At one look, it looks like something to die for. But then, everything loses its glamour. Suddenly one realises the uncertainty of life is the one that makes life worth living. Nothing can happen in isolation and has a corresponding spillover effect. As we learn more about time travel, we realise it has many caveats. 

This romcom is a light viewing, not for sci-fi enthusiasts familiar with the intricacies of going back and forth in time. A 21-year-old is told the males in the family can time travel. Initially taking it as a prank, he uses it to correct certain awkward moments and later major family mishaps. During one of his travels, he discovers that it is restricted to a family member's birth as the randomness of the gametes of conception may alter the baby altogether, including its gender. Not all life events have a single moment at their inception. It takes a lifetime to materialise. Often it is multifactorial, for example, the aetiology of a fatal event.



Life is a funny thing. Things can work in your favour or against you. You are not in the driving seat. 35 years ago today, I reported for work. What would I have done then that would have landed me in a better situation than I am today? Or would the alternative have been worse? The version I have today may have been the version of what I could my life to be. Like someone told me, life is like the branches of a tree. If an ant were to start from the tree's stem, it is pure luck that, after taking so many turns at the crossroad of tree branches, it reaches the tree's juiciest fruit. 


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Location: Zürich, Switzerland

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