Kazi Maruf goes to Winden

A walkthrough in Karwan Bazar, Kazi Maruf would recall, is the day everything changed-not for him-but for a bunch of German people whom Maruf couldn't care less about.  

Remember the underpass in Karwan Bazar? Maruf thought it would be wise to take the "Projapoti Guha," as corny as it may sound. He wanted to avoid the blistering sun. But then again, "we can will what we will choose, but we can't choose what we will."

Scrolling through Kazi Maruf memes, Maruf was about to reach the other side of the underground walkway. When he came out of the underpass, the view before his eyes didn't quite look like Farmgate. It was, in fact, Winden. A small German town with secrets.

"What year is it?" Maruf wondered. He was standing in the woods. Suddenly, he heard some mild chatter, almost like an argument. "I'm not alone," Maruf thought as he jumped into the shrubs. He had to see what some teenagers were doing in this dead hour.

The five teenagers came for something hidden inside the cave. But a ghastly sound from the cave scared them off. They sprinted into the woods.

Just when Maruf thought he should head back to Karwan Bazar anyhow, two of the boys who ran off were entering the cave. Smelling a conspiracy, Maruf grabbed those boys by their ears and demanded an explanation.

"Ostad, I'm Jonas. You have to let Mikkel go inside the cave!" the yellow jacket-clad guy said to Maruf.

Maruf pulled out a gun. That was enough for those boys to tell him every minute detail about time travel that changed Winden forever.

Jonas told Maruf about parallel worlds, time travel and the very idea of dating his aunt. Maruf was after all, a street-smart alpha. He could fathom the whole-time travel thing in a jiffy.

Mikkel, the awkward 12-year-old, didn't know how hard Maruf would slap him in the next few moments. Maruf scolded him saying, "beyadob, tor jonno keyamot hobe." (You moron, the apocalypse will happen only because of your stupidity).

Jonas tries to convince Maruf that the family tree will be altered if Mikkel doesn't travel back to 1986. Maruf nods in anger. But his eyes caught the yellow jacket. "Tor jacket ta amake de, egula Gulistan e pawa jay na." (Give me your jacket, I never found anything like these in Gulistan).

Maruf liked Winden, but he liked Dhaka more. He must break the loop and preserve the origin world. So, he took to the cave with Mikkel-journeying back to the 80s. He knew the solution to the biggest problem of all: Tannhaus inventing a time machine-hence, creating two parallel worlds.

In 1986, H G Tannhaus was a devastated man. But he was inching closer to make his time travel dream come true. These "mad scientist" types will never learn a lesson! Only Maruf can teach him a few.

Maruf goes straight to the bunker where Tannhaus was solving the equation of time travel. For the scientist, the math of defying time was as clear as the daylight.

Maruf exchanges one-liners with the scientist. His one-liner to Tannhaus was: Shobar onko mele, amar onko keno mele na? (How could everyone solve this math, while I couldn't?).

"If you die, the time machine will not be invented at all!" Maruf said as he shot the scientist in the head. Poor Tannhaus couldn't hear a word. Maruf pulled the trigger first, threw the one-liner later. Bad timing, huh?

Having his "Mission Impossible" moment, Maruf returns to Dhaka - obviously through the cave. The past few days have been exhausting for him. But a newspaper headline almost popped his eyes open: Construction of Rooppur nuclear power plant continues amid the pandemic.

"Everything is connected," Maruf finally believes.