IT is the most fleeting and confusing, not to forget the most frustrating phenomenon of all. Time, yes, past present and future. The rising and setting of the sun, the passage of hours and days even seconds, slip through our fingers like fine grains of sand. Theorists call it the fourth dimension, while physicists are debating about how it is only what we perceive it to be.

Einstein’s theory on time is truly one of the most fascinating studies in today’s world. Can we control time or does it control us? Or is it both? Is it possible to go forward or backwards in time, as we know it? We know that the ticking of clock indicates passing of each and every moment of our lives.

The idea of ‘time travel’ has crossed many a mind seriously, not just limiting it to science fiction, so is it possible to make a machine of sorts in which one can go in the past or the future? Maybe, maybe not! But are there certain spaces or areas or times when ‘time slip’ occurs; when a doorway opens for one to enter or see the past or the future? Maybe, maybe not!

Okay so let’s look into these few incidents, which baffle and force us to think further about time. Rudolph Fenz, 31, went out for his daily walk in the year 1876, and never returned. His family and friends started an official investigation into his disappearance but he never turned up. Then in 1950, 74 years after his sudden disappearance, something unusual happened. In the middle of a fully crowded Manhattan street in downtown on Fifth Avenue, a man just appeared out of nowhere in front of a rushing car on the road; thus the accident resulted in the death of that man.

The man had in his pocket, a wallet with money from the 1870’s and had his personal cards with the name of Rudolph Fenz Sr. written on them and a receipt that was given to him for boarding the horses of his carriage. Who was this guy? Where did he come from and why did he have stuff from the 1800s when the year he was hit by the car was 1950? And yes, the man was not 105 years old; he was in his early thirties. Quite baffling isn’t it?

Officer Hubert Rihn was a missing person’s investigator. He looked into the matter with great zeal but could not find any clues. Then he got an idea and called for a telephone directory from the year 1939. There he found a person by the name of Rudolph Fenz Jr. his search led him to an elderly woman who said she was the widow of Rudolph Fens Jr. and that Rudolph Fenz Sr. was her late father-in-law.

She knew about the disappearance and said that her husband was just four years old when his father disappeared. The investigator went back and looked into the missing person’s files from the 1800’s. And there it was a missing person’s report with a photograph of the same person that had been hit by a car in Manhattan. Did Mr Fenz Sr. walk into another dimension? Wow, what a mystery!

Now we come to another one. In the December of 2008, Chinese archaeologists were reopening a huge coffin of a 400-year-old undisturbed body from a Si Qing tomb in Shangsi County. While removing soil from the tomb, a small metal ring-shaped watch with the time stopped at 10.06 struck the ground. On the back of the watch an engraving saying ‘Swiss’ further added to their bafflement. What was a modern looking watch doing in this 400 year-old tomb? If you’re scratching your head, I don’t blame you.

Okay, now I come to the last one. Dr Raul Rios Centeno, who is a medical doctor but is also a paranormal investigator, had a visit from a most interesting patient. He narrated the story to author Scott Corrales about a woman who came to see him with a serious condition of ‘Hemiplegia’, which is the complete paralysis of one side of the body. She told him “I was at a campground in the vicinity of Markahuasi”. It is the famous stone forest 35 miles East of Peru.

“I went out exploring late at night with some friends. Oddly enough, we heard strains of music and noticed a small torch-lit cabin. I was able to see people dancing inside”. But when she got closer, she felt a strange, cold sensation. She peered through the open door to see people dressed in 17th century clothes and as she tried to enter the room, one of her friends pulled her out. It was thus after that, that the 30-year old woman felt half side of her body paralysed. Did she enter a crevice or opening into the past? What would have happened if she had gone inside the stone cabin completely?

According to Dr Raul Centeno, all medical examinations could not prove any kind of trauma to the brain or disease. There have been quite a few cases of strange happenings in the Markawasi region of Peru and some researchers think there might be a ‘dimensional doorway’ in the area. And then there was the man from Taured. Okay, I think I shall stop here now...

Come to think of it, we are all time travellers in a way. With each passing moment, we are travelling ahead into our future and yes, when we travel to a certain country, we often have to change the time in our watches as we have either gone ahead or moved back in time.

But visiting different periods of time, well, let’s make that time machine…