Counting Every Second -Md Tareq Hasan

Anas Abdullah stood on the roof of his small apartment, staring at the orange glow. He was fifteen — a dreamer, a thinker, and sometimes, a daydreamer a bit too much. His teachers often told him, “Anas, you’re bright, but you waste time thinking too long before doing anything.”

Anas knew they were right. He always had brilliant ideas and that was robots that could clean classrooms, drones that could plant trees but somehow, he never finished any of them. His notebooks were full of sketches, half-done projects, and big dreams written in small handwriting.

That evening, while he was lost in thought, his mother called out from the kitchen,

“Anas! Time for your evening prayer!”

He sighed softly, closing his diary. The word “time” rang inside his mind like a bell. Why does everyone talk about time? he thought. It’s just there and it is always flowing, always the same. Isn’t it?

But that night, Anas’s thoughts would take a journey he’d never forget.

The Invitation
The next morning, the school announced an international science contest called “The Time Challenge.” It was hosted by the world-famous British scientist Mr. Stephen Smith, a Nobel laureate who had built one of the world’s fastest quantum computers.

The challenge’s theme was strange: “Can time be measured beyond seconds?”

Anas felt his heartbeat quicken. He had no idea what that meant, but something inside him whispered, Try it.

That night, he stayed up past midnight, staring at his notebook. Equations, clock diagrams, and small doodles filled the pages. But again, he couldn’t finish anything. His eyes grew heavy, and he fell asleep at his desk.

When he woke up, the room wasn’t his anymore.

The Lab Beyond Time
Anas found himself standing inside a gigantic laboratory filled with glowing screens and ticking clocks. Machines hummed softly, and a faint smell of metal and coffee hung in the air.

At the far end stood a tall man with silver hair, wearing a white coat. His blue eyes sparkled behind round glasses.

“Ah, you’re finally here, Anas,” said the man, smiling warmly. “Welcome to the ChronoLab.”

Anas blinked. “You know my name?”

“Of course,” said the man. “I’m Professor Stephen Smith. And you’re the boy who doesn’t value time, at least not yet.”

Anas froze. “Wait, how do you know?”

Smith interrupted gently, “You’ve been chosen for a lesson. Every second counts, Anas. Come with me.”

The Broken Clock
They walked through a corridor lined with clocks, hundreds of them — each ticking differently. One was fast, another slow, one even moved backward.

Smith stopped before a huge glass chamber. Inside it floated a magnificent golden clock, but its hands were spinning wildly, out of control.

“This,” said Smith, “is the Heart of Time. It keeps the world’s seconds in rhythm. But something has gone wrong.”

Anas’s eyes widened. “Wrong? Like, time will stop?”

“Worse,” Smith said gravely. “Time will scatter. People will forget what to do, lose purpose, and the world will drift into chaos. We must fix it but only someone who truly understands the value of time can do that.”

Anas stepped closer to the chamber, fascinated. “But I’m just a student.”

Smith looked at him deeply. “Every great scientist was once a student. You only need to start and finish.”

Mission: The Race Against Seconds
Smith handed Anas a small wrist device that glowed faintly blue. “This is the ChronoBand. It will let you move through moments but only for ten minutes. Use it wisely.”

Anas felt a surge of excitement. “So I can travel in time?”

“Not exactly,” said Smith. “You can revisit moments you wasted and change what you do there. But remember: every second you spend correcting the past shortens your future.”

Before Anas could reply, the lab’s alarms blared. Red lights flashed. The golden clock inside the chamber began cracking.

“Go!” shouted Smith. “You’re the only one who can fix this!”

The First Moment
With a flash, Anas found himself standing in his own classroom. It was a week ago. His teacher was explaining a robotics assignment — the one Anas never finished.

He looked around. The old Anas was doodling stars in the corner of his notebook.

He sighed. That’s me wasting time again.

He walked up to himself and whispered softly, “Do it now. Don’t wait.”
The teacher’s voice echoed: “The deadline is next Friday!”

Anas grabbed the notebook, started sketching furiously, and within seconds, his design was done — a simple, clever cleaning robot. His hands moved like they had been waiting forever.

Then his watch beeped: 6 minutes left.

The Second Moment
The world spun again. Now he was in his bedroom two nights ago. He had been scrolling through his phone, watching random videos, ignoring the adhan from the nearby mosque.

He hesitated. This one hurt to see.

He approached his old self and whispered, “Five minutes for your Lord and you’ll earn an eternity.”

His old self paused, put down the phone, and walked to the prayer mat. As soon as he bowed his head, peace filled the room. The blue light on the ChronoBand brightened.

4 minutes left.

The Third Moment
Now he was in the park, a few days earlier. His little sister was calling him to play, but he had been too busy “thinking” about his project.

He saw her small face again and that was hopeful and waiting.

This time, he ran to her. “Let’s play, Aisha!” he said joyfully. They laughed, ran, built a tiny sand tower. And as he helped her, he realized something.

Time isn’t just about doing big things, it’s about giving meaning to small ones.

2 minutes left.

The Final Moment
Suddenly, he was back in the ChronoLab. The golden clock was still cracking. Smith shouted, “Quick! What did you learn?”

Anas looked at the glowing gears. “Time isn’t something to waste or control. It’s a gift — one that only has value when we use it for good.”

He ran to the console, entering the equations he had once drawn in his notebook. His hands moved with confidence. Sparks flew as the clock’s gears began to realign.

The cracks sealed. The clock pulsed once, twice and then glowed bright gold.
Everything went silent.

The Gift of a Second
When Anas opened his eyes, he was back in his own room. Morning light streamed through the window. On his desk lay his notebook but this time, the design for the cleaning robot was complete. His phone buzzed with an email:

“Congratulations! You’ve been selected as a finalist for The Time Challenge.”

He couldn’t believe it. It had to be a dream or was it?

That evening, at the online award ceremony, Professor Stephen Smith appeared on screen. “Our youngest finalist from Bangladesh,” he announced proudly, “has taught us something profound that time isn’t about minutes or machines, but about purpose.”

Anas smiled shyly. He knew what that meant now.

After the ceremony, he went to the mosque with his father. The cool air of Maghrib prayer brushed his face as he bowed. The same boy who once thought “time just flows” now whispered,
“Let me use every second You give me, wisely.”

The Unseen Letter
A few days later, a parcel arrived. Inside was a small watch that was silver, with a tiny engraving:

“For the boy who understood the value of a second — S.S.”

Anas turned it over. On the back, engraved in delicate script, was a short phrase in Arabic:

“Wal ‘Asr — Indeed, mankind is in loss, except those who believe and do good.”

He smiled quietly. No one else might understand what it truly meant but he did. It wasn’t just a gift. It was a reminder.

That night, Anas didn’t stay up wasting hours. He planned his next project — a “Smart Time Board” to help students balance study, prayer, and play. He worked steadily, without rushing, without delay.

And for the first time, he finished something completely.

The Secret of Every Second
Years later, Anas Abdullah would become a young scientist known for building sustainable time-saving technologies for schools. But when reporters asked him what inspired him most, he would always smile and say,

“It wasn’t a machine or a formula. It was one sentence I learned long ago — that time is the truest test of what we value.”

Sometimes, he’d glance at the silver watch still ticking softly on his wrist — the one that reminded him of Professor Smith, the ChronoLab, and the day he truly learned to value time.

And perhaps, if you ever waste a moment and then stop to think, you might just feel a faint ticking too — a reminder that every second is a story waiting to be written, if only you start now.