Urban Fables | Title: The Man Who Collected Lost Time
By Faraz Parvez
Professor Dr. (Retired) Arshad Afzal
Former Faculty Member, Umm Al Qura University, Makkah, KSA
(Pseudonym of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal)
đď¸ What Is an Urban Fable?
An urban fable is a modern, symbolic tale set in the real, contemporary worldâusually a cityâwhere characters, events, or settings carry deeper metaphorical meanings.
Like old-world parables but draped in concrete and neon, these fables reveal truth through allegory, wrapping moral lessons in the everyday absurdity of modern life.
The Man Who Collected Lost Time
They called him Clockmanâa bent figure in a brown overcoat, with shoelaces never tied and spectacles thick as the bottom of a teacup. Youâd find him where time usually gets lost:
- At train stations just before the delay announcement.
- In DMV lines that never move.
- At hospital corridors between bad news and no news.
- In Wi-Fi outages.
- In traffic jams where radio hosts sound more urgent than ambulances.
He never spoke. He just carried jarsâhundreds of them. Small glass jars, each with a label:
â10 minutes from Nadia (Train to Karachi â Missed)â
â2 hours from Arman (Traffic, rain, bad luck)â
â45 seconds from Zoya (Waiting for âSeenâ to turn into âTypingâŚâ)â
He said nothing when people asked. He only held up a jar, as if to ask,
“Want to give this to someone who needs it more?”
What He Did with It
Clockman lived in a forgotten building between a shuttered cyber cafĂŠ and a cobbler who talked to his shoes.
His apartment had no furniture. Just shelves. Jars glowed faintly on them like fireflies. And when he opened one, you could hear itâthe hum of wasted sighs, restless foot taps, impatient coughs, and unread messages.
He never aged.
Some said he was a Sufi.
Others said he was punishment from God for our obsession with schedules.
But those who gave him their lost time reported strange things:
- An artist, once blocked for years, suddenly painted a masterpiece.
- A cancer patient whoâd been told she had weeks, lived for three more peaceful years.
- A forgotten poetâs blog went viral overnight.
It was as if the time theyâd given away had come backâbetter.
But Then, One DayâŚ
The jars were stolen.
All of them.
Every single glimmer of lost timeâvanished.
Clockman stood in the middle of his bare apartment, his overcoat trembling. No note. No trail. Just one broken jar left behind:
â6 hours from Ali (Scrolling Instagram, wondering why everyone else is happy).â
The Collapse Begins
Without his jars, the world changed.
- People no longer just âran late.â They spiraled.
- Delays became collapses.
- Breakups took lifetimes to heal.
- App loading bars froze.
- Every elevator in every mall got stuck between floors.
A strange fatigue crept in. Not tirednessâbut time-sickness.
No one knew what to do with their minutes anymore.
And ThenâŚ
Clockman appeared one last time at the central train station.
He wasnât alone.
He held a mirrorânot a jar.
He said only this:
“You never lose time. You trade it for something. Attention. Distraction. Escape. Or regret.”
Then he was gone.
But some say the mirror is still hidden in the station.
If you find itâand stare long enoughâyouâll see your lost hours.
And maybe⌠just maybeâŚ
youâll decide to spend the next ones on purpose.
âď¸ Why We Tell Urban Fables
In the madness of cities, under the crush of speed and noise, our lives are stitched together by silent choices. Urban fables donât scream their morals. They whisper them.
Theyâre not about princes and dragons. Theyâre about you.
Your phone. Your wait. Your breath.
And if youâve ever sat alone with a clock and wondered where the time wentâ
this story was always yours.
đ For more timeless tales, surreal reflections, and truth-wrapped-in-fiction, visit:
đ farazparvez1.blogspot.com
Where every story is a mirror. And every mirror is a second chance.
