The Many Pathways : A Corridor

All these years Anjali has been walking down many corridors and today after going through those many corridors she is walking down another one.

The biggest star of the universe was going back home and the little neighbour of mother earth was coming out in the open. Anjali was lying down on her bed and watching TV. "God!! When will these people learn to make better movies in their lives. I guess I better go to sleep. That’s one of the best things I can do right now."

It was about 6 o clock in the evening. It had been an hour since Anjali was trying to sleep. She was not able to sleep. She was deep in her thoughts. Her eyes were staring at the door with the small window. She was looking out of the window and watching people walking right and left. Looking at the corridors she thought of the various corridors she had been through and is till going through.

Thinking of the corridors of her life, the first one she had been through was the hospital corridor. Though she did not remember even a second of that moment when she was taken from the operation theatre to the babies’ room to be kept with the other babies, all that she could make up was that it was the first corridor she had been through.

The next corridor Anjali could think of was of her building and her house. The house corridor was where she had first put her foot on. It was a walkway where her mother used to run behind her with the glass of milk, a place where her brother used to run behind her to hit her, where she and her brother used to sneak out in the middle of the night to eat chocolates from the fridge.

A corridor full of chips packets, chocolate wrappers, empty fizzy drink cans, stinky socks and her shoes were kept for her mum to clean up. It was one of the corridors where she had spent her childhood, teen life and enjoyed till she got married.

The other was her building corridor where she met her childhood friend. They both always were out of the house playing hide and seek with the other children of the building. She remembered how the games of hide and seek, running races, catch me if you can and all were played. One of the incidents which till date brought a smile on hr face is the one where once while playing all the children were scolded by a man since they were making a lot of noise. The incident goes like this – all the children were playing catch me if you can game. They all were screaming and running around the corridor. This noise irritated a tenant so he came out of his flat and screamed at all of them. But naughty they all were. They went and came back after 5 minutes and this time when they heard the man open his door again they all ran away before he could even come out and shout at them. They kept doing this for at least an hour and this went on for the next few days till a complaint was made to the parents.

Apart from the all the naughtiness, Anjali also went through the sad incidents in that corridor. She had once seen her neighbour’s dad being taken to the hospital when he was sick. That day she saw her friend cry in the corridor and the entire family tensed and walking in and out of the lift. Apart from this she had also witnessed another incident when a child got locked in the house and the parents were outside. That day too she could see tears rolling down the mother’s eyes, the tensed face of the father and the confused sister of the little child who did not understand what was going on.

One of the other corridors was of the school and of the college. The corridors of the school and of the college were the ones where she enjoyed the most. The place where she enjoyed the most. It was one of those memorised corridors where she and her friends bunked a lot of classes, where they all had their serious discussions, where every morning she used to wait for her friends. The place where they stood with their heads facing the ground when they were thrown out. It was one of those places where they loved walking slowly when they went out of the class with the excuse of going to the washroom. College corridors were more fun than the school one. It was a meeting point for everyone; it was the pathway to the class where all the wonders for the rest of the day were kept hidden. Where upon meeting the first few questions were, ‘’ did you do the assignment? I couldn’t do it because I had guests….’’ Or it would be – ‘’ hey what all classes do we have today? I am so sleepy I want to bunk this and that…’’ and so it goes on. The college corridor was also one of those places where she broke up with her boyfriend. It was one of those sad moments she had in the corridors. Apart from that it was a place where she could have a peaceful walk she could have when she felt alone to think on various tensed issues and spend her time when she wanted to be alone. When in classes she and her friends used to stare willingly at the class window which showed the corridor. That corridor was the way to escape, to scream and jump around.

These were the few corridors she had been through and today in a few minutes she would go through another corridor where she would be soon giving birth to another life which will also start his/her life in a hospital corridor. Anjali was nine month pregnant and she had her first labour pains and so she was admitted in the hospital where she began and now she will help one more life begin life there.

Anjali sat their making her point that corridors are the start and end of ones life. They are the long walkways of life, where one experiences a lot and also learns a lot.

Thus according to Anjali and me a corridor can be a walkway full of emotions flowing; a walkway full of experiences of the various people, a place of entrance and exit, a place where one can be alone and let their dreams and emotions free.

Corridors are those pathways which may not sound of any importance but become a very important part of one’s life. Corridors become the embedded stars in the box of memories in everyone’s life which can at times bring tears or a wide smile on one’s face.