In life, we pass through many doors. Some tall. Some big and heavy. Some fancy. Some made of wood, some made of something else. Why doors? Why such an article at all?

If we ask the historians, they say the Egyptians used doors inside tombs to signify the transition to the afterlife. The Mesopotamians used them as protection. Not in a way doors today protect us. But in a way a sacred thread guards you from evil. What about the Greeks then? Well, they weren’t dramatic about the doors at least. In Greek, they were just doors.

Now, let’s keep the doors shut for a moment. It’s been a few months since I walked out of Palghat Lions School as a student (only on paper). Some such doors in your life bring about a metamorphosis, which is inevitable and irresoluble. If you’ve made it so far into my dully printed and illustration-less paragraphs, then the trajectory of your life is probably tending to one such door. One you’ll look back at and wish you had paid more attention to.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

For a quote from a relatively slower world of 1986, Ferris Bueller’s fourth wall break was a plea to the future in disguise. A future immersed in media that grants instant gratification. A future where information overload numbs your brain. A future where physical media is sacrificed for clickdriven sensationalism. The relentless pursuit of novelty and entertainment erodes attention spans, leaving nuanced realities and meaningful relations by the wayside. And to walk off from this feeling and shift down your life’s gears, doors are just the symbols you need.

Doors aren’t just frames balanced on a hinge. If you look closely from a door frame, what makes up our life is what comes before another. You pass one door, live a little, and then go looking for the next door. A person passes through an average of 1,400,000 doors in their life. From the one in your labour room to the one you just passed and many more ahead. That’s plenty of doors. If you take a moment to look back from the door you’ve just passed. Let the flash-flood of gone-by moments arrive and leave, even before you can blink. Life would not only slow down but the voids and the filler episodes that run in your head will also reach its grand finale.

Upon graduating high school, I had to take my principles and routines to the next stage in my academic life. To cater to this change, I must toggle my surroundings and the characters in it. That’s where the doors help transition to a professional course and a new atmosphere. Every door I pass through, I look back, and retrace my steps from the door before. And every time it’s different. I may pass through the same door several times. Yet, the chaotic nature of our nature ensures no two experiences are ever the same.

We’re all passengers of the present, rummaging between the folds of life with the few mere seconds available to us from this clock of reality. And it’s only fair to address this truth while acknowledging that it’s the same for all of us. Four weeks into college, I’ve come across a man who is up till three. What’s common between the two of us? The one door we share.

Paul ettan starts his day at gate number two. He’s probably been a security guard all his life, though he tells me he’s only been at gate two for three years. Every day he stands guard at the same door. How not picturesque the life of a security guard is? But not Paul ettan’s.

Everyone who passes by him gets greeted with a smile, hidden underneath his thick white stache, a brisk “good morning” and a heavy handshake if you’re close enough. For a profession painted with monotonous responsibilities, Paul ettan goes the extra mile and stands out as someone who notices the unnoticed. Ultimately forming the basis of his profession, a security guard.

Now back to the landscapes of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Being the civilizations who built the pyramids and the hanging gardens of Babylon, the animistic significance of their doors must be far from being just baseless superstition. It reveals a profound know-how of everything, whether material or not. It reflects the sophistication in their thinking.

In simpler terms, if they had imparted meaning to doors beyond their lifeless definition, there had to be some truth to it. Even if we don’t go so far as to call it a “Truth” there has had to be some tangible result in doing so.

Look around, see the door you just passed? Like a homing pigeon, try to walk with your thoughts from the door before. Try to look at the faces you glanced in the way. Try to search for that one thought you disregarded as random or useless.

Feel your heart slow down a bit? By acknowledging the doors you pass, we get to appreciate the beauty of life’s ephemerality and the significance of each fleeting moment. So, let us cherish the doors we pass through, for in their frames and hinges, we find the stories of our lives – stories of love, loss, and light.

- A perspective, Aadil Varsh