Unlocking doors and the tales beyond
Doors have always fascinated me. Beautifully crafted ones that have stood the test of time, down the corridors of history and then there are those curiously, magical ones written about, in story books.
As the lockdown was relaxed, I set out to a part of Delhi which has always allured me — Delhi-6 or old Delhi. The best way to relish this old-world locality is on foot or a rickshaw. The antique ornate doors in the locality’s constricted lanes have tales to tell.
I came upon a door in a narrow lane called Gali Chooriwallan that has intricate work done on it, pictures that depict fables are carved on the panes. A hunter aiming at a lion and the lion in turn is about to pounce upon a deer. Other panes have parrots and flowers skilfully chiselled. These doorways are like portals to a past era, so mystical and exotic.
It is said that the Roman deity Janus was the protector of doors and doorways, and also the protector of beginnings, endings, transitions, gates, gateways, and time.
Doors were first seen historically in paintings inside Egyptian tombs. These structures may seem mundane to many, but in the world of art and literature, they are often used as symbols of a beginning, an end or choices leading to an unknown path.
While reading I have come across an umpteen number of doors that have held my attention. In Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, after falling down the rabbit hole, Alice finds herself surrounded by locked doors and the only key she can find fits a door far too small. Ultimately, after finding a way of shrinking herself down to size, she manages to make it through the door, marking the beginning of her adventures.
New spaces and opportunities
J.K. Rowling has used different kinds of doors at different points in the Harry Potter series, to symbolise various stages in the life of Harry. A door such as the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, which has a striking symbol of seven snakes on it — one for each of Voldemort’s Horcruxes — marks a transitional phase for Harry as he finds out more about his and Voldemort’s complicated past.
Doors and openings are symbolic structures that signify moving through difficulties or challenges, entering into new spaces and opportunities.
Take Ebenezer Scrooge’s door, in Charles Dickens’ 1843 novel A Christmas Carol, for instance. When Ebenezer arrives home on Christmas Eve, the story unfolds. The door knocker, an unremarkable but oversized piece of architectural ironmongery turns briefly into the face of his former business partner Jacob Marley, heralding the visit of the three ghosts that take Ebenezer on a journey of his wrongdoings and failures to help him see the error of his ways.
The most magical and enthralling door in literature is the one in C.S Lewis’s The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. During the Second World War, four children are brought to the safety of a sprawling country mansion, which is rife with mysterious nooks and crannies. During a game of hide and seek, Lucy, the youngest child, finds a wardrobe which is actually a portal to the magical world of Narnia. It transports the characters to another kingdom and another time.
There are doors of love and bonding as well as tantalising ones that lead to the no-man’sland. They herald us to different spheres — to our destiny. Jim Morrison, had rightly opined, “There are things known and there are things unknown and in between are doors.”