Corridor (+ IBR)

There's the familiar savoury aroma of curry from the neighbour a few floors downstairs, the indistinct tune of Hokkien karaoke music from the elderly couple across the building, the colourful blinking lights on the window pane of the family in the apartment opposite to celebrate the upcoming Eid - a variety of cultures that ignite senses.

People are moving in and out of their homes either to dry the laundry, buy their groceries or water their plants in their 'gardens'. The serenity doesn't get any more flawless than hearing children's laughter from the playground downstairs. It's a typical weekend in the heartlands of this island city-state.

Since we're a relatively tiny island/city with about 6 million people, we have high population density (as most cities do). This means we have a large number of people living in a particular area. As a result, most of us live in apartment buildings and high rise flats with no backyards.

Corridors are the common spaces that we have - spaces where we see our neighbours and their homes (about five to ten metres away from our very own front door), where children ride on bicycles from one end to the other, and even where people start their own little 'garden' at its sides. Most of these 'gardens' are healthy but they clearly weren't large - usually they were five potted plants lined along the concrete floor against the low walls of the corridor to reach over for sunlight. It seemed to enjoy the sunlight from the highest storeys in the building.

You must think that the corridor seems awfully narrow, but there's indeed a wide area for people to walk and reach the lift lobby from their apartment. Nonetheless, what perhaps is the most important aspect of this common corridor is its role to bring a particular entity together - the people.

It is certainly a different atmosphere in other parts of the world, but what remains most similar is the community that lives in neighbourhoods. There's no doubt that neighbours can come in various forms. Some are reeked in envy, others are as polished as gold. Yet it's important to realise that though there are some who might be putting us off a little, we stay courteous and considerate.

Wherever we are in the world, despite any troubles we might experience, there is indeed a little 'corridor' in each neighbourhood - something that brings people together, something that allows them to live with comfort in the knowledge that there are people who care. It doesn't have to be a place or a tangible item. We can be that little 'corridor' ourselves - the person who just remains as kind and courteous to everyone and makes that little first step towards building relationships regardless of how difficult or awkward they might start off.

Neighbours are people we need, let's aspire to be good ones, for if we love our neighbours as ourselves, we gain nothing more than home sweet home.

Until next time ♥

Lettering and photo by me

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+ The notebook with the beautiful watercolour print featured in the photograph is created by Nancy Tichborne, a talented watercolour artist from New Zealand. I bought the notebook a couple of years back at a local stationary shop, and it is part of the Nancy Floral Series Journal. 

+ This post was also written for the linkup 'Inspired By Random' (IBR), hosted by Fatima from That Delete Button. The linkup includes a writing a post based on a random book title chosen without it being related to the book. 

+ 'Corridor' is the title of a book written by a local Singaporean author Alfian Sa'at, and I picked out the book at random from my to-read list. I've always wanted to read his books because of all the positive reviews I've heard about them, but needless to say, I never took the chance. Here's me taking that opportunity - I'm making it a point to read the random book I've chosen for the linkup after this post. :)

You can also find me on Goodreads.