Book Review: The Other End of The Corridor

When your dreams are tainted with lies and deceit, you have no other choice but to walk to the other end of the corridor.

Leela has nothing extraordinary about her except the dream to become famous. Her desires take wings when she gets married to a handsome boy from a respectable family in Delhi. But her dreams are shattered even before they have a chance to take flight. 

She happens to meet two friends from a long forgotten past, which infuses hope and opens new avenues to realize her dormant aspirations.

Leela delves into previously unexplored paths of deception and forbidden passions that only make her stronger. 

In an attempt to rediscover herself, she falls in love with life and with herself but her life takes a sudden turn again…

No matter what, Leela will continue to chase her dreams.

Where does this journey take her?

After reading the book, the first thing that came across me is that ‘The Other End of Corridor’ can easily be classified under the books which speaks about the contemporary works about women in society. It is a bit slow at the start but once you start turning the pages, you will definitely be engrossed in the middle class life of Leela Chopra. The book talks about Leela’s journey in a society that is biased against women.

The book in a way is a voice of hundreds of thousands of women who are forced into marriage, suffer beatings and lacks courage to speak up but not in the eyes of debutante author Sujata Rajpal. The main protagonist eventually finds a voice through her dream. She decides to walk on the corridor of freedom towards a path to rediscover herself and life.

The author has conveyed plenty of emotions through Leela’s journey and the situations she faces in front of her. Without telling much, she has managed to convey much more through smart choice of words and a deep understanding of issues women face, although at times, I felt the story to be a bit predictable.  But taking nothing away from the author, the way she has etched the central character, the story line and descriptions of some of the incidents is what made the book worth reading for me.

The author with her superb writing skills has brought some of the incidents to life and is asking all those women who are suffering in some way or the other to find your corridor towards freedom.

I didn’t find ant proof reading mistakes and the editing seems to be perfect.

Overall, The Other End of The Corridor is a sensitive and a different read from all the romantic ones and is a must read for both women as well as men.

“The corridor, I was walking down didn’t have a trace of illumination. I couldn’t see the other end. But I kept moving and now, I realize that more than the light, you need the determination to keep moving, keep struggling for your dreams, for your existence, for your survival.”

I had lived in a dream world all my life, always blaming the circumstances for my own weaknesses. I could never gather courage to stand up to circumstances. For how long would I keep blaming others for my own shortcomings. And for how long would I keep dreaming- my dreams never aligned with the real world; my dreams and real life never converged at any point. ‘I definitely had experience but only in building castles in the air.’

Author’s profile :Sujata Rajpal is a Corporate Communication & PR professional turned a full-time author. She holds an MPhil degree in Economics and has studied Mass Communication from Panjab University, Chandigarh. She also writes articles and short stories for publications and journals. Sujata is a yoga enthusiast and enjoys being a Toastmaster. She currently lives in Mysore.

The Other End of the Corridor is her first novel.