The Open Door Policy: What a Foreign Halloween Taught Me About Lost Community

Being in a new country during this season, I saw something profoundly simple happen a night ago: kids, dressed up as heroes and monsters, were doing the familiar ritual of trick-or-treating.

They would knock on a stranger’s door, and that door would open. People had bowls of candy ready, waiting. They were prepared to engage in a small, trusting transaction with their neighbors’ children.

It got me thinking about the difference between that simple act and how we live now, particularly reflecting on the rapid urbanization and growth of my own home in Mumbai.

The Open Door of Childhood

I remember a time in Mumbai where the door of the flat was almost always unlocked, or at least unbarred. The children in the building were known, the aunties and uncles next door were extensions of your own family, and walking into a neighbor's kitchen for a glass of water was routine.

The community was a web of overlapping, trusted relationships. That open door was a physical manifestation of emotional safety. You knew who lived next to you, and more importantly, you trusted them.

The Rise of the Fortress

Now, look at the giant high-rise societies. The massive gates, the stringent security protocols, the multiple locks on the door. It’s less a home and more a fortress designed to keep the outside world—including the people living next to you—out.

In these huge complexes, we live inches away from hundreds of people we have never spoken to and whose names we do not know. The door is no longer an entrance to a home; it's a shield. The community is reduced to a WhatsApp group that mostly exchanges complaints about parking.

We have gained space, verticality, and perceived luxury, but we have lost the most essential infrastructure of human life: connection and trust.

What the Candy Bowl Symbolizes

The simple act of being ready for a neighbor's knock, whether for a cup of sugar in the old days or a handful of chocolate on Halloween, is a profound statement: I see you, I trust you, and I am prepared to share my resources with you.

As my husband and I watched those children, we actually set out our own candies, too. Not because we expected any knocks, but because we were holding onto the hope that, a couple of years down the line, our son will get to experience that feeling. Not the sugar, but the warmth of being welcomed.

This blog is a part of ‘Blogchatter Half Marathon 2025’.

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