Fear

This is a poor quality snapshot with no artistic or technical merit whatsoever, but I have an excuse: I was crapping myself with fear when I took it. It was taken from the top of the southernmost minaret in the Jama Masjid (great mosque) in Delhi. The view is looking north-west over Chandni Chowk and Old Delhi. The fear was because I have bad vertigo - it's tourism related, I first experienced it in 1988 climbing the spire of Ulm Cathedral. What made this particular experience extra scary was the fact that one had to remove one's shoes while in the mosque, so we had all climbed the slippery marble stairway to the top in our socks. At the top there was no parapet, no safety barrier, and no room. I hugged the floor, whimpering, while my mum gamely stood peeking over the edge, holding onto a pillar. It gives me the screaming abdabs just to think about it. So I'll stop thinking and click 'publish'.

Details: Minolta X-500, 50mm, exposure not recorded. Delhi, December 1997. Placemark.