This needull marks a new beginning for the Rare Needull series. We have mostly been recommending interesting articles from well known journals and magazines. Rare Needull will pick gems from the lesser known publications. Needull will try to provide these amazing written pieces the much needed visibility they deserve.
This is the story of a journey to one of the most restricted places for travel – Mecca. I am not sure if it is fact or fiction or a mixture of both. Reading this story, you will feel a sense of dread, anxiety and sometimes relief. In my view, this piece is a NewYorker quality story.
The first problem, and the realization that this could go really wrong, stuck at the first checkpoint, 15 miles from Mecca city. While I was in the queue, non-chalantly waiting for my turn, the call for prayer echoed through the complex. The devout Muslims, which most people there were, got on their knees like a remote control button. It took me seconds, which seemed like hours to me, to realize that I was about to do my first prayer in public. The next 15 minutes of standing, kneeling, prostrating were the most nervous 15 minutes of my life. I was clumsy all throughout but I guess, everyone was so engrossed in prayer that they didn’t notice my awkwardness. I sailed through this test, one of the many to come over the next 12 hours.
Needull in a haystack 
One thought on “Rare Needull – A journey to the center of the world”