The cemetery was locked, but fortunately the image I wanted to make was right in front of me, an easy shot through the bars of the entrance gate. The key symbol is the hand on the back of the tomb. It seems to beckon to us, as if, after all these years, it was waving us on to eternity. The Dutch, who ruled Cochin in the 17th century, left the bones of its shopkeepers and traders in massive tombs, as upright and stolid as the Dutch character. By converting this image to black and white, I make them blend into each other, a continuous row call of mortality.