Week 1 - Sojourn

Sojourn.

Fishing boats waiting at the harbour. Taken at Azhikode, Kerala.

Week 52 - Bringing to focus

Week 51 - Some more history

Paravur church - one of the seven and a half churches believed to be established by St. Thomas.

The Marthoma Pontifical Shrine at Kodungalloor, Kerala, the first of the seven and a half churches believed to be established by St. Thomas. St. Thomas is believed to have landed in Kodungalloor in 52 AD. In AD 72, he was martyred at Mylapore, near Chennai. His relics were taken to Edessa, Turkey by a merchant on 300 AD. In 1953, Cardinal Tisserant, then the Prefect of Oriental Congregation, on his historic visit to Kerala took the bone of the Right Arm of the Apostle and deposited it in this church. See image below.



Holy relics of some other holy people.
The altar of the church where the St.Thomas' relic is kept.

Week 50 - Fort Kochi

Some of the historically important places in Fort Kochi, Kerala, India.

The Jewish Synagogue.

The "Paradesi" Synagogue was build in 1568 by the cochin jewish people in the kingdom of cochin. It is called "paradesi" synagogue because it was used by the "white jews", a mixture of Jews from Cranganore, the Middle East, and European exiles. (The "black jews", they believe, descended from the oldest Jewish communities which settled in Kerala from AD 72 onwards when the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans). It was built adjacent to the Mattancherry Palace temple on the land gifted to the Malabari Yehuden community by the Raja of Kochi, Rama Varma.

The top of the Mattancherry palace temple and the Jew Synagogue.

The Mattancherry Palace temple and the Mattancherry synagogue share a common wall.

Koonan kurisu (The bent cross)

This is the place where the christianity in Kerala began splitting. The koonan kurisu was established in 1550 and the "koonan kurisu sathyagraham" (the bent cross vow) took place on 5-Jan-1655.

From the hypothesized arrival of St. Thomas in A.D. 52 till the Koonan Cross in 1655, the history of the Indian church is common. Not much is known about the early history of the St. Thomas Christians, but two facts stand out clearly. Between the 3rd and the 9th centuries there were waves of immigrants from Mesopotamia (corresponds to regions of modern Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran) to Kerala, and from the early centuries, this Church, with its liturgical center in Edessa, Mesopotamia, had also claimed its origin from St. Thomas. (As per Act of Thomas, St. Thomas started his preaching in Syria, so the immigrants might have been converted by him at Syria).

When the Portuguese came to India at the end of the 15th century, they were surprised to see christians (syrian) in Kerala. The syrian christians had connections with the churches in the Persian region. The portuguese, who were catholics, tried to convert the syrian christians to catholicism. They resorted to a number of tactics to achieve this. But when one of the Bishops from Syria was allegedly murdered by the Portuguese, the syrian christians gathered at this place and re-affirmed their allegiance to the Syrian Orthodox tradition. Families of Syrian Christians held on to a rope tied to this bent cross and swore never to convert into Catholicism.

These people now form the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, the Mar Thoma Church, and the Jacobite Church. The group who did not participate in the Koonan cross sathyagraham came under papal authority and are called the Syro-Malabar Church.

An antique shop on the Jew street.

Santa Cruz Basilica

This historic Church was built by the Portuguese and elevated to a Cathedral by Pope Paul IV in 1558. In 1795 it fell into the hands of the British when they took over Cochin, and was demolished. In 1887 Bishop Dom Gomes Ferreira commissioned a new building at the same site. The Church has since been proclaimed a Basilica in 1984 by Pope John Paul II.

St. Francis Church

Built in 1503 by Portuguese Franciscan Friars, this is India’s oldest European Church. Vasco da Gamma was buried here in 1524 before his remains were moved to Lisbon, Portugal.

The tombstone of Vasco Da Gama.

Week 49 - പുക രൂപം

ഇതുണ്ടാക്കിയത് ചന്ദനത്തിരിയുടെ പുക കൊണ്ടാണ്. പുക പല വശങ്ങളിലേക്കും പറന്നു പോകാവുന്നതുകൊണ്ട് DOF കൂട്ടനായി f/10 ഉപയോഗിച്ചു. കാറ്റിന്റെ വേഗമനുസരിച്ച് ഷട്ടര്‍ സ്പീഡ് തീരുമാനിക്കാം. ഞാന്‍ ഈ ചിത്രത്തിന് 1/320s ഉപയോഗിച്ചു. ഒരു കറുത്ത തുണി ബാഗ്രൌണ്ടാക്കി വച്ചു. ഇത്തരം ചിത്രങ്ങളെടുക്കുമ്പോള്‍ പുക നന്നായി കിട്ടാനായി നല്ല ഫ്ലാഷ് വേണമെന്ന് പറയാറുണ്ട്. പക്ഷെ ഞാന്‍ ഫ്ലാഷുപയോഗിക്കാതെ നല്ല വെയിലത്ത് വച്ചാണ് ഈ ചിത്രമെടുത്തത്. (ഫ്ലാഷില്ലാത്ത പാവം ഫോട്ടോഗ്രഫര്‍ മാര്‍ക്കും പുക ചിത്രങ്ങളെടുക്കാം). സൂര്യപ്രകാശം പുക എടുത്തു കാട്ടാനായി സഹായിച്ചു. പുകയുടെ ഇരുവശങ്ങളില്‍ നിന്നോ മുകളില്‍ നിന്നോ പ്രകാ‍ശമടിക്കുന്നതായിരിക്കും ഉത്തമം.

ഓരോ പുക ചിത്രങ്ങളും ഓരോരുത്തരുടെ മനസില്‍ വ്യത്യസ്ഥ രൂപങ്ങള്‍ ഉണ്ടാക്കുന്നു. നിങ്ങള്‍ക്കിത് എന്തായി തോന്നുന്നു?

Week 48 - Indian dancer (ഭാരതീയ നര്‍ത്തകി)

Indian Dancer


EYES ravished with rapture, celestially panting, what passionate bosoms aflaming with fire
Drink deep of the hush of the hyacinth heavens that glimmer around them in fountains of light;
O wild and entrancing the strain of keen music that cleaveth the stars like a wail of desire,
And beautiful dancers with houri-like faces bewitch the voluptuous watches of night.


The scents of red roses and sandalwood flutter and die in the maze of their gem-tangled hair,
And smiles are entwining like magical serpents the poppies of lips that are opiate-sweet;
Their glittering garments of purple are burning like tremulous dawns in the quivering air,
And exquisite, subtle and slow are the tinkle and tread of their rhythmical, slumber-soft feet.


Now silent, now singing and swaying and swinging, like blossoms that bend to the breezes or showers,
Now wantonly winding, they flash, now they falter, and, lingering, languish in radiant choir;
Their jewel-girt arms and warm, wavering, lily-long fingers enchant through melodious hours,
Eyes ravished with rapture, celestially panting, what passionate bosoms aflaming with fire!

- Sarojini Naidu

Week 47 - Peel

Peel.

Week 46 - Day and Night

The day and night view of the hotel "The Address", near Dubai mall/Burj Dubai.

Week 45 - City Nebula

Salem city (Tamilnadu, India) at night from the top of Yercaud hills.

Week 43 - Lantern (റാന്തല്‍)

റാന്തല്‍ വിളക്ക്.

Week 42 - Conqurer

Conqurer.

Week 41 - Spider Web (എട്ടുകാലി വല)

എട്ടുകാലി വല


Spider, with an awesome spiral web, waiting to catch the prey. The sunlight on the back helped in accentuating the web.

Wek 40 - Glare

Glare

Week 38 - Stony road

A wide (17mm) long DOF (f/22) one.