About this site

Two years ago, I was driving around in Cochin, my hometown, with my brother and we were casually discussing the architectural beauty of some churches there and suddenly an idea struck me that I should go on a photography expedition of the churches in Ernakulam, someday.

The desire to do this became more intense, when I visited my Parish church, The Cruz Milagres (Kurisingal) church, Vypin (where I spent almost 22 years of my life) last year. The painting of the Pieta at the altar was amazing, something I couldn’t appreciate much during my childhood days, and something you won’t find easily at the churches in India. Though I can’t afford to go on a prolonged photography tour of the churches now, I decided to photograph as and when I visit these holy shrines, on my not so frequent trips to my hometown.

The Pieta at the Cruz Milagres (Kurisingal) church altar, Vypin

It is also interesting that Fr. Isaac Kurisingal, who was the parish priest at the Kurisingal church some years ago, has chronicled the history of some of the important shrines in the Goshree islands (including that of Kurisingal Church). He did this mostly by talking to elderly people in this area, who have been through generations, and by collecting information from various other sources in this region. This also inspired me to give some web presence for Fr. Isaac Kurisingal, whom I have not met personally (though I have attended his service).

I am a huge fan of Church music. I am a bit sad at the current heavy use of keyboards and drum machines in Malayalam Christian devotional songs. I relish those days at my parish church, when the parish singer (there is a designated singer on the payroll of the church) used just the organ (original, not electronic) and sang beautiful hymns during the service. He used to play one song during the communion and when the song was over, he improvised the tune on the organ to fill the communion time. He passed away in the '90s. In my last visit to the church, I saw a keyboard in place of the organ. I asked the current parish priest about the organ, he said that it was tucked away in the closet as no one was using it. It was quite predictable, as the tuning and maintenance of an organ is a laborious and expensive task.

Though the title says so, this site is not restricted to the churches in Kerala alone. And apart from the church photos and information, you can find some pieces on Christian music, related books and music reviews. Hope you will find this site interesting.

The photographs posted here are taken by my family members, with a Sony point n’ shoot camera. Please feel free to reproduce these photos in other publications. A copy of the material or link where it is used would be appreciated.