Jew Town, Kochi
We begin at 10.30am and stay till 8.30pm. At Chellanam, the 7.5-km-long tetrapod seawall built to check sea erosion has become a bustling promenade drawing thousands. You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Kochi | Silver Rate in Kochi | Bank Holidays in Kochi | Public Holidays in Kochi Stay updated with the latest Kochi news.
With its heritage buildings and bylanes that evoke a foregone era, Jew Town always beckons us,” Roshan said. He drew inspiration from the culture of handing out postcard photographs to tourists in London,” said Vysakh K A, a photographer. The sea can be captured in its finest hues without glare in the morning hours as the sun rises,” said V T Sebastian, a resident. Many arrive with their pets to capture those moments,” said Binoy P C, a frequent visitor.
Kochi: Roshan and his wife Abhirami from Chennai strolled leisurely through Synagogue Lane in Jew Town with their six-month-old toddler. It was not their first rendezvous with the historic precinct. They had wandered these storied lanes several times before, the last being eight months ago. Standing on the cobbled stretch, they filmed reels, joining hundreds who have transformed the lane into an open-air studio. “Nowhere else in India can you shoot a reel with a living testament to Kochi’s Jewish heritage as your backdrop except in Mattancherry. Not just in Mattancherry, but across Ernakulam, heritage and its scenic beauty are increasingly becoming a backdrop for the social media generation. Friends and families arrive not just to see the landmarks and beauty but to capture them on camera — dressing up, posing, filming short videos and stitching together reels that turn a day out into a digital keepsake. For many visitors, the experience is now as much about finding the perfect frame as it is about discovering the history behind it. The trend reflects a larger shift in tourism culture, where a place is valued not only for what it tells visitors but also for how it looks on a phone screen. And for repeat visitors, the old streets of Mattancherry, the heritage buildings of Fort Kochi or the sea view at Queen’s Walkway offer precisely the kind of visual texture that makes for a social media-worthy reel. Meanwhile, a few yards away near the synagogue, a group of schoolchildren and teachers from Tamil Nadu posed for a photo session. The age of the selfie has given way to a new fad — instant photocard portraits framed against the synagogue. “We started photography as a career in Jew Town around eight months ago. My friend Akshay Kumar had started this venture. “We instantly print photographs taken with Synagogue Lane as the backdrop and present them pasted on a newspaper-like template. Hundreds of tourists get themselves photographed every day. Many from distant parts of the country and abroad send us their photographs via the post office in Jew Town. It will last as a living memory in their living room,” he added. “People from across the state and the country flock here from morning till late night. Yet, reels are mostly shot in the morning. The passage of ships through the navigational channel lures reel makers to Fort Kochi Water Metro terminal. The channel offers an uninterrupted canvas to frame the vessels gliding through the backwaters. At Valappu Beach in Vypeen, it is the evening and dusk that attract reel makers. “The tranquil ambience and a relatively cleaner shoreline are the prime reasons why people choose this stretch for reels. Along Queen’s Walkway in the heart of the city, it is mostly couples, largely teenagers and those in their early twenties, who take reels. As night falls, lights from the high-rises on the eastern flank shimmer and reflect on the backwaters, lending a romantic glow. It is this luminous charm that keeps the cameras rolling on Queen’s Walkway well past nightfall. Download the TOI App.