India Unfolded is the creative director. You are the photographer. These aren’t photo spots — the twelve follow a narrative arc, so that together, in order, they tell the whole of Varkala in one album.
SHOT 01 OF 12 · ARRIVAL
The path before the shutters
Sixty-nine cafés within ten metres of the edge — and for an hour at dawn, none of them open.
The place
The North Cliff path, 06:15–07:00 in October–February, walking north with the sun behind you — The North Cliff path from the Middle Cliff; The South Cliff path, Janardhanapuram end
Stand here
Behind them, crouched on the path. Phone sideways from behind, low, the path leading in.
People
Yours — your family walking away along the path; the closed café fronts on the right; the drop and the sea on the left.
Did our direction work?CURATED · NOT YET FIELD-CHECKED
SHOT 02 OF 12 · THE LAYERS
The cliff read from the sand
The only Mio-Pliocene cliff on India's west coast — a national geological monument with springs falling out of its face.
The place
Papanasam beach at low tide, 06:45–08:00, the face in shadow so the bands read cleanly — The face below the Middle Cliff; The cut by the Bali Mandapam — from a distance
Stand here
The water's edge, phone tilted up. Phone upright from the water's edge, tilted up; never from the lip.
People
Yours — the banded face filling the frame; a child small at its foot for scale; a spring if one is falling.
Did our direction work?CURATED · NOT YET FIELD-CHECKED
SHOT 05 OF 12 · SIVAGIRI
The temple with windows
Narayana Guru let light into a temple in 1912, when temples had no windows and Ezhavas no entry — one caste, one religion, one god.
The place
Sivagiri Mutt, 3 km inland, late morning before the midday closure; 30 Dec–1 Jan for the pilgrims in yellow — Sarada Mutt, Sivagiri; The samadhi on the hillock above
Stand here
The approach path, below. Phone upright from the path below, the building centred.
People
Yours — the white octagon and its windows; your family on the approach; pilgrims in turmeric cloth if it's the last days of the year.
Did our direction work?CURATED · NOT YET FIELD-CHECKED
SHOT 08 OF 12 · THE SPIT
Kappil, lake to sea
The Edava–Nadayara backwater and the Arabian Sea, separated by a strip of sand and a row of coconut palms.
The place
The Kappil spit, 7 km north, 15:00–17:00 with the sun low across the palms — The Kappil palm road; From a Priyadarshini Boat Club boat, for the water angle
Stand here
The middle of the road, crouched. Phone sideways from the middle of the road, low, both waters in.
People
Yours — the road between the waters; palms leaning; your family walking it; water on both sides in one frame.
Did our direction work?CURATED · NOT YET FIELD-CHECKED
SHOT 09 OF 12 · THE FORT
Anjengo's square
The East India Company's fort of 1696–99, where Sterne's Eliza was born and where a six-month siege was held by men too old and boys too young to be soldiers.
The place
Anchuthengu (Anjengo) fort, 9–12 km south, 15:00–17:00; the lighthouse opens in the afternoon — Anjengo fort, Anchuthengu; The cemetery inside — the 1704 grave
Stand here
Inside the square, crouched. Phone sideways from inside the square, low, the wall leading to the family.
People
Yours — your family on a bastion corner; the square of laterite wall; the lighthouse rising behind.
Did our direction work?CURATED · NOT YET FIELD-CHECKED
SHOT 10 OF 12 · GOLDEN HOUR
The cafés light up
The strip that grew from thatched sheds in the 1990s to sixty-nine buildings on the lip — at its most beautiful in the minute it becomes a problem again.
The place
The South Cliff looking north, 17:15–18:00 in November–February — The South Cliff path's railing; The Middle Cliff steps
Stand here
A fenced railing on the South Cliff. Phone sideways from a fenced railing, family at the edge of the frame.
People
Yours — the line of the cliff and its cafés catching the last light; the first lamps; your family at the railing in the foreground.
The light
Last hour before sunset — the window this frame wants.
Did our direction work?CURATED · NOT YET FIELD-CHECKED
SHOT 11 OF 12 · SUNSET
The west from the headland
Face west on a cliff that faces west — the reason the cafés came, and the reason to keep five metres from the lip.
The place
The North Cliff's helipad headland, 17:45–18:20, from the path, well back from the cracked edge — The helipad headland, from the path; Any fenced stretch of the North Cliff
Stand here
The path, behind them. Phone sideways, against the light, from behind; stay on the path.
People
Yours — your family as silhouettes against the sun; the flat sea; nothing of the edge in the frame.
Did our direction work?CURATED · NOT YET FIELD-CHECKED
Twelve photographs become your book
Capture the twelve and your album — My Varkala — assembles itself in narrative order. Back home, one tap: Create My Book. Your photographs, this guide’s story, printed and bound.