Tree house and marigold cultivation at Mudapuram
| Photo Credit: SREEJITH R KUMAR
A rain-kissed morning was the perfect premise to set foot at Mudapuram. Scores of Reels and shorts on social media were reason enough to land up at this sleepy village near Chirayinkeezhu, located about 30 kilometres from Thiruvananthapuram city. People have been flocking here to watch and click photos at the tree house, named Mudapurathe Onakkudil (Onam hut of Mudapuram), erected at the centre of the paddy field that stretches as far as eyes could see. To complement the setting, there are marigold plants with yellow and orange blooms grown on two sides of the canal that runs through the field.The tree house has a backstory to it, says Ajeesh Ramdas, president of Mudapuram Residents’ Association (MUDRA), which maintains the structure. “Last year, a month before Onam, a group of youngsters from here had put up a hut made of bamboo and thatched with palm leaves in the middle of the field. They had planned it as a setting to take photographs during Onam. But the same night it was destroyed by someone. Anti-social elements had been causing troubles for quite sometime and that incident was the last straw. So we decided to revive the then-defunct residents’ association and construct a permanent structure,” says Ajeesh, who runs a construction company, Iron Mode.His company sponsored the construction of a permanent structure with metal frame and tiled roof. “We opened it on Atham (first day of 10-day Onam festival) day last year itself. Social media gave us a lot of traction. This year, we have gone a step ahead and planted marigold plants to attract more people,” says Sumesh MS, joint secretary of MUDRA.
