The gallery on her smartphone is brimming with pictures of actor Anupama Parameswaran’s travel logs. As she clicks through each image, a part of her yearns to go for more. But COVID-19 has spoiled it all by curtailing people’s movement. So the only option is to look back at those happy times when travel could take her to anywhere she wished for.
If only I could go back to those happy pre-corona days, wails the young actor. As each image pops up there’s a clear whiff of nostalgia, as she revisits the places and times that brought her a lot of cheer. I envy that happy me of those happy times, says Anupama on her Instagram account.
“My gallery … making me jealous of myself … she travelled, she explored, she made memories … long, long ago … hey, my darling Corona, pls, pls go away …” says the young lady in much anguish. A majestic picture of the Athirappally falls stands alongside her melancholic posts.
Another picture shows her atop a small boulder in the picturesque Aruvikkara as she gazes up at the blue sky. “Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads”, says Anupama.
COVID-19 has painted a dismal picture of almost all picnic and tourist spots. The usual bustle is no more at such spots. Athirappally stands deserted. The stalls and wayside eateries have all disappeared. Though there was a slim hope that the Onam season would see a revival of fortunes, nothing of that sort materialized.
The majestic Athirappally waterfalls that straddle the Ayyampuzha panchayat of Ernakulam district as well as the Athirappally panchayat of Thrissur district, rolls out into the Chalakudy river.
Athirappally is a tourist paradise which takes one to the Charpa falls, Vazhachal waterfalls, Poringalkuthu dam, Thumboormuzhi check dam, Dream World Aqua Theme park, Silver Storm Water Theme Park, the mushroom-like tea plants along the Valparai-Malakkapara slopes and the Ezhattumugham Prakriti Gramam.
Blessed with Nature’s beauty, the whole of Athirappally is a tourist haven and a bird watcher’s paradise.
The falls shot into added prominence with many scenes of Bahubali being shot against the magnificence of the waterfalls. The place was already a director’s special for big budget Hindi and Tamil flicks.
Then the Corona came along and right from the beginning of March, the place has been shut down thereby incurring a huge loss of tourist revenue. Even those small holdings which lived by Athirappally’s attractions found it difficult to pull along.
Folks, now hope that things will brighten up once the lockdown restrictions are lifted.
