KOZHIKODE: The search for a common man, unlike anything that the country has ever seen before... Finally, with a heart-rending agony, the final adieu... For the past two-and-a-half months, the entire country has been praying for Arjun, who is just a lorry driver. Two state governments and the central government fought a battle with a river with all their might. Arjun, a lorry driver, was filled in the prayers of the nation... It was not just a few body parts that burned in the pyre. It was the different forms of language, caste and religion that were burned in the flame of human love. Never before had an ordinary man received such a whimpering farewell.

On July 16, eight people were taken to the depths of death by the landslide at Shirur in Karnataka. Two more people should be given back by the Gangavali River. Everything should have stopped by a week-long search. However, when Kerala sobbed for Arjun, even the national capital was shaken. Even the Prime Minister intervened. The search lasted 72 days. MK Raghavan MP, ministers KB Ganesh Kumar, Mohammed Riyaz and AK Saseendran who came to Shirur to coordinate the rescue operations, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who was in constant touch with the Chief Minister of Karnataka and Prime Minister, K C Venugopal, who constantly put pressure on Karnataka, Satheesh Krishna Sail MLA, who was present from beginning to the end of the day and accompanied the body to Arjun's house. So many people like that.

The determination of Manaf, Arjun's friend and owner of the lorry, who had his eyes planted on the Gangavalli River for 72 days. "I had promised his mother that I would not return home without Arjun. I wanted to bring him alive. At least his body has been brought back and I am keeping that promise." Eshwar Malpe who risked his life and dived into the depths of the gushing Gangavalli River... The interventions of retired Major General Indrabalan, who announced that it was Arjun's lorry that got stuck in the dredger...

The whole state was sobbing as Arjun's little son Ayaan's hands lit the pyre with tens of thousands of witnesses watching.