April 3rd was the Mannargudi Garuda sevai, and I happen to join the rest of the family for the occasion only a day before. I traveled by road from Chennai to Mannargudi via Kumbakonam. The journey was comfortable and I indeed enjoyed the rural India as we cruised through rich green fields.As we crossed Vadalore and proceeded towards south, we were a bit skeptical about the Anakarai bridge before Kumbakonam, that was under renovation. The bridge was being serviced, and traffic for the heavy vehicles been closed. But the cars were allowed by a small service lane in the bridge. As we reached the spot, we found even that was closed for traffic. As I sat wondering how to retrace the path , we were told, we can still proceed, by the mud road across the dried river. I was speech less for a moment. By then our driver have already started descending the slope to enter the mud road. Oh boy!!..what a scene it was. We literally drove through the belly of the mammoth river. I imagined it with full water, and absolutely cant visualize where we would be then. The summer is yet to start and the river was almost a bed of dried sand, but for a small pocket of fresh water here and there. I had a feeling of walking over a sleeping giant!!!.It was a thrill for me, crossing the 1km distance across the river.
