The search request was unable to connect to the Search Service : SharePoint 2010

Its a monday morning and we ran into a issue where the search wasnt working. The error message I was getting was 

The search request was unable to connect to the Search Service

I followed the following options to resolve the error. Hope you will find your solution within them.

• Central Admin > Application Management > Manage Web Application > select your SharePoint site > Service Connections
• Check whether the Search Service Proxy is checked or not, if not please tick the same and save. This will resolver your issue.

• Central Admin > General Application Settings >  Farm Search Administration > click on your search service 
• Under Search Application Topology on the bottom of the page, make sure the status for all the categories is ONLINE. My problem was that the Query Component 0 was saying "Not Responding" which was running on my Web Front End Server. So I logged in to my WFE and followed the following steps to resolve the issue :
  
• Go to Services.msc and make sure SharePoint Server Search 14 service is Running

Issue Resolved !!  Hope this helps someone.