The night train to Bhubaneswar

Sunday afternoon and we are all packed up to leave Jharasuguda and take the night train to Bhubaneswar, when we hear that a district wide strike has been called against the government for Monday. This would mean that all transportation, train, buses, even taxis would come to a halt, government offices, schools and every business would be closed as of 6am Monday morning. No matter where we were we would need to stay in our hotel from 6am- 6pm on Monday. What should we do?The night train was supposed to reach Bhubaneswar at 4:55am so we could go and get a cab to our hotel before the strike started. At least then we would be able to make our Tuesday meetings on time. Or we could stay in Jharasuguda and try and get out sometime Tuesday and hope to reschedule our Monday and Tuesday appointments for Wednesday. Since we couldn't cancel our train ticket, we decided to go.We were booked in AC three class, which means that the sleepers car has air conditioning and then on one side of the car sleepers that are three levels high. So in a typical day car with two seats facing each other, you now have six people sleeping, three on each side. Randy and Tanmaya both had middle beds and climbed into their compartment. I was across the aisle on the top bunk of two. Therefore I had a completely private compartment compared to the one the guys share with four others. I climbed up to my bunk, pulled the curtain and quickly fell asleep.About 4am I woke up and started to wonder where we were. We should be getting there soon. I wondered if Tanmaya was awake, had some type of alarm or would know when we should be getting off? At 4:30 I creep across to Randy's bunk and he tells me the train is at least 20 - do minutes behind schedule and that Tanmaya was awake and had heard about the delay. At 5am we pulled into Cuttack. We were 40 minutes away but should still be OK, but then it was 5:30 and we hadn't moved yet. What was going on? It was rumored that the strike had started early and the train wasn't going anywhere. We could stay on the train or get off and try to get to a hotel before the roads in town were closed down. We opted to get off. Rush ing out of the station a tuktuk driver agreed to try and help us find a hotel but we had to hurry! It became apparent fairly quickly that the police were already starting to barricade the Main rode off so we zigzagged through the back roads of town to get to a decent hotel. Our route definitely included some off the poorer (I mean really poor) areas of town as we past huts on the side of the street serving as homes. One little girl probably about two was squatting beside a mud puddle brushing her teeth with the water in the puddle. It was more than I could watch, and I had to turn my head away. The vision is still stuck in my mind. Eventually we crossed back onto the main road and entered the courtyard of Dwararek hotel. The doors to the hotel were closed except for a small opening, manned by a guard. Tanmaya spoke to the guard and a few minutes later we were ushered into the hotel. A private washroom, tv and two comfortable beds, we were set to hunker down until the strike was over. We enjoyed a great lunch in the dining room with Tanmaya as it stayed open for all the guests that had found their way here from the train station. After lunch we napped and watch the numerous English movies playing on the television. We were told that after 6 pm the strike would be over and it would be safe to go out and wonder the streets. We had to at least try. Sure enough the stores were all open and the streets bustled with traffic and pedestrians. The city was back to normal. We thought we would be brave and walked about two blocks down to a small temple and then back. Stopped to buy an ice cream and then decided that was enough. Walking outside after dark in an area we didn't know , we are still a little cautious. Lol at least we got out for an hour. We decided we would take a taxi to Bhubaneswar the next morning so that we could leave by 7am and still make all our appointments for the day. It was only a 30 minute drive and cost us a whole $13 Cdn. We are now booked into the Suryansh Hotel until at least Sunday. Our adventures at Bhubaneswar begin......