It is hard to say how long we were lying down. After a seemingly long time, a fleet of road repairing machinery and a bunch of trucks crossed us slowly. We got up from the lying down position, some of the labourers in the truck recognised us and started waving their hands, we waved back in response.
As the road became empty, we realised something for the first time. A significant time had passed without any other vehicle crossing the road. With the repair crew gone, there was no one on the road. We were not able to trace any vehicle lights all along the road that we could see. It was just the two of us, on the bicycle in the middle of the jungle, and we did not know how far we had to go before finding a suitable place for rest.
“We need to get going. We don’t know whether it is safe to hang out in the open.”,
“Agreed, let’s go.”
The road ahead was quite nice and sloping downwards. The efforts required to push were relatively low, It was about an hour before we could see any sign of civilisation. “Koynanagar” was the name of the place. The town was a little bit inside from the main road. We decided to try our luck in the town. We went to the bus stand, found one rickshaw driver and enquired about a place to stay. He pointed us to the government rest house.
At the rest house we were received by a middle aged caretaker.
“Yes, you can stay here, I have a room available. However if any government officer shows up, you will have to vacate the room.” he replied.
“It is already late in the evening and a chance of anyone coming up is really low, but it’s my duty to keep you informed of the rules.”
“We don’t really need a room, we can sleep here in the veranda.” We were trying to save some money. We showed our college I Cards.
“No. You can't sleep here. It is unsafe to sleep in the open. Also as per the rules you have to register and pay for the room.” He was quite firm in his response.
“The rooms are very cozy, you will get hot water. I will prepare dinner for all of us, come back in half an hour.” He opened one room for us.
The room was large, good for an entire family. We were getting more than what we asked for. We filled our hungry stomachs, after a hot water bath.
“We will be leaving very early in the morning.” Sandesh said to the caretaker as we paid for the room and the food.
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