When you pay for secured bike parking you expect to find your bike where you left it. That’s not what happened to master’s student Aleem Pirani.
(Photo: Aleem Pirani )
“The situation in other countries around the world wasn’t great when I was preparing to start my studies. There was a lot of political turmoil in the UK and the US. The universities in my city in India didn’t have a lot of external opportunities or international connections and I wanted to experience something more interesting and international, more than just theoretical stuff.
I’m doing my master’s in material science and I’m just about to finish my thesis. The subject I ended up studying is not what I had planned. After coming here, I discovered there were a lot of really smart people working in something called electrical steel. When I heard about the technology and how things are done with it, I just fell in love with the area and have been working on it ever since.
‘The cycling paths are amazing here’
The most striking thing I have noticed since coming here is that the cities in the Netherlands are very well designed. You have transportation at the city centre and you can go wherever you want to go. And the cycling paths are amazing here. You can go anywhere you want. Apart from people not braking and crashing into you, it’s near perfect.
I used to stay in the town of Schiedam, close to Rotterdam, with a group of people in a house. We were talking about how much very cool history there is in the Netherlands. We decided since we are here only for a couple of years that we wanted to cycle around the country and explore different places. We bought some fancy bikes so we thought it would be a good idea to park them in the NS bike parking lot. We went to buy some gear for the bikes and when we came back to attach the stuff, we realised they had been stolen.
When we spoke to the caretakers of the lot, they told us that it was converted to a private lot some time ago but didn’t send us an email or notify us. Then this whole saga with NS started. It’s been like a year and a half. I’ve come to know a lot of NS agents personally trying to sort things out. I’ve actually learned a lot of Dutch as well just speaking to them. I think it’s rude if the first thing I say to them is ‘Do you speak English?’ so I try to speak a minute or two in Dutch and then kindly request to change to English.
The procedure was pretty straightforward, that I just need to send some documents with a letter. I expected it to be resolved very quickly, but then I realised that NS is not a very efficient organisation. A couple of weeks after I sent them a letter, they asked me to send another document and I sent it by email. After that they told me they didn’t receive any letter to begin with. It was confusing because they had already admitted that they had the letter when they asked for the additional document. They asked me to resend all of the documents and those apparently did not reach them. They asked me to send yet another registered letter.
When you pay for bike parking, as part of the agreement you are insured against your bike being stolen for a certain amount of money. NS continued charging my account for the parking even after the bike was stolen and the parking lot was converted to a private lot. If I call NS now, they know my number and have a huge file on me. Just before the lockdown I sent a letter and they confirmed they got it but stopped replying again. They now say they have all the information they need and they’ll get back to me, but nothing has happened. I guess at this point they are waiting for me to stand down and I’m waiting for an email saying it’s resolved.
I’m used to bureaucracy because I’m from India. I have conflicting feelings about the whole situation. On one hand, this has been something that has kind of gotten me through the lockdown, my dedication to get my compensation has been a driving force. It helps me keep track of time. On the other hand, I didn’t really expect the system to be so inefficient. Even if sharing my story doesn’t help me on my journey of getting compensation, I’m happy that my story is being recorded.”
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Heather Montague / Freelance writer
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