It was in the year 1997, I had just passed a five day Environmental Auditors' course approved by the Environmental Auditors Registration Association (EARA, UK). I had become eligible to register myself as an environmental auditor. When I submitted my application for the registration as an environmental auditor, EARA called back to inform me that my experience and qualification would allow EARA to register me as a Principal Environmental Auditor, the highest level of professional environmental auditors. I had to write a thesis and appear for a viva-voce at EARA's headquarters at London, to be registered as a Principal Environmental Auditor. I checked with my colleagues in Holland if they could help me to travel to London to attend the viva-voce. I got a positive reply - I could spend a couple of days in Eindhoven and then proceed to London for the viva-voce. My colleagues informed that this time they would like to take me around Holland as in my previous visits I was confined to Eindhoven because of the tight schedules. I was quite happy with this arrangement.
When I was planning the visit, KR informed me that I should try the railway between Amsterdam and Eindhoven, as it was more convenient than flights. On all my earlier trips I used to reach Eindhoven by flight. I thought it was a good idea to go to Eindhoven from Amsterdam by train and planned accordingly.
On a November Saturday I left for Amsterdam from Bombay. After reaching Amsterdam and clearing the immigration, I removed my passport, ticket, money-purse (containing my local credit card among other things) and some money from my blazer and kept them "safe" in my brief case. I got a train ticket to Eindhoven from Schipol. I had to get down at the Central Station to catch a train to Eindhoven. When the train arrived I rushed into the train with my brief case and suitcase, little realizing that I was entering a first class compartment. Once I realized that it was a first class compartment I thought I should stand near the door so that I could get down at the next station and change the compartment. The compartment was not full; a few seats were vacant, a few people were standing holding on to the support rods. Since I had to hold the rods with one hand, I had kept my brief case between my legs and the suitcase in front of me. I was watching people...some were reading books, some news papers, some were chatting, some were looking out through the glass windows....there were two weird guys who were sitting for sometime, then they started moving up and down the compartment. I was wondering if these guys were mad....suddenly one of them started speaking to me in Dutch. I told the guy that I did not know Dutch and asked him to speak to me in English. He went on speaking to me in Dutch till we reached the next station...the doors opened..still he was speaking...as the doors were about to close he jumped out....only then I realized that my brief case which was kept between my legs was missing. I could see in a fraction of a second that the second fellow outside on the platform with my brief case. I tried to shout and it was too late. The doors had already closed and the train started moving. I could see both the guys carrying my brief case with a lot of glee....I was stunned and helpless. I had all my documents, passport, air ticket, American Express Travellers Cheques, addresses and contact phone numbers, papers for EARA viva-voce etc., in the brief case....The world, for me, suddenly caved in...
I got down at the next station...a good hearted lady showed me the way to the Police Station. I wanted to explain to the Police as to what happened..even before I could tell them, they described the event as if they had seen that personally. While registering the FIR, they informed me that this was a normal thing that happened to visitors and that the guys involved in these were drug addicts. It dawned on me that I was fooled by a common trick about which no one had told me before the visit. What was the next step for me ? I had lost all the contact details of my friends in Holland and being a Saturday, the Philips office was closed. It was a hopeless situation; if I reach Eindhoven (the train ticket was with me), how could I check in at the Holiday Inn. I did not have any identity (Passport) or money (travellers cheques)...
Suddenly it struck me that I might have the telephone number of Dr. Jacques van der Vliet in my suitcase. Jacques was the Head of the Occupational Health department and he had to leave when Cor Boonstra decided to cut down on many departments. Since this happened only a few days ago, Jacques had sent me a letter with his house telephone number to me for contacting him after I reach Eindhoven. As his letter came to me a day before I left for Amsterdam, I scribbled his number on a chit and thrown the paper in my suitcase. Luckily for me this paper was there in my suitcase and that had come in handy at that moment.
I gave a call from the Police Station (yes..they did allow me to use their phone!!!) to Jacques....I was lucky, he was at home. I explained to him all that happened. He listened to all that I said patiently and sympathized with me. He asked me to come to Eindhoven straight and said that he would make the other arrangements. Before I reached Eindhoven he contacted Dr. Herman Meinders, my dear colleague and friend, arranged with Holiday Inn to allow me to check-in without identity papers and advance (in those days in India we did not have International Credit Cards), and waited for me at Eindhoven Station along with Herman. It was very kind of both these gentlemen to come to my rescue on a Saturday.
After checking in at the Holiday Inn, we had a quick lunch and before leaving me alone in the hotel both of them assured me that all possible help will be given to me to make my stay comfortable and to reach London in time.
Before they left we informed American Express of the theft of the Travellers' cheques and I contacted Sheila to inform her of what happened. Even though I tried to downplay the consequences, she was worried if I were physically hurt in the whole process. Thank God, I was not physically hurt. I had to contact Freddie Soares of our travel department at Bombay asking him for copies of the air tickets and passport pages. Being a Sunday, Freddie could not help me immediately; he said he would go to the office on Monday and the first thing he would do was to fax the details to me at Holiday Inn. Sheila in the meanwhile faxed my passport pages from the GPO, Pune.
I could not sleep the whole night...I was really going through a nightmare. What would I do without a passport ? How would I get a new passport ? Would I get back my money ? Would I be able to pay Holiday Inn ? Would I be able to travel to London to take the viva-voce ? What happens if the Police asked for my passport? Would they arrest me for staying in Holland without a passport ? The only silver lining among this scary thoughts was that I was a Philips employee and Philips would take care !!! But that was not enough for me to get a sleep.
Jacques visited me on Sunday for breakfast...it was really nice of him to have come to meet me and give me some moral strength on a Sunday... I did not take any lunch....in the meanwhile I contacted Renu (my niece) and her husband Nagaraj to inform them of what happened at Amsterdam and my present situation. I was to go and stay with Renu and Nagaraj for one night; they were living at a place about an hour from London. By Sunday evening Herman informed me that he had organized for visits to the airlines and the Indian Embassy at the Hague to get new tickets and passport on Monday. He also gave me list of documents that I should carry to the Indian Embassy.
Monday started with my receiving the fax from Freddie; he had sent copies of my passport, tickets and the travellers cheques. Armed with these documents I met Herman at about 9.00 hrs at his office on Monday. From there we went to Henk de Bruin's office...Henk was (and is) the Head of the Corporate Environmental & Energy office (now called Corporate Sustainability Office) and he was my official host. Henk promised me all the help and said that he could be called anytime for any assistance and that Herman would be with me throughout to help me to come out the present problem. He said that he would bear all the expenses for the visits to various places to get the documents, tickets, money, visa etc.
Herman and I started on our day long journey at about 10.00 hrs. Our first stop was the Eindhoven Airport, where we gave a complaint to the KLM office about the theft of my air tickets. KLM promised to issue duplicate tickets by the next day (Tuesday). From there we proceeded to the Hague, to the Indian Embassy. It was a long 2 hour journey...we had to reach the embassy before 14.00 hrs by which the counters closed. We were there in time and as we had all the documents (including the FIR), the embassy promised to issue a duplicate passport by the next day (14.00 hrs), i.e. Tuesday. I was a little upset as I was to be in London on Thursday for the viva-voce; I was not sure if enough time was available to approach the British Embassy to get a visa to UK. While in the Indian embassy I came across a gentleman whose passport and the boarding pass for the onward journey were stolen inside Schipol when he was doing some shopping....I realized that was rampant in Amsterdam.
After the visit to the Indian embassy, Herman suggested that we should go to the American Express office in the Hague to get replacement Travellers Cheques. We had a quick Lunch and landed at the American Express office. I approached the counter for lost travellers cheques and explained the story and referred to the complaint number that we registered on Saturday. The teller asked me for my passport as an identity. I explained to her that I had lost almost all documents that would confirm my identity and showed her the FIR copy. She was not convinced that she should entertain me further. She said that she would be able to give me the replacement travellers cheques after I get the passport; I argued that without money I could not get the passport and that I needed money to travel to the Hague to collect the passport. This was going on for sometime and at last she relented and asked me if anyone had come with me. I said yes, showing Herman. She said if Herman could confirm his identity by showing his photo-driving licence she would consider my request. I went to Herman and informed him about the dialogue with the teller. Herman was a little taken aback; no doubt he had a driver's licence, but it had expired a few months ago and he had not renewed it, which is an offence. He was not sure if he could show such an expired licence to the teller. Normally no one would like to expose himself and get got for the violation of law. I do not know what happened, Herman said he would try...he gave the licence to the teller...the teller stared at it for a few minutes and then looked at Herman, and coolly gave that back to Herman. She called me and said that I would get the cheques in a few minutes. Indeed, I got the cheques in five minutes and I could not but thank Herman for his act of unstinted support to a friend.
It was already 6.00 pm by the time we left the Hague for Eindhoven. On the way we had our dinner (it was already late for Herman to take his dinner); Herman was kind enough to take me to a place where "some" vegetarian food was available. We reached Eindhoven by about 08.30 pm. We agreed to meet at the Lobby of the Holiday Inn at 11.00 am the next day.
The next day (Wednesday), Herman and I started at 11.00 am and directly went to the KLM office at the Eindhoven airport to collect the duplicate air tickets. From there we proceeded directly to the Hague; before going to the embassy we had our Lunch at the Hague. We could collect the duplicate passport by about 2.15 pm. While we were on our visit to the Hague, his office checked with the British Embassy in Amsterdam for its timings; it appeared to me that we could make it to the British Embassy just in time. We went from the Indian Embassy in the Hague to the British Embassy in Amsterdam. It took almost about one and half hours and by the time we reached there already the embassy had stopped allowing visitors to enter. Herman spoke to the guard there in Dutch and luckily for me they allowed us in. But at the reception the embassy officer did not want to listen to us. Again Herman's convincing arguments prevailed and at last one officer agreed to speak to me. On hearing my story he said that he could not issue a visa to me as the permission had to come from Bombay and that it would take a week. I pleaded with him that I had a visa and that I lost my passport and hence the visa. But the officer said that he could not confirm if I had a visa as the Bombay office had been already closed. I had shown him the letter from EARA asking me to be present for the viva-voce on Thursday and told him that by not issuing a visa to me he was only preventing me from qualifying for a professional registration of UK. At this point I don't know what happened, the officer asked Herman if they could get a request from the Corporate office of Philips to issue a UK visa for me through fax. For the first time I could see the advantage of technology!!! Herman spoke to Henk through his mobile phone (mobile phones had just come into the market) and in a minute the UK Embassy received a fax from Henk's office requesting a visa for me. The officer of the UK Embassy was kind enough to issue me the visa within about five minutes and we were out of the embassy by about 5 pm.
We returned to Eindhoven by about 7 pm and I had a peaceful sleep after four days of ordeal. Before going to sleep I informed Sheila of the situation and confirmed to Renu about my arrival details.
The next day I caught the flight for London from Eindhoven; the flight was delayed a little and was circling over the Heathrew airport for sometime before landing....it took almost about an hour before I could come out of the immigration. Something told me that I should confirm my ticket from London to Amsterdam with the KLM desk before leaving the airport. When I went to the KLM desk, the assistant there asked me if I have a Visa to enter Schipol. I said that I had a Schengen visa; but because of what happened I didn't have any visa for Holland at present. She said that without a visa for entering Schipol (a transit visa) I will not be able to get a boarding pass at London for Amsterdam. .....a new headache...where would I go for this visa...I have my viva-voce the next day and my ticket is for the evening flight the next day....how would I manage. I was terribly upset...why should this happen to me. Thinking about the problems ahead I came out of the exit gate when I saw Nagaraj about to leave the arrival hall. Luckily for me I could spot him (I had met him last around 1977) because of his unique hair-style (almost like Satya Sai Baba). I shouted his name and luckily he could respond. I told him all that happened, with the latest demand for a transit visa to enter Schipol.
The original plan of Nagaraj was to drop me at EARA for the viva-voce and from there I was to take a metro train to Heathrew. On the way to his home we munched some of the old memories; but I could not concentrate on any of the discussions as the thought of the visa was scarring me. How could I get the visa before 12.00 noon as I had to attend the viva-voce at 1 pm...
By the time we reached his place, it was about 5 pm. Renu was there waiting for me at the gate...theirs was a beautiful bungalow, perhaps one of the biggest in the neighbourhood, indicating their professional success. Both of them are doctors practicing there for over thirty years now...they have a good social status because of their profession. In 1997, when I visited them I could see they were both simple and neat. They were (and still are) ardent devotees of Satya Sai Baba. An air-conditioned Pooja room had been separately kept for Satya Sai Baba. They had given me a bedroom with a bath attached for stay. After a quick wash I joined them at their living room....we recalled old incidents...Renu's Loyd's road house days....Hamilton (Ambattan) Bridge house days etc. I used to visit Ambi Athan (Renu's father) and his wife often at Loyd's road house and after they moved to a place near Barbers Bridge. I used to love Manni's more-keerai and thayir sadam; I felt that she had a soft corner for me. Of course Anand and Arun were there to play...but during all these pleasant recollection of the past events, at the back of my mind, I was full of tension as to what to do the next day.
Renu and Nagarajan advised me to catch an early morning train to London and go to the Dutch embassy as early as possible. The Dutch embassy would give tokens to seekers of visa and the number of tokens given on a day was fixed. I could not afford to miss being called in for the visa; hence I had to be there in the line as early as possible. I had to carry my suitcase along with me as I was to go to EARA and then to the airport directly. Since I did not have a money-purse or a brief-case, Renu/Nagarajan were kind enough to give me a handbag and a purse to carry money and papers.
I got up early morning at about 4.00 O'clock and was ready for the train by 5.00 O'clock. Nagarajan dropped me at the railway station. I got the 6.00 O'clock train and reached London (I forgot the station name) and the Dutch embassy by about 7.00 O'clock. It was a winter morning and I was without any winter clothing except a blazer. There were about 10 people standing in line in front of the main door of the embassy office, inside the embassy gates. Even though I was shivering because of the cold, I told myself that I would definitely get the token for visa that day...as the time passed the line lengthened beyond gates of the embassy....I was calculating the time ..as I was the 11 th person, probably it would take about half an hour to reach the visa officer and then I would be getting the visa in another half an hour....mentally I was comfortable....I could take some breakfast and go to EARA's office in time....it was about 10.00 O'clock...I could hear some sounds behind...the line which was till then disciplined, suddenly started disintegrating with many people pushing themselves forward (almost like an Indian Queue)...and as soon as the door of the office opened, there was a chaos...people rushed in to reserve their places in the line inside....I was pushed to almost 100th position...all the guys (probably travel agents) who knew where to stand for the visa got the first twenty to thirty positions and those who could run fast occupied positions behind them...an unfortunate guy like me with a suitcase on one hand and a handbag on the other could not run fast enough to get the early positions. I was not sure if I would get a chance to be interviewed for visa in time for me to reach the EARA office for the viva-voce examination.
I was standing in the line for visa praying God to show me the way. Each minute was like a yuga... I was restless...time was going.... 50 people before me....30 people before me.... 10 people before me...but I had only one hour to reach EARA office. At last my turn came and a transit visa was granted...but I had to go to the embassy by about 4.00 pm to collect the visa. I still had half an hour to reach EARA office. I came out of the Dutch Embassy and searched for the famous London Cab...finally got one. I explained to the cab driver my position and requested him to take me to the EARA address before 1.00 pm. He said that it was difficult as the traffic was heavy and that he would try his best to reach me in time....I sat quietly in the cab, praying God, that the event for which I undertook this trip should take place without any failure...I almost slept...the driver woke me up...informing me that we had come to the address. I looked at my watch it was 12.55 pm. I have to salute this cab driver...once the objective was known he accomplished that objective in time....I went up to the EARA office and registered my presence in time. It was indeed a pain to carry the luggage where ever I was going.
The viva-voce examination started 15 minutes behind schedule as one of the examiners could not reach EARA in time. The viva-voce (basically a peer assessment) started with a general introductions...when they asked me about my visit, I explained to them the ordeal I had undergone so far. Of course there was lot of discussion on various aspects of environmental management and audits....the chief examiner informed me that in their assessment I was eligible to register as a Principal Environmental Auditor...but I would be informed by the Council of EARA after they take an official decision. Aha!!! at last at least this one went on smoothly!!!
From EARA I went back to the Dutch Embassy, collected my visa, had my lunch (!!) in an Indian restarant and proceeded to Heathrow airport. As I wanted to take rest at Amsterdam before catching my flight to Bombay the next morning, I got the Boarding card for the London- Amsterdam flight and the luggage was checked in up to Amsterdam. The flight landed at Amsterdam and I was to go through the immigration...I was stopped by the immigration officer. I protested..I had a transit visa for Holland....he said, no ..."you have a transit visa for Schipol...this side is Schipol and the other side is Holland". I could not cross him. I was taken aback..I told him that the whole ordeal I had gone through was because of his country..had I not lost my passport at Amsterdam my whole trip would have been pleasant...now he was adding more fuel to the already raging fire. His expression was - "how does it matter to me". I began pleading with him to allow me to go to the luggage belt at least so that I could collect my luggage... after about half an hour of stalling my requests he finally relented to accompany me to the luggage belt to collect my suitcase and bring that back to SCHIPOL. When I went to the luggage belt, my suitcase was the only one on the belt, like an orphan with no company...no one was waiting to pick up their luggage there. Anyway at the last moment I took possession of the only property which I did not lose till that time in this trip.
Coming back into Schipol, I checked with the airport hotel (which is inside Schipol) for accommodation....no accommodation was available. With the fate of spending the whole night sitting on a chair inside Schipol looming on me, I thought at least I would check in my suitcase at the check in counter. I was informed that the counter would open only at 6.00 O'clock in the morning and that I could check in at that time. I could not sleep the whole night for fear of losing my suitcase. As soon as the Check-in counter opened in the morning at 6.00 O'clock I rushed to the counter with my suitcase and gave my tickets and passport for checking in. After a minute or two, the check-in assistant told me that she could not check me in as my ticket had been cancelled. I could not take this shock....I had some giddiness....was this a dream? No it wasn't. I protested... said that the ticket was issued only three days ago and that it could not be cancelled. She said someone from Bombay had cancelled it....I did not know what had happened to put me in such a hopeless situation. I asked her as to what to do to get the boarding pass for the flight ? She said that I should stand in the queue for the ticket once the ticket counter opened and get a new ticket issued. I stood in the ticket counter line without realizing that I should take a token to be called by the assistant. By the time I came to know the procedure already I lost my first position and I was pushed to the seventh position....every minute of waiting was like living in hell. I was only praying that all the six people in front of me should be summarily disposed off and my turn should come immediately. I was also praying GOD...why should he test me till the last moment...I was not sure if I would reach Bombay as planned or there would be a delay. When my turn came the ticketing assistant told me that there was no seat in the flight and she could not issue any ticket for the flight. I asked her if she could issue a ticket for Delhi...again the answer was no...all the flights to India were full. I was devastated....helpless...in my anger I started shouting that all this is because of this country which made me suffer..and people did not care for an employee of one of the foremost companies of Holland. If this was the treatment to a guy from PHILIPS what would happen to others without any such tag. Let KLM not forget that PHILIPS was one of their prestigeous customers.....bla ...bla..bla.This went on for about half an hour; the ticketing assistant called me again and said that I was lucky to get a ticket for the Bombay flight. I was relieved....even though I felt ashamed of my behaviour...probably that was the reason for the offer of the ticket. I don't know.
An assistant took me along with my suitcase to the check-in counter outside the immigration area; no immigration officer objected as I was accompanied by a KLM staff. While I was checking in , the staffer labelled my suitcase...it read "Executive Class". I politely told her that I travelled by the Economy Class ...she said that I had been given an Executive Class ticket at the Economy class price as there was one seat which fell vacant in the Executive Class. For the first time (and perhaps the last time) I travelled by the Executive Class in KLM and reached Bombay as planned.
I stayed at the Philips Guest House at Mistry Court (which no more exists as a Philips Guest House) that night, relaxed a little and started for Pune by the evening Deccan Queen. While I was waiting for the train, two of my seniors, Karambelkar and Tambe, came up and asked me: " Ram, how did you manage to lose weight? We thought even a week ago you were a little fat".... I don't mind losing weight...but not this way.
After returning to office I narrated the whole episode to Dasgupta; I had narrated this story to many people visiting Holland. Dasgupta told me later after he moved to Hong Kong that one of his colleagues had experienced the same in the train at Amsterdam. I told this story to Dr Ashok Joshi before he left for USA through Europe. He did lose his bag containing passport and tickets at Amsterdam in a restaurant. Tambe, who was working for Luminaires, lost his lap top in the train between Amsterdam and Eindhoven, the modus operandi was similar to what I experienced. Raghu lost his laptop when he was shifting from the Hotel to his apartment. Jhala narrated a story to me of his losing every thing in Rome...where he was literally robbed....the list goes on.....But I would not like even my worst enemy (if at all there is one) to experience this. My colleagues in Holland confirm that these things happen to them too...but obviously the impact is less as it does not involve their passport and tickets!!!!
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