In January I had an appointment for a pre-move inspection of a PhD house on the Salverdaplein, occupied by an Indian family. I rang the bell around eight in the morning, while it was still dark and cold outside. A friendly man opened the door, wished me good morning and asked me to take off my shoes. Luckily I didn’t have any holes in my socks, but in the dark that morning I had put on an odd pair with different colours. Wasn’t paying attention.
He asked me to be quiet because everyone in the house was still asleep
The resident whispered that he would be working for the university for another month and then he would return to India together with his wife and three children. He asked me to be quiet because everyone in the house was still asleep. I carried out my inspection, quietly shuffling around in my mismatched socks. His wife was sleeping in a dark room and in the other bedroom I saw two children fast asleep. ‘Didn’t he mention three children?’ I thought to myself as I reached the boiler room: a small, warm space without carpeting, ventilation or windows.
‘Please be very quiet,’ the man said. I carefully opened the door and got quite a shock: a small boy of around five was sleeping on a mattress on the floor. I turned around and looked at the man in astonishment, whispering: ‘What is this! Why is he sleeping in the boiler room?’ ‘We only have two bedrooms,’ the man said, ‘and this is a sort of private bedroom.’
I proposed that we discuss it further outside, where I told him I would return the following afternoon, when everyone was awake, for a proper inspection. I asked him to create a space somewhere more normal for his son to sleep. When I came back to the house the next day I found the bed in the living room.
Eugene van Meteren is a caretaker for the student accommodation provider Idealis. He writes about his experiences for Resource. Read all his columns on resource-online.nl