Monday, February 21, 2011

Things you need to negotiate before moving to Singapore


Things you need to negotiate before moving to Singapore
Hi Guys,
This part of my blog will not be an aggrandized version of my amatory thought process. I am not trying to ameliorate my penmanship but just decided to contribute something which can help the society in a more tangible way. I am sure my real-time experience driven alacrity will be really helpful for my readers. If you are thinking to move in Singapore, here are the points you have to ask to your HR:
Salary: Depends on your profile. If you are getting more than 15K SGD, you are in the top 5% of the population; 7-15K SGD will be very good salary and 3.5 – 7K SGD will decent enough and less than that low.
Accommodation: You can check out a place at propertyguru.com. Normally if you take a HDB / flat it will cost you minimum 2K Sgd minimum. If you are thinking to share a flat with roommates, it will cost you max 500 – 1200 SGD. You can get all the details in the given website.Geylang and Dextan Road are the red-light areas, so avoid these places. ( MRT Khalang, Tangun Pagar)
Broker and deposit amount: Broker fee is one month’s rent and deposit is also one month rent. Normally you will contract for minimum 1 year. Now if you break the contract, you will lose: 2000 Deposit + 2000 Agent + 2000 one month’s rent. You better ask your HR to deal with the agent.
Utility: Singapore is a place where everything comes in a contract. Starting from internet connection to Cable TV, you have to go for a two years of contract. So, if your contract is only for one year with your company, you will land up in paying just double than the actual price. Normally for a 2 Bedroom Flat water + Electricity will touch 120 SGD , even with a decent number of  overseas call your telephone should not cross 130 Sgd. If it is happening, check with your provider. There is a special number that you have to use before the overseas numbers (For Singtel 019 – 91-XXXXXX for India).With this number 5 cents per pulse without 85 cents. See I have saved your huge money. “For postpaid it is not by default”.

Drinking and Fucking: Drinking is very costly in Singapore. Normal beer can in 7 eleven you will get in 4-5 $ SGD but in bar they charge it for 12-14$ SGD. Fucking is not that costly. You can go to Geylang which is official red-light area of Singapore. Lore 18 (lane 18) is special for brothels and they charge $ 150 – 170 SGD for one hour. You will get a girl, a towel & soap. She will take you to the room and no need to worry about cleanness. Chinese people are inborn clean. Tips you have to pay on top of it.
Travel: Most of the People use MRT as their travel medium. It’s very cheap and easily accessible. Taxi is pretty costly and difficult to get at the crucial times. In pick time for 10 KM you have to pay 10-12 $. You can use Credit card to pay the bill but they will charge you 10% extra. Cars are damm costly ( $ 50,000 SGD) . If you have a car, it means you are very rich guy in the society.

Tax: if you are staying for more than 6 months, tax will be 5% flat. Otherwise be ready to pay 15%.
Insurance: This is something that you should not miss when you negotiate your package with the employer. Make sure you take an overall insurance before landing in the country. Medical is fucking costly here. Any test will cost you 80-100$ and doctor’s visit (in hospital) is minimum 100 $. Even the follow up meetings are also chargeable. Insurance premium is not that high.
Electronics & Apparels: Apparels are cheap I will say. You can get a decent shirt of Boss, Spirit, next, G2000, Zara in the range of 80-130$ Sgd. I don’t know why people say that electronic good are cheap. Except 3D Flat TV (7,000 $ LG) I have not any found anything cheap. All the goods come from Thailand. Singapore is just an international platform of shopping.
Food: Here you will get all possible cuisines you have ever heard about. Most of the people do their lunch in food courts which are very easy to find.

Language & Crime rate:  95% people speak English though book or educational system is dangerously costly. Forget about the crime. You can leave your doors option, nothing will happen. And don’t do any shady stuff, they will find you and they will punish you.

Horrible part of my Singaporean Life



         Horrible part of my Singaporean Life

I am not well these days. Got some urinal problems. Talked a lot about it in this blog, so will not bore you guys anymore. Recently I finished a book. I felt the writer in myself. But he was a bad guy and he paid enough for that. My life of course was not that bad. The point of time I got that book was pretty melodramatic and over the 230 pages somewhere I lost myself. Don’t know where exactly. People do mistakes in their life and get punished for that. But sometimes that punishment takes your life. You lose you all the hopes, you get frustrated and think - “That is how it all ends”. Basically you challenge commences after that. Andy Botts felt that from his heart. He is the writer of the book I was talking about. I pathetically correlate myself with the book. The seven months that I have spent in Singapore was a metaphor of Botts’s prison life. To explain the whole story I have to back up a little bit.

The most important question of life was hunting me in the middle of 2010.What I want in my life. Work was killing me from all the angles. As I am a very bad negotiator, my professional and emotional growth were absconding me in my every morning dream. So you can understand my life was fucked.The book started with a story of a bad kid of Hawaii. An adroit car banger and master piece in finding the flows of US Federal Law. He did bad things but all the time managed to get a quick abatement of his legal tickets. That made the Hawaii police really pissed off on him. They were just waiting for a chance to catch him red handedly. Their acrimonious struggle was bound to give some positive result. They caught Andy and this time luck adjured Andy’s life. First time Andy felt the pain of Jail. The situation became really bad. The Police authorities put a huge legal penalty on him. He tried his best to get rid of it but could not find a way. Slowly in the Jail he started becoming spiritual and mentally absconded the life he had in the past. Somewhere he wrote “God if this is the life you can offer to me then take it back. I don’t want a single part of it.”
Actually the jail thing worked for him. It acculturation of the Jail atmosphere redefined his character and showed the correct path. But Life was planning a different game for him there. It was same for me when I took the offer from my Singaporean branch. I got a call from my manager that some important project was from Singapore and I left my place in two days. Leaving behind the unnecessary one year of rent which I had to pay for my place. That only thing that mattered to me is work. It is a stealing game, just the loser is not somebody else its fucking me. Of course I did not feel like that. When I landed there I understood that the work that my manager was planning extract 2 resources work from me. I should have shouted that time but I did not. Also I pulled two other recourses from India without knowing what is going to happen with them. They chickened out badly. No pre-plan had been done by the management and that killed my life. First I was really acrimonious on the system but over the time when I felt that nobody was fucking bothered about anything; my anger changed its direction. I realized it’s all my faults. I should have thought about all these before coming to this new country. Life transformed in a Jail to me. I echoed same Andy’s word “God if this is the life you had for me , then take it back. I don’t even want a single part of it.”As my company gave me only seven days hotel accommodation to find a house in Singapore (which is practically impossible) , I landed up in the red light area. I did not know anything about the places and practically got only one day to find a place. So, mistake was expected.