The Pizzazzy

especially in Singapore. The increasingly materialistic country is known for it’s C’s. Cash, Car, Cards, Condominium and Contracts. I only missed experiencing the second C. And I was in or with all the fours every single day of my stay in Singapore.

The Contracts can become very annoying as you start making yourself feel at home in Singapore. Rent a house, get a cable connection, get internet or simply get a mobile connection. So, here I was in Singapore with a prepaid card bought at the airport as soon as I landed. Ofcourse one should be reachable in today’s networking world.

After I joined my client’s office I foolishly got a colleague’s contract transferred on my name. Why foolish, cos I really didn’t need one at that point of time and it turned out to be a two years contract. Now, I have to pay for it’s early termination.

Then after a good house hunt I entered another contract of 12 months for the condo. Then followed internet, cable and one more mobile contract when Anand joined me here. Very convenient if one plans to stay longer here, but our plans changed and now that we are returning to India, what followed was a nagging concern to get rid of the contracts or pay an early termination fees.

I promptly drafted a notice and fired three copies and strategically placed them on office notice board in the break out area where it could grab some attention. I didn’t want to act like my office colleague and force it on people, so I had already debited my bank account with 750 SGD in case I did not find anyone in need. That was the total amount I needed to shell out in case of an early termination for all the four contracts excluding our condo.

The condo was taken care of as it was well beyond the 6 months binding period and I could get away with one month notice without having to part with my deposit.

The ads on the notice board was an idea of another colleague who found them to be quite effective. But no response from that end. Luckily for me another colleague who planned to stay back a few months longer was looking for short term contracts and someone happened to mention me. And it was as simple as that, I got all my three contracts transferred to his name and that too for a future date. How convenient can it get Thank God. Truly it is very convenient when you transfer the ownership. I went to the counter and didn’t know what to say so I said ”ahh.. I need to transfer my mobile connection to my friend here”. The lady smiled and said “Are both the parties present?”. This reminded me straight away of Company Law, Contract, Consent, Parties

By the way another friend enquired about the internet connection just yesterday. I told him he was late but anyways I still have one mobile connection if he was interested :-).  One cannot get away being greedy so now I guess it’s a good sum of 250 SGD out of my pocket. I am still keeping my hopes up and I have some time.
 
But on the positive side I am a happy girl now and let me tell you about the 500 bucks that I have saved. I’m planning to get an Apple iTouch for that sum. Howzzat. No, this post will not continue into features of iTouch. I will let it be till I own it.

I did what I had planned to do and also managed to not do everything that I planned to do. I made besan ke laddoo as planned but due to lack of enthusiasm from hubby dear I couldn’t make nariyal ki barfi. Why I blame him? Well he simply refused to visit the wet market for grated coconut.

The wet markets in Singapore sell freshly grated coconut, infact one can chose white or black. White meaning only the white part of the coconut flesh without the brown layer. Otherwise the brown is also grated with the white. This was one of the conveniences out of so many in Singapore for me. I am really bad with grating coconut and usually end up cutting it and running the pieces in a grinder. Lotza hard work there. Here I just go to the nice lady at wet market and say 250 grams. And it takes her only a minute to grate and give it to me.

After taking a look at the laddoo, Anand was like ‘Why do you want to make Nariyal Barfi also? This is enough! Who will finish this?’ And he gave an assaulted look as if having the laddoos was an absolute torture. I also held my fort and gave him a hurt look enough to make him realize what he just said was not fair. After all I had taken around 2 hours for preparing it and at one point patiently waited for the laddoo paste to cool off and attain a consistency so that I could easily roll them into small balls. All that effort and not even a word of praise.

Even though I had used what I did last year and tried to replicate the taste, color and look with the exact quantity used last time, the paste was too soft and pulpy for some unknown reasons. The ghee proportion turned out to be more than desired. So, I had to finally keep it overnight to be able to roll them into laddoos. In the end I got the look and the taste but now I have to keep it in the fridge so that it does not melt back into the paste.

Take a look and if this is not worth taking a bite my Diwali is not happy enough. But the thing is I can only serve this to friends who will be visiting us. Yesterday when I carried the laddoos in a nice little dabba for my friends who had invited us for dinner, the tragedy struck right when in an effort to offer them sweets while I wished them a happy Diwali I opened the dabba and phew.. The perfectly round besan ke laddoos had turned into equally perfect besan ka halwa.

And with this attempt once again my foray into sweets begins. So best of luck to friends around me. Happy Diwali.

Yesterday was a busy day in office. In the midst of all the piled up work I got a mail titled VRS (Voluntary Retirement Scheme) from one of my dear friend. The mail nicely declared that she is taking Voluntary retirement much early in her career to spend more time with her teenage daughter.

This created quite a ripple in the quite lives of many of my friends. And our group mail suddenly became active by everyone wishing or wanting to take a early retirement. In fact I had to steer another dear friend from the very idea by reminding her how she wants the best for her kid and how important it is for her to work and be able to provide that. Another friend added that it was important to have a career to have your identity and financial independence and also keeping in mind the inflation it is really neccessary for both the parents to work.

These facts and practicality got everyone on ground from the dreamland of retired life. But to be truly honest I have also nurtured a dream to be free of the work routine and be my own boss like my sister. I don’t think even if we retire we are away from work. After leaving an 8 hours job we would be totally into a 24 hours job for which no one will appreciate us.

We respect homemakers but society does not. But then if not for our moms who were truly homemakers we wouldn’t be where we are. What will it take to have that perfectly balanced life? Even after a hectic day at office you are expected to be there for your family. So, we still work 24 hours but the good part is that for the 8 hours out of these 24 we are paid and appreciated.

I feel the men should be grateful to women that we are so flexible. We are equally proficient at handling home affairs as well as professional life. And if need be we can very smoothly transition from a full time employee to a full time homemaker.  It’s a completely personal decision based on priorities in life and I respect my friend for being able to decide the best for herself and her family.

In all this talk I have to write about the new age husbands who understand the demands of a professional career and are caring and understanding in personal life. They appreciate the achievements and motivate to fight the hurdles. So, slowly we are looking at an age where we might be finally considered equal if not better.

Okay gals, too much of lecturing. Lets get down to business, now that my dear friend has already taken retirement as it was her last working day yesterday and also I have some friends who are full time mommies I did some googling and came up with this interesting retirement-forum. People have shared money matters, hobby ideas and some interesting talk related to retirement. Check it out. Others can look but don’t even think about it.