Page 258 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

74. Landed at Singapore

I put down my papers with the bank serving a notice period of three

months as per rules of the bank in order to get relieved to join as
a CFO of a medium sized trading company at Singapore.

It was a mixed reaction from well-wishers. Some of them were happy
for me finding a job at an Oversees Centre. Others tried to caution me
from the perils for joining a private company after serving a Public Sector
Company for two decades. There were some cases of people going and
settling there and some also returned after some years due to vast
difference in working culture of Public Sector companies in India and
Private Sector companies overseas.

The 1st round of South East Asian Crisis
While I was in India, into second month after submitting resignation to
the Bank, I learnt that South East Asia was reeling under a severe financial
crisis. I called up the Chairman of the company and told him, "I
understand that there is economic crisis in South East Asia. Your imports
are from Japan and Indonesia and exports to North and South America
and Malaysia. I am not sure how much your business is impacted with
this. In case you have some issues, I still have time to retract my
resignation from the bank. Please advise me as to what I should do under
this situation."

He replied, "We are not so much affected. You may join us. No issues."

I joined the company there in the month of February. I was happy with
the surroundings. Company had arranged three bedroom Housing

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