The biggest party in town (Part 2)

“I tell you what, this is fate Adrian that we meet this way” I said as I took out his luggage from the car boot. I was doing Grab and Adrian was my customer and we'd just reached the airport in the wee hours of the morning.

Along the way when we discovered we’re from the same Alma mater we chatted like we’ve known each other for decades.

Adrian Mathews (see pic*) is a priest at the Church of the Visitation, Seremban and this time he’s been stationed to Melbourne for a few months as his practice requires him to travel a lot.

“So this year would be your 25^th anniversary after leaving school and how’s the project for the school coming along?” I asked.

“I don’t really know as Regu (see pic**) handles all the matters pertaining to our class” he replied. And he's right, Regunath Sedhubathy has all the qualities of being a leader for the class of '94 and it is crucial that I reach out to him for the sequel of the biggest party in town.

 

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The biggest party in town boasts ‘Live’ music, great food, bottles on every table, endless laughter, cynical cajoles between classmates, out of tune singing and the astute skill of meandering between those tightly squeezed banquet tables.

As the number of tables keep increasing by the year, they had no choice but to tightly place all the tables and chairs in a hall that is already at full capacity, forcing us to tuck in our tummies and squeeze through, bumping into endless forms of living and non-living things before reaching to our destination.

And welcome to the 93rd OPA Annual Dinner 2019

Meet the newly elect OPA President

On stage with Mr Steven Chan Weng Choy together with the rest of the OPA committee members for the singing of the school rally. 

On stage with the Class of 1969 celebrating their 50th Year Golden Jubilee

And off the stage with the class of 1969

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Meet the 25th Year Silver Jubilee class of 1994

Father Adrian Francis Mathews (Pic*)

It is by fate that I managed to reach out to Regu.

Regunath Sedhubathy (Pic**)

A natural born leader   

Briefly describe your occupation and what you do in your company and also the industry that you're in. 

I'm the head of projects & technology and my role in the company is to lead all projects and also act as the principal and consultant for oil & gas.

What are your short term and long term goals? 

Short term would be to stabilize and expand current role into larger portfolio and long Term is to nurture new talent in the industry.

Can you share about some of the best business lesson you have learnt so far? 

To treat all the people that you work with as partners.

What are some of your favourite ways to unwind after work?

My weekly badminton session with my badminton gang, its a natural stress reliever.

 

Your most memorable moments in SPI school.

There are so many but the proudest moment was my installation as the Head Prefect.

 

What advice would you give to Paulians that is about the start their career? 

Never stop learning.

Ganesh Gunaratnam, the executive director and practice leader at a Global consulting firm.

How do you stay abreast of issues affecting your industry?

I’m an avid reader of print media and social media, journals, in-house publications, industry news and also I’m a very good listener from group briefings to the ordinary cerita kedai kopi and it’s amazing how one can stay updated just by listening.

What advice can you offer to young Paulians who's about to start their career?

Be clear on what you want, be a risk taker, hey you’re young so what have you got to lose. Fail fast and fail often but learn from your failures. Do more than what you’re paid for and you’ll eventually be rewarded for going the extra mile.

What do you want to accomplish in the next 5 years?

To become a partner in the firm and maintain a good balance of health and work.

Most admired business leader? Why?

My managing partner Sridaran Nair. He’s got good leadership skills, compassion, understanding, self-driven and the ability to motivate people.

Star Wars who’s your favorite character? Why?

Darth Vader, I love to be the bad guy and he’s really cool.

Chong Jin Yoong

Briefly describe your occupation and what you do in your company and also the industry that you're in.

I provide training to bankers and also help develop the curriculum for the banking industry's licensing programs. I am also involved in developing a mobile learning platform for exam takers.

What are your short term and long term goals?

Short term goals - Having a healthy lifestyle.
Long term goals - The same, stay healthy enough to ensure I can celebrate the 50th anniversary at the OPA dinner in the year 2044

Can you share about some of the best business lesson you have learnt so far?

You can aim for perfection, but don't ever wait for the perfect timing, perfect opportunity, perfect solution or perfect sales pitch. Just execute and improve along the way.

What are some of your favourite ways to unwind after work?

Watching a good movie at the cinema with my wife.

Your most memorable moments in SPI school.

Staying overnight at school with friends at various camps.

What advice would you give to Paulians that is about the start their career?

Don't worry if the first job is not your dream career. You would never know what that job can lead you to later. You just have to be open minded to try any opportunities that come along.

Star Wars favorite character? Why?

It used to be Luke Skywalker until I watched him drink milk in The Last Jedi. Lol.

Lee Yik Seong who is based in Singapore for 12 years purposely made an effort to come back for the OPA dinner as nothing beats the feeling of meeting his fellow Paulians.

He’s the senior Manager of project in a multinational engineering consultancy specializing in water treatment.

What are the threats affecting the water issue in Singapore?

Currently Singapore is highly dependent on the state of Johor for raw water supply with the deal that would expire in the year 2061 and they realized that they cannot continue drawing water from the Johor River forever.  

So the efforts to build their own water treatment plants started many years ago and today they are a self-sustaining nation in terms of water demand.

And at this point of time if the state of Johor decided to turn off the tap, Singapore would not be worried a single bit because they already solved their water problem and in the course of showcasing their critical success factors to the world.

What advice can you offer to young Paulians who's about to start their career? 

I would recommend specialized Engineering courses or go for niche courses or better still in my line of work, water treatment there’s no such thing as a slowdown in the market because everybody needs water.

Our main target markets are developing countries like the Philippine, Indonesia, Vietnam and the opportunities are endless.   

What do you want to accomplish in the next 5 years?

I would love to take on a bigger role like a project director and business development head.

Most admired business leader? Why?

My colleague who’s based in London he wrote tons of thesis which have been practiced by many industry players.

Ng Siew Cheok, a lecturer at University of Malaya (UM) has been teaching engineering courses since the year 2001.

How do you stay afloat on issues pertaining to your line of work?

UM library subscribes to the latest journals, e-books, magazines in the world and I have access to it 24/7

What advice would you offer to young Paulians who's about to start their career?

The learning process should not stop just because you had received your tertiary education you must continue to study and gain more knowledge and try to keep off social media and Instagram because they don’t give you much knowledge compared to journals, books and the news.

However the upside of digital media like Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp they can help to connect people and that means building a borderless networking for the younger generations.

   

What do you want to accomplish in the next 5 years?

I want to get the elusive associate professorship title under my belt.

How do you compare the Malaysian education system with Singapore?

Malaysian students are not getting quality education and what’s been taught in schools is insufficiently for them to take into the working world.

Comparing our education system with Singapore, there’s a huge divide because the latter has invested a lot of money in their education system resulting for them to achieve a Mercedes Benz level of learning.

   

Star Wars favorite character? Why?

Han Solo for his suave look and care free attitude in facing adversaries.

Shaun Wong the regional manager for a leading global financial payments software which is in collaboration with the Bank Negara to promote a cashless society.

What advice can you offer those looking to start their career?

Think out of the box don’t confine yourself and go borderless.

What do you want to accomplish in the next 5 years?  

Thinking out of Malaysia I want to be a borderless netizen that has the ability to link people across the globe.

Dr Anand Chandrasegaran, an Anesthesiologist with a leading Malaysian Medical Care Group.

Please describe the line of practice that you’re in.

I make sure patients are well taken care of before their surgeries and also as a hypnotists I’m able to make patients go into deep slumber by hypnotizing them.

How long have been in practice?

7 years and there’s no sign of itching yet.

How do you stay abreast of issues affecting your industry?

I pay a lot of attention to my patients as I'm the one who put them to sleep and I need to make sure they wake up on time.

What advice would you offer to young Paulians who's about to start their career?

Do something with your life that you are passionate about and ignore those who said that you can’t do it.

What do you want to accomplish in the next 5 years?

Maintaining happiness in my family.

Most admired business leader? Why?

Anthony Robbins, the motivational speaker as he’s full of energy and we both hypnotize people for a living.

Star Wars favorite character? Why?

Darth Vader, he’s damn cool and I wish I could hypnotize him.

Eugene Lim

Briefly describe your occupation and what you do in your company and also the industry that you're in.

Insurance and funeral services industry. I’m an agent. I provide clients satisfaction based on their needs.

What are your short term and long term goals?

Short term goal - build the business

Long term goal - duplication and multiplication

Can you share about some of the best business lesson you have learnt so far?

Know what you want and work extremely hard towards it and also to help other people.

What are some of your favorite ways to unwind after work?

Blow water with business partners, friends, family and friends  

Your most memorable moments in SPI school.

Passing by the toilet area

What advice would you give to Paulians that is about the start their career?

You only die once but you live every day. Chase after what you are passionate about and don’t let anyone control your destiny.

Sasidharan Kanan, a plant manager in the Aerospace Industry with 40-50 people working under him.

In layman’s terms what does Aerospace engineering means?

We make Aeroplane parts and then assemble it here in Malaysia.

How do you stay abreast of issues affecting your industry?

The aerospace industry is still very new and people are unaware of our existence.

What do you want to accomplish in the next 5 years?

I want to be the CEO of the company managing the Asia Pacific region.

Most admired business leader? Why?

Air Asia’s boss Mr Tony Fernandez and it’s not because we’re in the same industry but this man oozes with confidence and his attitude of never giving always motivates me when I’m going through a rough patch.

What advice would you offer young Paulians who’s about to start their career?

The aerospace industry is still very new and there are plenty of job opportunities for young Paulians and they’ll need to enroll into aerospace engineering and it is available locally in USM and UTM.

"You can be the best but if you don’t have the passion, you’ll eventually give up"

Star Wars favorite character? Why?

Lord Vader is truly a unique character and after his death the producers couldn’t create a similar villain to replace him.  

The minister of transport is in da house.

Anthony Loke Siew Fook celebrating 25 years of anniversary with his classmates.

Paying tribute to the school and dedicated teachers for their sacrifices and efforts in laying a solid foundation or else most of us would not be what we are today.

Vividly remembering his SPM days when he did a very wrongful act that almost got him kicked out of school but Mr Kenneth Kulasingam (right) gave him another chance and that has made him what he is today.

“It goes on to show that Paulians can be naughty but at the same time we can be focused and become successful in life” quote, Anthony Loke Siew Fook (7^th September 2019)

The member of parliament Seremban brought cheers to the entire house when he announced an allocation of RM50,000.00 to be equally split between both primary and secondary SPI schools to help them start school projects and to improve the facilities. Thank you for increasing the allocation by more than 3 fold because last year was only 15k.

'Yum Seng' session among the classmates of 1994 and these are the guys that hold the dark secret of what Anthony did that almost got him kicked out of school.

Our host for the night Gerard Vincent Ratnam currently working at Bernama has been once again asked to host this yearly event and he's about to draw lucky numbers from the ballot box.

And once again I’m very angry with him because he didn’t pick my lucky draw number.

Everybody loves Ryan

When I first laid my eyes on him what fascinates me the most was his warm and ultra-friendly character as he easily stood out from the sea of Paulians.

With his electrifying personality and great sense of humor has made him the favorite among his friends and you can really see how much they love him.

 First they made sure he’s well fed before giving him a kiss and made sure the moment was captured on wefie.

Ryan Poon Wai Chin

Briefly describe your occupation and what you do in your company and also the industry that you're in.

Director of Culinary in Lexis Hibiscus Hotel in Port Dickson, I’m a chef by profession and I’m in hotel industry.

What are your short term and long term goals?

Short term is to ensure that my establishment keep serving good food be it classic or modern international cuisines but it must have quality assurance. And to train and show the new generation of cooks the beauty of culinary arts.

Long term is to build my own food establishment perhaps a chain of restaurants that serve authentic and quality food.

Can you share about some of the best business lesson you have learnt so far?

Always listen to your guests because they’re the ones who sign your pay cheque. Respect them and in return you will gain their respect. Be passionate with what you’re doing and maintain discipline.

What are some of your favorite ways to unwind after work?

 To surround myself with real and positive people, they will keep my journey easier.

Your most memorable moments in SPI school.

Me being the last batch of SRP now we call it PT3.

I started off in Form 1 as a shaky and rebellious teenager and I wasn’t doing very well with my studies and school life was like the rumble in the Bronx but somehow I got through it.

The school gave me plenty of memorable moments as I could still picture every single day of schooling life at SPI even when I’m not present in class but trust me the best years of my life was in 1994.

What advice would you give to Paulians that is about the start their career?

Live up to expectations as expected from you as a Paulian and show the world that you’ve got balls. Cheers man!

Please pardon them for singing off key because they are all pissed drunk but when they’re sober they can sing better that the international Vienna Boys Choir.

 Prior to the preparations of the slides they managed to raise RM8476 for the school but on that night Regu announced they had successfully rounded up the figure to RM10,000.00 and Good job boys!

Thank you from all of us, the class of 1994.

All good things must come to an end, bidding everyone “Auld Lang Syne” see you guys again next year and it wouldn’t be hard to remember that the biggest party in town will always be held on the first Saturday of September.  

For those who missed out on part 1: https://signpost2indulgence.blogspot.com/2018/09/going-to-biggest-party-in-town.html

Note from the ikan bilis blogger

Writing about you guys was one of the most thrilling and challenging experience that I’d undergone because I don’t know any of you but still you all wholeheartedly shared with me your life’s work, passion and experience as if we’ve known each other for years. I guess only Paulians like us can pull this kind of stunt all in one glorious night.

Apologizing to those that I didn’t have the chance to interview as I can’t fit everyone into this blog as it would be too long as it already is. Thousand apologies.

And if I had said or written anything to have offended you, pre or post blog please forgive me and if you spot any mistakes that needed correction please do not hesitate to contact me.     

Some may ask why I’m doing this, well, the reason is very simple if you’d notice I asked every one of you this ‘What advice would you offer to young Paulians who's about to start their career?’ It’s because I want our boys to learn from their seniors that the path to success is never easy and the crossroads that we chose had many speed bumps and potholes hidden in it and yet we survived to talk about it.

Thank you again for your time as I know most of you are really busy and still took the trouble to help me with the blog. Hope to see you guys again next year.