A secret ‘recipe’ to being smart...

I wouldn’t consider myself smart. I’m just hardworking and fortunate to have had the opportunities that came my way. You have to study hard, build a good foundation and more importantly, have confidence in yourself. I’m still doing lots of things that I don’t know. I cultivate the joy of finding out new things, discovering new knowledge and learning how it can benefit the human society.

I would encourage the younger generation to continue to discover knowledge...

To build confidence and most importantly, to consider using the knowledge that they acquire to benefit human society.  

Growing up...

My dad is a biology teacher and my mom dedicated her life to taking care of me and my siblings. Together, they made a great team to ensure we were eating healthy, nutritious food. When I was an infant, they fed me porridge with ikan bilis, carrots, potatoes, and spinach. They also gave me raisins and milk.

About brain food...

Food is important for us to stay healthy and have a healthy brain. But I believe brain food also relates to the enjoyment that you have with the people you dine with. The food my parents fed me also taught me not only about our geography, language, religion and way of life in Malaysia, but also information, memories and experiences that helped me see through our differences to discover our similarities.    

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Learning from failure...

For me, accepting that mistakes and failure are part of the journey and subsequently, developing self-compassion and resilience to cope with one’s mistakes and failures is important.

I would tell my younger self to...

To take my mind off success and focus on finding inspiration, creativity and innovation.

Growing up...

My mother had an interesting approach before our exams. There’s always more pressure when exams were around the corner. Probably contrary to what was good for me, my mother would give me all the food I wanted during exams. Whenever it was the end of exams, my brother and I would always look forward to getting Happy Meals from McDonald's.

I remember whenever I finished a long Math tuition, I would come to the car stressed, tired and exhausted. There would be a bag of pisang goreng waiting for me in the car which was probably the worst thing to eat because it’s sweet, oily and not nutritious at all. But it made me feel really good, it was something I looked forward to at the end of doing something really difficult.

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When I was young, I was mostly motivated by…

Competition. I wanted to be better than others. In high school, a lot of what we did was built around competition. To take part in sports, you enter a competition. If you want to be good at a subject, you wanted to get ranked at the top of the class. So my mind was just geared towards being better than others. 

When I went to university, I realised that there are bigger, more important things than me. I saw the world with fresh eyes. I learned that, if the only person who benefited from my life is me, then that's a poorly lived life. Ultimately, I want to have known that my life has also benefited many people.

On the topic of brain food…

I work in a primary forest and I live with a community of indigenous people. There is very little access to raw vegetables and good nutrition, so many people end up feeding their children ice cream, keropok and Twisties because that’s easy to get. Every child needs a wide array of vitamins and minerals, so in that context, there is such a thing as brain food.

The city is the flip side of the picture. You see babies getting power-packed meals with super foods and all. I think there’s only so far your development can go on just food alone. You need other things too. You need to be in the outdoors, you need to experience the wonders of the world.

Growing up...

My mum would emphasise three things. Eat your breakfast, drink plenty of water and eat everything that she cooks. She placed a lot of importance on having meals at home, so we would limit the amount of food that we bought from outside because to her, everything that she cooked was more beneficial than something store-bought. Also, I think most of us took gingko as a supplement before exams. 

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I owe my success to…

My mom for pushing me, for being there for me, and for doing things with me so that I could catch up and be independent in my primary school years. This was important because it was in Standard 1 that my teachers and my parents realised that I was dyslexic. 

At that time, there weren’t many institutions or centres you could seek help from, so it was just my mom putting in the effort daily and I definitely would not have made it through that year without my mom.

A 'recipe' for making it to the top...

Success never comes easily. What people see is just the surface of things but without hard work and dedication, it’s very difficult to succeed. That coupled with opportunities, the right timing of meeting people, and the right timing of doing things—all these are necessary to succeed.

Considered one of Malaysia’s most prestigious awards, the Merdeka Award has recognised outstanding individuals and organisations for their contributions to society while the Merdeka Award Grant for International Attachment presents opportunities for short-term collaborative projects and programmes at an internationally-recognised host institution.  

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