Dr Claw and The Evil Cat

Last weekend, Awie and Toje drove all the way from Kuala Terengganu to Kuala Lumpur on a day trip to see me.

Toje has had a change of circumstances and he was thinking of doing a different business from what he is operating now. Toje has been operating a satay restaurant in Kuala Terengganu for a few months and from those who have sampled his satay, he was given good thumbs up.

By co-incidence I also wanted to catch up with Jita and Chamat since we had not seen each other for a while due to the different schedules in different time zones (ha ha), so we met up at The Curve.

From the word “go”, Toje realized that he was not going to get much help from me for his new business proposal because I felt that it was a short term remedy.

We ended up pressuring him to pursue his satay business; with all ideas and pledged support (the operative word is “pledged”) for him to start operating in Klang Valley.

I am an avid fan of satay and I have big issues with the monopoly of satay business in the Klang Valley, so it’s in our best interest to have competition. More so, because I feel that Malays should stand up and prove that they too can do well in retail business and not only interested in the quick margin made from Ali Baba business.

Awie made a joke about the 3 of us (Jita, Chamat and myself) behaving like the Mafia godfathers pressuring and misleading a hapless small time businessman with many promises of help in the beginning only to rein in later on – worse still when it’s a godfather with an evil cat on his lap.

Apparently, throughout the journey back to Kuala Terengganu Awie and Toje cracked their head trying to find solutions to some operational constraints Toje felt would become a major hindrance to the venture.

People – reserve some money to throw into Satay Yengko. If it happens, anyone who eats elsewhere, or holds a gathering at a different venue, does so on the pain of being thrown out of the batch for good!

POSTSCRIPT

I had a coffee with a sweet and kind-hearted couple – Kak Sham and Abang Nik – whose son was from the Class of 08. They have been giving a lot of encouragements to us for the voluntary work we were doing in MCKK and eventually we become friends.

When asked about what is so special about MCKK – I told them that it is the support system we get from our batch. It’s not the name, not the connections, not the glamour, not the reputation – it’s the fact that I know I have a bunch of 100 people who will go a long way to assist me when I need help one day, within their limitations.

That’s the beauty of being a part of a group of people like this. It’s so easy to tap into each others’ brain and expertise and people are willing to help without expecting anything in return (or so they think he he).

To those who have just left MCKK – whether you are thoroughbred or not, stay close to your brothers although you do not feel belonged to the school as much as we felt back then. They are your best support system in the future – when you need to borrow money, when you need distraction from hitting a wall in your career, when you need inspiration, when you need professional advice for free, when you want to find business partners and most importantly – when you are in a desperate search for honest friends. Your batch never let you down.

For more stories about Awie & Toje, read here.