Double Billing

Always The Joker
“Gus, in life, there’s no such as a free lunch”, shouted Nithi, as he, his brother Anand (aka Orangeman) and their respective Twenty First Century Sports (TFCS)& Hooha Asia staff waited impatiently for me to take their group photo.

Party Revellers

After 45 years, when Nithi’s father finally remembered his son’s birthday, Nithi quickly interjected, “Yes, but don’t forget which son’s birthday next time!”.

Who’s Your Daddy?

Indeed, Nithi is a wise-guy with lots of hilarious one-liners but you won’t know that fact unless you know him well, or you have worked with him before. Hold on, I just remembered another joke Nithi told today and this time, it was at the expense of his printing supplier, Nick. Let me recall: As Nithi walked into his office today, his staff and friends gave him a surprise birthday party. “No wonder, my wife didn’t want me to come to the office this morning”, he declared as the surprise party got underway at 1pm.

Pouring Ceremony

The Birthday Boy was clearly chuffed with the event, and I suspect he appreciated his family, friends & staff for coming and making a big effort to celebrate his birthday. As Nithi was greeted, one-by-one, with birthday wishes, he spotted Nick at the back, and he immediately shouted, “Did you come regarding your invoice, Nick?!” It cracked everyone up in the room except for, maybe, Nick himself. I told you he was a funny fella.

Nithi Lookalike

Who’s Counting Calories
I was invited to Nithi’s surprise birthday bash by default because I am one of the 100,000 members of the Hooha Asia online sports community, and his brother, and business partner, Orangeman had decided to hold the launching party of Hooha’s revamped website together with Nithi’s birthday celebrations, making the event a double celebration of sorts. No expenses were spared to make the event memorable – there was a makeshift stage, a pyramid of champagne glasses, bottles of non-alcoholic grape champagne, and two types of cakes distinctively marking both events.

Baking Class

In my books, any party with two cakes is better than a party with only one cake. A catering company was engaged to prepare a mouthwatering buffet lunch spread of fish, chicken, mutton, vegetable dishes, briyani rice and fruit platter for the guests. As I surveyed the scrumptious food on display, I was wondering how many “burpee exercises” were required to burn these gazillion calories? I can tell you that the answer is a very BIG number, but what the heck, what’s the point of training hard if you are forbidden to indulge in tasty food once in a while! After all, one of the biggest advantage of exercising regularly is to be able to treat myself to calorie-rich food occasionally without feeling guilty. In fact, whenever I consume more calories than usual, I always make sure that I increase my exercise workload the next time I hit the gym or perhaps, I may go for a longer run to burn those extra calories. So, who says you cannot have your cake and eat it too!

VIP Section

THE NEW LOOK
10 Things About The New Hooha Asia Portal
1. Who? The men behind Hooha are the inspirational entrepreneur & sports lover, Anand Vegayathunan (aka Orangeman), and the tech-savvy & artistic director, Akmal Dhalan.
2. What? Hooha Asia website is an online sports community with over 100,000 online members.
3. Why? Hooha’s purpose is to encourage ordinary people to get-off the couch and participate in fun and healthy outdoor activities & sports such as running, cycling, football & badminton.
4. How? Hooha online platform allow members to interact and share their sporting experiences with each other, as well as, encourage & inspire each other to tap into their inner strength to achieve personal sporting goals.
5. When? The internet never sleeps, and this gives the members the flexibility to join and use the hooha portal services at any place & at any time!
6. Sharing is Caring: The new Hooha portal makes it very easy for members to selectively share online their personal stories, memorable snapshots & catchy videos with other selected members or with the whole online community in a fast & convenient manner.
7. Mark Your Calendar: The Hooha website updates the members on upcoming running events & event registration details at a click of a button.
8. Are You Forgetful? You will never miss another race kit collection date again because Hooha members who register for Hooha running events will be reminded automatically of the important race collection details.
9. In The Pipeline: Orangeman confesses, “If I was to wait until the portal was perfect before launching it, Hooha version 1 would never be launched. We plan to add new features in the near future such as a “friend finder” function where a member can search for like-minded running partners who are in the same vicinity. In the meantime, we would appreciate any feedback from Hooha members on their online experiences & suggestions for our website, and wherever possible, we will certainly make any improvements.” As a wiseman once said, “the forest would be very quiet if no birds were singing except for the birds who sang best.”.
10. To enjoy your Hooha experience now CLICK the following link http://hooha.asia/ver1/latest-news !

Show Time!

A Highly Trained & Dedicated Team
Watching the TFCS & Hooha Asia team partying to celebrate a birthday of one of their founding members, as well as, to celebrate their recent work successes, I can see that they were a close-knit, hardworking family who respect and support one another to make their shared workplace a relatively happy & productive environment.

Union Men

A Formidable Pair
Anand and Nithi’s companies help to organise over 20 running events a year. In particular, their company Twenty First Century Sports is responsible for organising running events, whereas, their sister company Hooha Asia manages event registration online.

Toilets, Over there!

Being the Technical Director, Nithi is in charge of the nuts and bolts of operation behind the scenes. While the more high-profile Orangeman looks after the customer service and public relations.

Unexpected Surprise

Their common love for sports is what drives them to invent more ways to make their running events more enjoyable for the participants. By adding their personal touch to every event and increasing the quality benchmark for running events in Malaysia, the brothers have developed a significant following among the local running community. Personally, as an avid runner who has participated in no less than 20 of their running events over the past 4 years, I can confidently vouch for their professionalism and quality of service. It’s a nice feeling to register for any running event when you know that the organiser is putting the interest of the runners first.

Emergency Exits Right

Guest-Of-Honour
For the first time since the inception of Twenty First Century Sports 14 years ago, the brothers, Anand & Nithi, were finally able to welcome their father to their office. It was a very proud & touching moment between father & sons. Again, I could almost feel the love surrounding the families, the bosses, the staff, the guests and even, Jaswinder – the Bhangra dancer & musician – in the room.

Safety Helmet

Indeed, everyone was made to feel very welcomed, and the hosts were very gracious in taking care of their guests from start to finish.

Convocation Ceremony

The Last Laugh
Nick asked, “Do you feel your age?”
The birthday boy replied, “last year, I had felt 10 years older, but this year, I feel a lot better and I think my weekly walking exercises helped.”.
Nithi was presented with a flower bouquet and a pair of branded sunglasses for his birthday present.
Upon looking at his gift, Nithi joked, “Didn’t I see you at the pasar malam the other day getting a pair of sunglasses?!”. And the crowd chuckled again..,

They Must Like Me?!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A big “THANK YOU” to Anand for the invitation & to the whole gang for their warm hospitality. I wish more successes for all of you involved with Hooha Asia & Twenty First Century Sports.
Long Live Sports!