Tiara Profile – Kalvinder Kaur

Going that extra mile is second nature to her. She will look after you, cook for you and even tuck you into bed after handing you your medication when you are ill. She is none other than Kalvinder Kaur d/o Ajeet Singh,or Kelly to everyone.

I am most fortunate to have a caring friend and neighbour like her. During an agonising bout of back sprain recently, Kelly massaged me, cooked my meals, gave me my medication, and pulled the blanket over me before turning off the light to let me rest - in her home.

Born in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, the middle of five siblings, two elder sisters and two younger brothers, the daughter of a Singaporean Punjabi mother and father who worked in the Malaysian Civil Service Waterworks
Department), Kelly was six pounds two ounces at birth, "the lightest of all my siblings," she stated. "But now, it seems the other way round," she laughed.

Her mother, a nurse at the Kandang Kerbau Hospital in Singapore, left nursing when she married Ajeet Singh to live in Perak.

Kelly received her early education at the Sitiawan Convent, Perak. She excelled in cooking and making creative things. Her cooking came in handy after her father passed away in l984. By then her mother had opened a food stall in Sitiawan, which Kelly and a younger brother helped man. It served breakfast, lunch and dinner, starting from 6.30 am and ending at midnight.

For breakfast there was meehoon, fried rice, char koay teow, nasi lemak, chappati and paratha, the latter two served with dhall, mutton, kurma, sardine or sambal ikan bilis. Lunch comprised white rice, mixed
vegetables and whatever was left of the morning menu. For dinner, the menu was chappati and paratha, with dhall and some meat dishes .

These were pushed to the venue from home on a self-made cart. Her skilful younger brother, Param, made a cart from wood and wheels bought from a tyre shop.

Six years after the passing of her father, the family moved to Kuala Lumpur, where an elder sister was working. Kelly was sent to Singapore to pursue a Hotel Management Course, staying with her maternal grandparents there. After graduating, she worked at the Imperial Hotel, off Jalan Rumbia, in Singapore, where she was given charge of organising weddings, dinners and Christmas functions, together with setting up the festive decorations and even dressing up as a Santarina during the years she worked there.

When she left the Hotel to return to Kuala Lumpur, she was given a testimony by Imperial, citing her as "hardworking and efficient, positive in outlook and very pleasant”.

Kelly also participated in the National Community Singing Competition in l990, organised by the Ministry of Commerce and Information, the Ministry of Education and the National Trades Union Congress, receiving a certificate for it.

Her return to Kuala Lumpur was to look after her mother, since an elder sister,who had been looking after her, was getting married and moving out of the maternal home.

For three years Kelly devotedly kept an eye on her mother until her marriage to Abtar Singh, a KLIA Security employee in l993. Until l998, she worked at the Concorde Hotel, the Shangri-la, Pacific Regency, and the Intercontinental Hotel, where she was a Sales Consultant for "The Privilege Club." Her portfolio was to market the prestigious dining club to "the top management in the Kuala Lumpur region”. Her boss cited her for "being very dedicated and self- motivated."

At the Concorde, she received the Healthy Employee Award of the Year for l992 for l00% attendance during the time she was there and was presented with a letter of commendation and a cash award by the Director of Human Resources.

She also received another certificate for successfully completing the Hotel Dynamics Telemarketing Training Course, meeting all sales targets and marketing strategies set throughout the programme.

During her stint at the Shangri-la, a hotel guest, in a letter to the General Manager of the Hotel, dated August 1st, l995, expressed his appreciation to the staff on duty the night his wife was ill, citing them for "excellent work, fine service, true dedication to duty and going that
extra mile", for doing the necessary to get his wife attended to whilst arranging a limousine to send her to a clinic. Kelly was part of the team.

She even had a stint as a dental assistant at the Uni-Med Dental Surgery, where her employer gave her a testimony for "being very pleasant, very hardworking, with a keen sense to learn."

It was only a matter of time before the friendly, helpful, multi talented and energetic Kelly decided, in 2001, to be her own boss, opening a stall in Damansara Heights, aptly called Kelly's Corner, at the MBSB Building, keeping business hours from 7am to 3pm. Friends and clients found her to be a perfectionist. Never one to cut corners, she used the best ingredients for her chicken curry, mutton/chicken/prawn masala served with chappati for lunch.

"I cannot do things in halves. Each and every step has to be done when cooking or doing something. But I can work very fast," she added. She also served fusion food, to cater to the various needs of her clients.

Breakfast consisted of nasi lemak, tuna sandwiches, boiled egg, fried meehoon, fried rice and chappati and a wide variety of drinks: teh tarik, local coffee, fresh cow's milk, tea, Milo, Horlicks, Nescafe, yoghurt drinks like mango, starfruit and apple, aerated canned drinks, salted, sweet or plain lassi. She also catered to the latest craze,Vanilla Coke, a mixture of vanilla ice-cream with coca cola and crushed ice.

A fast and able worker who speaks English, Malay, Tamil, Hindi and Punjabi, she had no problem working alone, taking orders and serving what was asked, collecting the cash and clearing tables. Sometimes, a maid or her brother would help out. She even found time to sell scarves, tudungs, and material for sarong kebayas to the ladies who patronised her stall.

Life for Kelly was fine, happy though hectic. Her marriage was "made in heaven" and she put on the pounds since the loving couple often made the food rounds. Three years after her marriage, she found herself "too prosperous, sizewise," at a hefty 118 kilos. Slimming outfit Philip Wain, fortunately,came to the rescue,co-sponsoring $30,000 for her to be a model for the company. It was a PR exercise by the company, to prove to others that its methods for slimming worked. In a matter of a few months, Kelly shed 20 kilos.

However, after twelve years of wedded bliss, Abtar was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Kelly closed Kelly’s Corner to be at his bedside, staying with him in the hospital for half a year before he succumbed to
his illness in 2005.

Devastated, she stayed with her elder sister in Tiara, helping out around the home to take her mind off her grief. Not one to keep still, she went back to what she enjoyed -cooking meals for her sister and family. To keep fit,she does exercises on the treadmill at home, walks around Tiara, takes a dip in the pool, and attends yoga classes in Bangsar .

She also put her skills to good use when friends,who enjoyed her chilli paste, which she gives out as gifts for birthdays, Christmas, Deepavali or other occasions, persuaded her to do some for them.

The paste, similar to the recipe made by her mother and sold at Teng Mini Market in Bangsar until her passing a few years ago, takes a long time to cook. It can be used to fry rice or meehoon, put into sandwiches, used as a dip for chicken nuggets, drummets, French fries or keropok, for curries, put into pizza instead of chilli sauce, for frying vegetables, or to spice things up.

The process is painstaking, she explained. De-seeding of the dried red chilli has to be done before blanching them in hot water. It is then blended with a large amount of garlic, onion, ginger, coriander and herbs before it is tumised (fried) in corn oil for 1-1/2 hours.

She has obliged many residents in Tiara with orders for the chilli paste, at RM4 per bottle. Should others be interested in ordering, Kelly can be reached at 79544463 / 012-6741330.