{"id":994,"date":"2014-10-23T23:55:26","date_gmt":"2014-10-23T15:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tembusu.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/?p=994"},"modified":"2025-09-25T16:39:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T08:39:47","slug":"treehouse-chats-with-the-5th-csc-meet-the-moazzam-khan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/2014\/10\/treehouse-chats-with-the-5th-csc-meet-the-moazzam-khan\/","title":{"rendered":"Treehouse Chats with the 5th: Meet the Moazzam Khan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The interview started with his customary \u2018Hey hey!\u2019, followed by an offer of food and drinks. Moazzam exudes Pakistani hospitality, something he claims he picked up from his mother. Besides having a steady supply of cream cheese and Coke, his room hides multiple bottles of Barbican- on the table, in the drawer, on the ledge. If there are two things that he likes, it\u2019s Barbican and cars.<\/p>\n

Not even a near-death experience could dampen his passion for cars, it seems.<\/p>\n

Merely a year ago, he was involved in a car accident. Half an hour late for a wedding, he drove at 130 km\/h at the highway with his brother and his cousin as passengers. They were on a bridge with an 8-feet deep ditch on the left and a steady line of cars on the right. Speeding along the lane, they suddenly realised that there was a stationary car parked along the road. Impossible to stop in time, their car rammed into the stationary car; with the metallic clang of chunks of car being forced to fit into each other, Moazzam\u2019s car smashed right underneath the boot of the other.<\/p>\n

A large portion of his personal savings went into repairing the car, and a huge amount of time went into reflecting on the fragility of life, but fortunately everybody escaped unscathed.<\/p>\n

Then again, this is not the first time he felt like he was going to die. During his National Service (NS) days, he was stung by a scorpion in Sabah. Petrified, he clutched his finger so tightly that it turned bluish-black. Guess it didn\u2019t help with his fear when he thought it changed colour because of the poison…<\/p>\n

Even as a newborn the doctors found him almost strangled by his umbilical cord.<\/p>\n

When he was a toddler of 1 or 2, he was rushed to the hospital for drinking petrol.<\/p>\n

Given his sense of curiosity, it\u2019s a miracle that he went through his childhood safely. As a child, he disassembled everything he could get his hands on with a screwdriver. He never said anything about re-assembling them, though.<\/p>\n

Growing up, this curiosity translated into an urge for new experiences- exploring new places, meeting new people, doing new things. Speaking of activities, he wants to \u201ctry jumping down a building one day. Hopefully with a rope tied to my legs\u201d. Laughter ensues, and he takes another sip of his Coke.<\/p>\n

All these are very exciting, of course, but are they what makes him happy? What was he doing during the happiest moment in his life?<\/p>\n

\"moazzam\"<\/a>
In this photo taken by Fedeline Angela, we can see Moazzam being himself…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He describes himself as a generally happy person- he\u2019s the happiest when he\u2019s surrounded with his friends and family.<\/p>\n

Recalling an incident that made a mark in his life, he proceeds to recount his memories as a firefighter during NS. His team encountered a locked door case where a man called for help to break down the door to his uncle\u2019s house. The man was supposed to visit his uncle a week earlier but he didn\u2019t, and he hasn\u2019t heard from his uncle for the past week. When they finally got into the house, what greeted them was a half-decomposed body. The man broke down and cried.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis taught me how sad life can be if you\u2019re alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

It taught him the importance of having family, friends, and people around you.<\/p>\n

Moazzam is a dear friend of mine, and in many ways I can testify to his willingness to listen and the sound perspective he provides. Always the logical one, he will list all the possible alternatives and outcomes. His listening ear and rational head have been a lifesaver for me many a times.<\/p>\n

As a friend, I am glad to have known him. As a resident of Tembusu, I have high hopes for his leadership.<\/p>\n

The header image used in this article is taken by Jeremy Tan. <\/p>\n

Editor: Jensen Goh
\nSenior Editor(s): Brinda Gulati<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alison Chew speaks to Moazzam Khan, our new CSC president, about his life-changing moments, near-death experiences, and the values that he holds dear.
\nThis article is part of the ‘Treehouse Chats with the 5th’ series, where we aim to let Tembusu residents know the members of the newly-elected 5th CSC as people, unconstrained by their roles in the CSC. Meet the Moazzam, instead of meet the president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","publication_type-interview","theme-college-affairs","scope-tembusu"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=994"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1082,"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions\/1082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}