Resident Member, Jeevan Soundarajah

Many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed. Tell me something about your background in relation to your studies. I understand that you went to high school in Singapore, and did you go straight to university after that?

I’m currently studying for a Masters degree in Engineering Management at The University of Melbourne. I was born in Singapore and did my education there. After high school in Singapore I completed two years mandatory national service in the army. After that I went to the National University of Singapore to study mechanical engineering. During this period I also went on a student exchange to Loughborough University in the UK. After graduating I worked for slightly more than three years in the renewables industry, focusing on solar systems. I came to Melbourne to study in July last year. I am also a national athlete for Singapore and represent my country in the middle to long distance events. Currently, I’m training with The University of Melbourne Athletics Club and I take part in the various competitions held in Melbourne, and recently I had the opportunity to represent Singapore at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Bathurst. It was a good experience: I had to run against Kenyans, Australians, Sudanese and others who are very highly placed on top of the field. It was a tough, ten kilometre course with many obstacles – hills, sand, and mud [laughs]. I met quite a lot of runners on the Australian team, including several from Melbourne. I was on the team bus going back to Sydney with them before catching the flight to Melbourne. I often see some of them when I’m training here. It was my first experience at representing my country at a world level, and great experience in terms of the competition.

Congratulations! What a wonderful experience and honour to represent your country. I’m most impressed. You’ve been living at Graduate House for seven months: how did you come to choose it?

I was looking for accommodation near the campus and I knew that there would be Masters and PhD students around my age whom I could easily interact with – people who had already reached a certain academic level of study. (I used to live in an undergraduate hall in Singapore at a different point of time). I also only have to walk about ten minutes to where I train – so everything just came together here at Graduate House. In terms of the convenience and the interactions I’ve had, it was a good decision.

We’re always trying to improve on the experiences for residents, so I like asking the people I interview for suggestions on how we can do it even better.

I think that the personal space is fine; I have my own quiet space. In terms of daily interactions, we usually meet during breakfast or dinner. The responsibility is normally on us to speak to others: perhaps it would be nice if there were ways where those who are shy or quiet could be connected with others. I find that residents usually connect on the basis of where they come from; students from each country tend to sit together. (But I don’t know if there is anybody else from Singapore living here). Perhaps the Graduate House Barbecue and similar events could be where broader interactions occur – by introducing people and pointing out that they share some common interests. I would like the opportunity to meet people from other cultures, including some European countries, for example. I think that people could also be connected through a sharing of similar interests or topics. Perhaps we could have a social night weekly or fortnightly and suggest two or three topics that people could speak on and discuss. Or people from different countries could talk about where they come from.

This is such an interesting suggestion. And I think that some students would also enjoy hearing what others are studying or doing in their research. I have no doubt that many people would be very interested to learn about your involvement in athletics – and at an international level. All residents have interesting stories to share; our challenge is how to go about this. I really like your idea of a regular social event for the sharing of interests, backgrounds and ideas. Certainly, I know that some students are very passionate about certain topics, including sport, theatre, fishing, and just exploring Melbourne. And I know that some weekends small groups of students have taken a train or bus trip for a day or two to visit a regional town in Victoria.

I’ve been to the Mornington Peninsula and the Great Ocean Road (but it was a bit rushed because we were on a bus tour). And I recently I went to Bendigo and went sixty-one metres underground down an old gold mine. I now have my own car (I received it from my sister who lives in Queensland) and in my free time I want to explore Victoria more. For example, I want to go to The Grampians. I’ve also been to Adelaide; I prefer the beaches there, and it’s much more peaceful than Melbourne. Another place I want to visit is Tasmania.

You won’t be disappointed: I love Tasmania. Actually, for someone who has only been in Australia for seven months, you’ve already managed to visit some interesting places. You were saying to me earlier that you would like to stay on in Melbourne after you graduate, not only to gain more experience in your engineering field but also because of the better training opportunities for your athletic pursuits.

Yes, the culture is different between Singapore and Australia and I think there is a better balance between work and leisure here. I have more time for my running and I currently compete in races in Box Hill, Maribyrnong and Albert Park. And I went to the Victorian State Championships just recently.

Let’s try to look into the future, say in ten years’ time: what would you like to be doing?

My next step will be to find work – something that I can balance with my running. The Commonwealth Games will be held in Melbourne in 2026, so that gives me something to aim for over the next three years. It won’t be easy, but I could have a chance to represent Singapore. The running culture in Australia is that you just keep training over the years. Of course, I will need to balance this with work. And I hope I will find someone and settle down – maybe through my running. [Laughs]

I wish you every success in that endeavour! Was there anything that surprised you when you came to study at The University of Melbourne? Was it much like studying at university in Singapore? I realise of course that you were studying at the undergraduate level there, and now you’re working at the graduate level.

It’s less intense here. I’m doing four subjects each semester, whereas in Singapore I was studying five or six subjects. I find that I can spend more time on the learning process; I don’t have to rush. Here there is more of an emphasis on ‘understanding’. In Asian culture we get the knowledge but we don’t ask many questions or ‘Why?’. And, as I said before, there is a better ‘balance’ between work and leisure, I feel.

Jeevan, it has been such a privilege to interview you. I wish you every success with your running and your studies. And I hope you will continue to represent Singapore in your athletic pursuits for many years to come.

Beauty

by Life member Louis Coutts

Many years ago, together with my family, we visited Florence. It was winter and this incredible city was denuded of the suffocating tourist population that has come to pollute the incredible testament to the Renaissance. We had it to ourselves and walked amongst the ghosts of genius who created this testament of the uninhibited creativity of the human spirit. The tower of Giotto astride the Duomo; two of the most extraordinary examples of inspired architecture in the world not to mention the perfection of the craftsmanship that was so integral to their completeness. And then we would walk alone amongst the squares of the City and stumble across works of Michelangelo, some complete but more interesting were those where he had only managed to release a part of a magnificent human body from the prison of a marble slab. Gradually, in this quiet tomb of yesterday I was overcome with a sense of sad beauty and I wondered if we had lost or forgotten something in our accelerating momentum towards what we call “The future”?

I wanted time to stop so that I could be held in a time warp of beauty. In the end, all I could take with me from Florence were those precious memories. I try to forget my most recent visit to Florence when it was overrun by endless groups of tourists jostling with endless other groups to get a glimpse of something or hear a bit of nonsense from the guide with the umbrella and microphone. Then there were the stalls selling leather rubbish and people being ripped off right left and centre. I left the City appalled, trying to remember it as it was those many year ago. And I let my mind wander. I became preoccupied with this idea, this concept, this indefinable filament of life we call “beauty” that it becomes compelling.

Who are these people who create beauty? I immediately thought of the American artist Jackson Pollock, the creator of my favourite piece of art “Blue Poles”. Now, a lot of people are untouched by this painting but when I look at it I wonder what demons drove Pollock to squirt his oils endlessly over the canvas until a point was reached when he stood back and was satisfied he had finished his work. I would have liked to ask him “how do you know it is finished”. I would hope that he would have said “because I have reached into my depth and have released the beauty that was within me.” Then I thought of Michelangelo releasing bodies from their prisons of marble. And then I had an avalanche. All the genius of humanity flood my mind. Tchaikovsky and the final heart breaking movement of his first piano concerto that stirs my soul. And then the names and how they have touched me and brought beauty out of me tumble into my awakened self. Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Monet, Rembrandt, Van Gough, Cezanne, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and so many more who have reached deep into themselves and found their beauty and shared it with the world.

The world should be saturated with so much beauty that I should sob with tears of gratitude for the privilege of experiencing its touch. But alas, The reservoir of beauty that has accumulated over the years hasn’t preoccupied the world with its blessings as we find ourselves rushing to the future encumbered with all of the interruptions of modern society. But I have this belief that beauty can change the world if we seek deep in ourselves as have the likes of Jackson Pollock or Shakespeare. Perhaps in each one of us, there is something beautiful within us that needs expression. Perhaps everyone has their moments of beauty that we can bring to the surface and share it with the world. Perhaps If each day everyone on this planet could stop and dig deep into themselves to find that tiny piece of beauty that lies within them and needs to be free so that it will touch others, the reservoir of beauty might one day overcome the world and make it more beautiful. And then beauty might spread like poppy seeds and the world would sob with tears of joy that would renourish our destiny.