One day, out of the blue, racing professional Jazeman Jaafar told his girlfriend, paralegal and content creator Naddy Rahman that he would like to meet her parents for lunch, which she swiftly arranged.
When her parents came back home later that day, Naddy’s father told her, “Ok, looks like you’re getting married”.
That was four months ago, and in January of this year, Naddy and Jazeman got engaged in an intimate ceremony with family and friends.
“There was no proposal, ” Naddy, 27, says, laughing. “He suddenly just decided to meet my parents for lunch one day and asked them for my hand in marriage”.
The couple are relating the story of their relationship over a virtual interview, as we aren’t able to meet in person due to the movement control order.
They met in 2015, when Jazeman was based in the United Kingdom, and Naddy was finishing up law school in Kuala Lumpur.
It was a gathering with mutual friends, and they hit it off right away.
“We caught each other’s eye and exchanged numbers, but we had to get to know each other over screens for the next few months as I was flying back to the UK, ” recalls Jazeman, 28.
It was challenging to say the least, especially due to the demands of Jazeman’s racing career, which meant that there would be hours on end over several days that he would be unreachable.
“I was in law school in the midst of my exams, trying to get to know this guy virtually, and at the same time trying to understand his lifestyle, ” relates Naddy. “When he’s training, he can’t reply, and I had to adapt to that. But whenever he came back to KL for short trips we would spend more time together and get to know each other”.
Doing long distance demands trust from both parties, and the couple made it through those rough first few years unscathed, learning to support each other from afar.
Fortunately, they found their love only grew stronger when they were finally living in the same city, discovering that they share similar values passed down to them from their parents.
“I’m all about respecting your elders, and discipline. Those are the two key principles I was brought up with and wish to pass on, ”says Jazeman.
“To me, it’s important to be humble and kind no matter what you do, ” says Naddy.
To Jazeman, Naddy is the person who helps him take a step back when he is overthinking things.
“My work is always fast-paced and sometimes I start to overthink and overdo things, she helps me take a step back and take a broader look around. We constantly motivate each other and balance each other out, ” he says.
Naddy reveals that with their multiple projects and endeavours (personal and professional), they tend to forget to stop and breathe.
“The two of us, because we have so many things going on, we have to remind each other to slow down and do one thing at a time, ” she relates. “I get very emotional from time to time and I just crash, and he’s there to remind me to slow down”.
The couple love travelling, and share a love for all things food-related.
“Our favourite thing to do together is to get food! If there wasn’t an MCO we would be trying new places to eat, whether it’s a high end restaurant or a hawker stall, we’re just big foodies, ” says Jazeman.
A step closer to marriage
Early this year, they managed to pull off an intimate engagement ceremony, attended by only their closest family and friends.
Holding events during pre-Covid times would have been hard enough, but ensuring all guests adhered to the SOPs and stayed safe during the ceremony was a challenge.
“We followed the SOPs very well, with the temperature screenings, providing plenty of hand sanitisers and face shields, and ensuring everyone was wearing a mask properly, ” says Jazeman.
“We put up reminders all over the venue saying there was to be no hugging, no salam, no kissing, everything was typed out and put on the tables, ” adds Naddy.
One obstacle the couple had to face up to was breaking the news to extended family members and friends that they would not be able to accommodate everyone.
“My sisters’ children, they couldn’t come because it’s hard to keep social distancing rules when it comes to the kids, ” says Naddy, who also had to exclude all 14 of her mother’s siblings and their families.
“Due to that I only invited my dad’s side, and only one person could represent each family, we told them we were so sorry and most of them were very understanding of the situation, ” she adds.
Jazeman pointed out that they obviously would have wanted other friends and family members to be there to celebrate with them, but the couple ended up having a small, intimate gathering and this gave them the opportunity to truly focus on their nearest and dearest.
Embracing career shifts
Jazeman’s career in racing began as a hobby, when he would collect toy cars as a child.
At six, he would take up go-karting and at 13, he competed with the Asia Racing Team in the Asian Formula Renault 2.0 race.
From then on, he moved up the ranks of the racing world, competing in Formula 3 championships, GT and endurance racing.
Having been heavily involved in the sport for over two decades, last year was a tough time for Jazeman.
Globally, many racing events were cancelled or postponed due to the pandemic, and attending races were a tedious process as they involved many different nationalities and venues in numerous countries.
“Last year was the first year, after 23 years of my career that I did not race, simply because of the quarantine, ” says Jazeman.
“If I were to go to a race, I would have to be quarantined for 14 days in the country, and another 14 days when I return to Malaysia. If I had a seven-round championship, that’s six months in a hotel, it just wasn’t viable”.
Despite taking a back seat on racing in an actual cockpit, Jazeman has been busy with his other main projects that he is passionate about.
“My core career is as a racing driver, a motor sports professional, and I’m on the board of the Sepang International Circuit (SIC), ” he says. “I also set up a company called Persona Energy Sdn Bhd which specialises in nurturing racing and automotive engineers, a platform for young budding engineers to pursue and further their careers, I’m working on that with the Malaysia Automotive, Robotics and IoT Institute (Marii)”.
Over the past 10 months, Naddy, a paralegal by profession with a passion for content creation, has taken up baking, an endeavour which is working out really well for her.
“Currently on the legal front, things are moving a little slower, I’m working from home most of the time, ” she says. “The reason I started baking, during the first movement control order, is because it hit us very hard and I didn’t have a job at the time. I was home with my mum and she loves trying new recipes, so that’s when we started”.
Naddy and her mum began baking a popular type of bread in Johor called roti naik, giving them to their neighbours for a taste.
Then, they began getting requests and offers to buy their bread, and soon they expanded their menu of home baked treats to include cookies, cakes and other sweet snacks.
“We said we’re not selling but people were offering to buy our stuff, and I just told myself, I’ll set up an Instagram account, Baked with Butter, and from then on, every day it was non-stop and we started including more items on our menu, ” explains Naddy.
“Every day I dedicated time to learning, watching videos, searching for recipes, I spent so much money on ingredients, ” she adds. “The business is going good for me and my mum and someday I hope to expand it”.
Apart from her legal career, Naddy also helps her sister out with social media and marketing with her shoe brand, Alicia Sophia, and hopes to someday pursue fashion more seriously.
“For Alicia Sophia, we got the brand out there and managed to work with designers and stylists, we even did a collaboration with Alia Bastamam and we were featured in KL Fashion Week, ” says Naddy.
On Instagram, Naddy’s content includes beauty and lifestyle videos and posts.
Moving forward with positivity
He may not be sure when he’ll be back in the driver’s seat, but Jazeman is hopeful about the future.
“The pandemic has been very challenging, it has hit the sport very hard, as it involves a lot of travelling and a lot of people from different nationalities on the team and those organising the event, ” he says. “There’s a new approach to the sport nowadays from new technology to athletes training themselves”.
He hopes that motorsports will become more accessible for people of all ages and backgrounds. “People think it’s all about the drivers, but there’s the engineers, the mechanics and the marketers. It’s a broad industry and I want to give back by nurturing more engineers”.
For Naddy, apart from her day job, she has her mind on her baking business.
“I bake at night because I work better at this time of the day, it’s quiet there’s no distractions and that’s the time when all kinds of other ideas will start flowing, as I’m baking, ” she says.
They are both busy planning their wedding, which is set to take place in August this year.
Over the past year, both Naddy and Jazeman have had more time to slow down and contemplate their goals.
“I feel like it’s been a blessing in disguise, I’m learning so much every single day, and it has just motivated me to expand the baking business, ” says Naddy.
“This period has given me time to think and for us to decide that this is the right time to get married. It’s been tough but it’s also given me the chance to streamline my thoughts, ” concludes Jazeman.
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