KUALA LUMPUR: After 40 years, more than 175 ex-staff of United Oriental Assurance (UOA) gathered at their first reunion dinner at the Royal Selangor Club recently.
There were some who had returned from Dubai, India and the United States for the reunion.
Clad in traditional attire, the guests reminisced about the good old days, exchanged contact numbers, email addresses and took snapshots together.
At the dinner, there was a video presentation of the early days of UOA and the time the ex-employees worked together at the company.
Although some left the company 25 years ago, they have kept in touch.
Former UOA chief executive officer Arun Doshi, who was a organising committee member of the event, spoke about the formation of UOA in his speech.
Arun explained that UOA was formed by combining five insurance companies from India — The New India Assurance, Oriental Fire Insurance, National Insurance, United India Insurance and Life Insurance Corporate of India.
“I would like to thank the sponsors and my committee members who have contributed the door gifts and lucky draw prizes.
“This will be a memorable reunion dinner and we hope to have more gatherings in future.
“UOA was registered as a Malaysian company in 1976. Many locals at that time benefited from the training from the Indian team.
“In 2002, UOA merged with Capital Insurance Company to form Oriental Capital Assurance.
“It has now been bought over by Tune Insurance Malaysia Bhd,” he said.
He said the years working at UOA has taught them the true meaning of friendship.
“It is the good memories, that’s what has kept the connection going.
“There are some who were not able to make it for the event.
“We hope in the next reunion, we will have more people turning up,” he said.