Before you shoot down the idea as impractical, consider this: what if you were given a second chance at life?

For Penangite Lobhini Gunasegaran, 30, surviving a car crash was a wake-up call to start living the life she’d always wanted.

She tells FMT that in the August 2017 incident, her car had skidded and crashed along the Penang bridge.

The car was completely wrecked, she says, but she miraculously survived with just a gash on her leg after kind passers-by pulled her out from the mangled vehicle.

Recalling that horrific crash, Lobhini says she was lucky the barrier was strong enough to prevent her car from plunging headlong into the sea below. She’s also still in disbelief at how she escaped with not even one broken bone.

“Within a week of that life-changing incident, I thought I was ready to head back to work as a senior recruiter. Boy, was I mistaken,” she says candidly, explaining that recovering from her injury while trying to get back into the swing of things at work, proved harder than she thought.

“It took a heavy toll on my mental health.”

A friend in the creative field, who recognised her distress, passed her his art supplies as a means of distraction. Like a true sport, Lobhini took this opportunity to experiment painting on blank sneakers as a way to destress.

“The designs turned out great but sneakers as a canvas were too time-consuming, so I tweaked it and resorted to T-shirts instead. And thus, The Sambar Incident was born in January 2018.”

Chuckling, Lobhini says her brand name was inspired by American rock band Guns N’ Roses who titled their fifth album ‘The Spaghetti Incident’.

Besides, she says, dunking shards of hot, crispy roti canai into delicious, nourishing warm sambar is a feel-good experience most Malaysians can identify with.

Once she had settled on the name, the theme of the streetwear was a no-brainer – she would centre her designs around Indian culture and pop culture.

Galvanised by this burst of creativity, Lobhini quickly got down to work, unleashing her inner designer.

Soon her line of T-shirts was ready to be launched. Curious about how social media would respond to her designs, she organised a giveaway.

The response? Social media users went wild over her T-shirts, snapping it all up in no time. This gave Lobhini the much-needed encouragement to begin selling her T-shirts next.

However, juggling designing work for TSI and the demands of her everyday job became a little too tough to handle at times, despite the brand being more of a passion project rather than a money-maker.

After two years of stretching herself too thin, Lobhini took a giant leap of faith and bid goodbye to the stability of the corporate world and officially made TSI her new business endeavour.

The brand’s website is a feast for the eyes, with a bright spectrum of colours, designs and catchy quotes all vying for attention, and all originating from the brilliant mind of Lobhini herself.

“Most of my designs come about through aha moments. For instance, the ‘Bloom like a Rosapoo’ design occurred to me while I was driving from KL to Penang. But there were other designs like Maharani and Flame Forth Courageously that I took two to three months to bring to life.”

“The artwork starts off as a pencil-on-paper sketch which is later inked, then coloured digitally. Every single element in the design is carefully thought through before piecing it together.

“I really want TSI to represent our Malaysian Indian culture and heritage because after all, someone has to step up and make this happen,” she says.

One might think TSI’s clothing line is mostly sported by the younger generation but Lobhini says she’s even seen fathers donning her trendy designs.

While this is encouraging, Lobhini is not one to take her good sales for granted. She’s currently studying for a Masters in Entrepreneurship.

This dynamic businesswoman also recently beat 50 other local brands for 12 months of tenancy at a mall in Petaling Jaya in a competition by Kedai KL, a street market concept that supports homegrown brands and products.

Lobhini tells FMT she was over the moon with this win as it means TSI is now able to have its very first physical store.

“It’s getting quite overwhelming handling this by myself so I am hoping to hire fashion or design interns because I think my brand will be a great stepping stone for them before they enter the working world.”

However, due to the pandemic and the various movement control orders, she has had to shelve the launch of her store to April instead.

She also reveals that two new designs are in the works so keep your eyes peeled for it.

Feeling rather sluggish this lockdown season? Now you can wear your feelings with the ‘Somberi AF’ T-shirt by heading over to The Sambar Incident website.

For more colourful updates, follow TSI on Instagram and Facebook.