Thursday, April 29, 2010

UniteFect di Sydney: Leman & Ahmad Dapat Points Lagi!


Fadli: 

Rakan rakan
Setelah 3 minggu menghambakan diri dengan kerja duniawi, barulah sempat nak tulis sepatah tua about the trip to Ozzie land with the one and only M.I.M.M friend.

Few things I never knew about Mior:
  • Rumah dia gila babi besar okkkkkkk…bungalow in Sydneyy…don’t play play… 4 or 5 bedrooms aku pun dah tak sempat kira….truly a Casa Impian for those who live overseas
  • Mior suka tengok foreign language movies…. French, German, Tunisian, Russian… Hollywood tak main
  • He closely follows the gossip stories of our local Malaysian artists !!...boleh?? siap tau siapa kahwin dengan Umi Aida la, siapa bercinta dengan siapa….dahsyatttttttttt
  • And the best part, he goes to bed earlier than a Primary school student…. By 9.30 dah berdengkurrrrrr ….how??
Attached are some photos from the trip… Mior and wife bermurah hati jadi my tourist guide/driver ….memang bestttt…..

Terima kasihlah saudara Mior kerana sudi memberi aku tempat tidur for 2 nights…halalkan makan minum… next time aku nak pergi semula tempat Arab yang buat Steak sedap tu…sampai sekarang teringat ingat…

inshaAllah ada rezeki ketemu lagi nooooooooooooooooo

Saya meminta agak markah diberikan kepada rumah Ahmad dan rumah Leman di atas usaha Murni ini untuk mengeratkan silaturrahim.


Mior:

Saya dengan rasa diri memohon agar AJK pemarkahan memberikan markah tambah kepada Sdr Fadli kerana sudi mengingkari arahan boss beliau, Ricardo utk tidak pulang terus ke Spore pada hari Jumaat dan memilih untuk meniduri rumah saya. Sekian harap maklum. Gambar2 akan menyusul kemudian dari kamera Fadli.

P.S: Fadli, sori tak return SMS hang, Virgin Mobile buat hal, block call out.

Kemudian berduyun2 lah email yg cuba mencocok & menghasut Epit sebagai Raja Betik mengambil tindakan.

Aku ingat nak cut and paste semua email tu, tp pikir2 balik - tak worth it lah, sbb blog tak leh panjang2 sekadar cukup makan nak meet KPI.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Of Kurang Ajar

Lately Yengko has become synonymous with “kurang ajar” and “biadap”.

First, the HM spent a good one hour or so cursing me and the batch in front of our seniors (Class of 90) during their 20th Year Reunion, not knowing that when you talk to one MCKK old boy; chances are he knows the person you are cursing and words will eventually go back to the person.

Lately, even elderly MCKK old boys use “adab”, “kurang ajar”, “warisan” etc. to deflect arguments they cannot answer. Let’s not get into the details because too much time has been spent on it anyway.

One of the brothers who had supported me all along in this sent an SMS to tell me to ignore and not feel disheartened by this. People do things for many reasons but rarely (especially nowadays) for selflessness.

School heads blame everything under the sun – the teachers, the boys, the Ministry’s guidelines, the building, the town – everything but himself for whatever that goes wrong in a school. But as the highest officer paid to look after the well being of a school (and along the way empowered to determine many routines and micro-policies of the school), surely the school head is also accountable for the majority of what went wrong in the school (if not all).

Other stakeholders will find other reasons as well. Some office holders are in comfortable liaison with school heads because their children are looked after well by the school or rewarded handsomely. So they choose to see what they want to see; after all their children are doing OK. They forget that they are entrusted to look after the welfare of everyone’s children in the school, not just theirs.

Likewise, it is a bit rich for some other stakeholders to talk big about respect when they no longer have direct interest in the school or in its immediate results. They do not have children in the school so even if 90% of MCKK products fail to get a call for scholarship interviews; they are oblivious to this because they are comfortable in their coffee houses reminiscing about their time when there was only 4 boarding schools in the whole country (hence, competition was different).

The concept of “menderhaka”, “kurang ajar” etc has been used often to justify many injustices or neglect. Condoning malpractices in our society becomes a norm on the basis we do not want to “menderhaka” or “kurang ajar”.

I am glad we did what we did.

The MCKK world out there can choose to make us an outcast, hurl unpleasant words to us etc. – but take comfort that we give voice to the voiceless; we give representation to the unrepresented.

My parents would not have had access to the high almighty like the big guns of MCOBA in the past and if the school was not conducive and screwing my future, they would have been hapless.

They might not be too good at teaching me manners; but they would have been proud and approved of what we did.

We did well and there’s nothing to be ashamed of it whatever the detractors say. We never took the conventional route during or after MCKK – no reason why have to start taking one now J

Farquar Haqqani, Class of 2006: Ranked 2nd In The World for A-Level History


Adik Farquar Haqqani (speaking) from Class of 2006 was ranked second in the world for the subject of History (Cambridge International Examination). Not bad eyh, Gedebe would be proud ha ha.

He was (and is) quite a lazy bum and always procrastinate (ha ha) but some people are born smart. 

He was the captain of MCKK English debating team in 2005 and 2006. In 2007, he was selected to represent Malaysia in the world debating championship.

He currently reads Economics at Warwick University. 

ps: Yeay one more blog posting!


KPI Blog

Jita:

Aku rasa ko kene post lg 2 crite kat blog so tht d downward trend of posting snc d new yr is maintained at -2 per month from a high of 11 in jan to target of 5 bulan ni heh heh

Noni:

Ha ha jgn cabar aku. Nnt aku post 20 posting pakai one liner. The first posting is sms kau :-p

Jita:

Hahahaha 2 ngelat nama nye :-) so bile free mau tgk movie? family aku maybe blk sini next wk so free license sure kene revoke haha sms ni x yah post ye :-p

Ha ha ha KPI April masih belum terlambat!

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Perkahwinan Encik Rudi Hakimi di Sabak Bernam

Saya tidak dapat menghadirkan diri kerana ada tugasan yang mendesak pada hari itu, jadi laporan perkahwinan kali ini telah ditulis oleh Sdr Radin. Mungkin juga sebab perkahwinan yang ini serba-serbinya Jawa; jadi lebih sesuai Mas Radin yang menulisnya :-)


Aku, idzam, gabai dan syam; yg mewakili setiap rumah sepatutnya menaiki bahtera grandis ke sabak bernam. akan tetapi, nakhoda epit terpaksa mengundurkan diri pada saat akhir kerana beliau terpaksa bergegas ke sungai petani untuk mengahadiri pengebumian arwah pakcik beliau. (Nota 1).

Perjalanan kami bermula dengan berkumpul di Restoren Ali Maju Pusat Bandar Damansara dan bertolak pada pukul 11pagi. Di awal perjalanan di susur keluar GCE, saudara chibiok sekeluarga menyertai untuk berkonvoi bersama dengan kereta aku. Perjalanan kami semakin sukar apabila tiba di daerah sabakbernam kerana hanya berpandukan peta kad kahwin yang tidak berskala dan ia lebih bermasalah apabila mesin peta garmin syam tidak memberi sebarang petunjuk untuk ke Bagan Nakhoda Omar.

Akhirnya, dapat jua kami sampai ke lokasi sebagai rakan2 kolej melayu pertama yg tiba ke kenduri cop. kelihatan dari jauh, si raja sehari tengah sibuk memotong kek.




Selepas bersalaman dgn ucapan tahniah, kami terus menjamu selera. Kemudian, saudara presiden, khalid yg ditemani kalai tiba. Kelihatan pula fitt sekeluarga dan pyan sekeluarga.

Tidak lama kemudian, tiba toy & isteri, mache & sekeluarga dan loque & isteri (kalau dah kawin, takleh claim monoloque kan?).. di kala sessi bergambar, tiba pula peah & isteri dan tungkid & isteri (dah kahwin kan?)...

Ternyata lauk pauk kenduri cop yg bertemakan masakan Jawa memang menyelerakan. kami semua siap tambah nasi & lauk. buat pertama kali di kenduri kahwin, ada hidangan kerang rebus.


(sila rujuk gambar chibiok & gabai). 

aku tengok kalai pun melantak sampai dua pinggan (dia konon segan nak tambah guna pinggan yg dah diguna, then selamba je ambik pinggan baru). loque pun dgn selamba tambah lauk sepinggan.

aku rasa semua org makan gile2 kerana takut lapar balik sebelum tiba ke kuala lumpur. ada ura2 yg nak berhenti kat ijok untuk makan burger kerana takut lapar di petang hari.

dessert yg dijamu pula tapai pulut yg boleh memabukkan kalau dihirup airnya. khalid pula teruja untuk mencuba lantas bangun mencari tapai di stesen makanan.

suasana menjadi gamat dgn hilaian ketawa chibiok & rakan2 apabila semua mengetahui bungkusan lipatan daun pisang yg disangka tapai itu rupa2nya ada nasi lemak di dalamnya.

sila rujuk gambar sebagai bukti khalid dah kena bang bang boom. 

Sambil menjamu selera, kami juga dihiburkan dgn nyanyian karaoke. agak teruja apabila terdengar satu lagu bell 80-90an dinyanyikan oleh seorang mamat yg punya suara yg sama sengau dengan suara presiden kita.

ramai yg keliru. makcik2 yg dibelakang meja kami juga keliru, nyata jelas dari ngomongan jowo mereka.


seperti di kenduri kahwin lain, puak 1yengko buat hal sendiri mcm pesta reunion batch. pelbagai jenaka dan hilaian ketawa. ada juga cubaan dari kalai utk ngomong jowo.

rekod kehadiran amat memberansangkan kali ini walaupun lokasinya jauh. Mohon saudara toy dapat muat naik gambar dgn pengantin dgn kadar segera utk tatapan rakan yg tak dpt hadir.

Sekian.

Nota 1: Citer Grandis ni dah jadi legend of epic (befitting Epit si Tuan Punya) proportion

Thursday, April 08, 2010

North Zone 2010: What About Now?

As always, in spite of 10 different plans to blog to document last week's momentous event in Sungai Petani - in the end my writing flexibility is clipped by the fact that I only have a blackberry and this is the only time available.

In between a policy paper on the latest economic hype of the town, piling paper work in office (which I have been absent from for about a week), a neglected cat, various meetings - I settled for a direct narration of what took place. I had wanted to do it by chapters but ha ha tercabutlah keypad blackberry if we go down that route.

Things did not go as planned at all since the beginning of 2010. For a start, I was broke. After an incomprehensible decision to abandon the good life, I found myself barely surviving (ha ha) so it took some tolls on the hobbies I used to do; one of which was the Mighty Ducks Project.

Then, most of the Bapak Itiks were also mentally, physically and financially tired. It's been a long journey and most of them were at a junction where they need a breathing space. With KNO in Pakistan and I decided to pull a stunt, a lot of the burdens had to be spread even thinner among us. I did not want to push further because I know the limit - a further strain would probably break us.

Against this backdrop, we "plodded" (to use Joe's favourite word) along. It is not surprising that Mighty Ducks started 2010 with neglect; then it continued with further neglect over the months.

In the midst of it all, hope was only rekindled by one person and his optimism - the 67 year old Mr Thaman Singh. In late December, he sent me a card with one simple reassurance "2010 - A Better Hockey Year". That reassurance would come and haunt him later ha ha.

Together with his side kick Mr Pala, they held the fort while we tried to sort out our lives. In the process, there was a gap of..

Two days later: 

... there was a gap of 2 days between the last attempt to finish the account and this one. I have forgotten what gap I was thinking about.

In the process, there was a gap of four months between the last time we met the boys (Mighty Ducks Cup 2009) and this year’s first encounter. It came to a point in March this year that the sense of guilt overwhelmed us. Sending a cheque once in a while and a simple note can no longer obliterate the sense that we have abandoned the boys, Mr Thaman and Mr Pala.

So we worked up our courage, wiped off the embarrassment and took the journey to Kuala Kangsar (for the umpteenth time) in early March. I had already blogged about what had transpired during that short trip; so I won’t talk further about it here.

But Mighty Ducks is addictive and contagious. (If you read The Wheel of Time series, it is like seizing the One Power and each time you allow it to flow through you, it’s very difficult to let it go - OK I am mumbling here).

But Mighty Ducks is addictive and contagious. Once you are back on the field, meet the coaches, see the boys and become astonished at the rate they physically grow, you remember why you decided to do this in the first place.

In the next few weeks, all of us were rejuvenated and it was as if we were shook to wake up from the slumber. There was a series of planning and we could not wait to go to Sungai Petani.

The day came and as always I was late. Pak Tuan had to wait for two hours before I arrived at his place. Throughout the journey, he drove while I was busy responding to the madness of the world – courtesy of the worst creation in the world today: blackberry/handphone/mobile communications.

I was hungry and wanted to stop at Tapah for a bite, but Pak Tuan was adamant that we must arrive at Kepala Batas first so that we could pick up Mr Thaman and Mr Pala and checked them in at a hotel, before we went to look for food. If you know Pak Tuan – if you ask him to manage the logistics, don’t cross him in that department so you just have to follow. In the end, his insistence proved to be a better judgment.

We arrived at Kepala Batas around 330 pm to find an empty turf. I instantly called Mr Thaman, only to discover that the actual game venue was in fact Sungai Petani – the tournament was hosted by SMS Kepala Batas but the boys only sleep at Kepala Batas. The first match was in an hour away.

I don’t know whether many of you would understand the feeling – but you don’t drive 4 hours just to miss the opening match. It would have spoilt the whole weekend. We wanted to be there before the boys went in for the first game so suddenly we were panicking and quickly rushed to reach Sungai Petani in time for the game. Somehow the annoyance and frustration that those who were in charge should have had the courtesy to tell me and Mr Thaman of the real venue before hand, dissipated into thin air in the midst of the evening rush to Sungai Petani.

MCKK contingent arrived late so while the other schools had had some time to warm up and get accustomed to the turf, the team was a bit rushing. They arrived at the stadium directly from Kuala Kangsar and unlike other boys who had one good morning to rest before the game, they had to quickly change to warm up.

After a quick warm up and some tips from Mr Thaman, the boys settled for the game.

Then the rain came. And some more. And a lot more.

We had to wait for half an hour before the game against SMSAH could commence. Even then, the turf was flooded and it was akin to playing at desert (koleq nya desert and for the record; I had enough experience playing during the rain at desert to warrant this comment ha ha).


But the boys started well – they took control of the game and there was hardly any time the ball crossed the half line. By the end of the game, there was 14 penalty corners and on average there was an attack each minute. But the water on the turf hampered the speed so the ball usually skidded and stopped half way ha ha.

Pak Tuan and I counted 2 goals but the official tally was 4 – NIL in our favour.

Feeling extra optimistic, we told ourselves (Mr Thaman and Mr Pala too) that if the boys win the next game (against STSSS) we would upgrade ourselves to a better hotel.

We booked two rooms at Pengkalan Hotel nearby the turf. Mr Thaman really liked the place because it was within walking distance to places of eatery and the turf.

I vaguely remember how bad the hotel was (you can’t expect much when you paid peanuts) – but even my memory under estimated how bad it really was. We couldn’t sleep that night because the mattresses were too hard and the pillow felt like buah kelapa.

The next morning – still buoyant with the prediction that the boys would cruise and win easy with STSSS – we checked into the best hotel in town (especially considering Idzam and Joe were supposed to arrive in early morning of Saturday) without waiting for the results ha ha. Mr Thaman did not want to follow – he said he liked to location; though I always wonder whether he just didn’t want to burden us financially because he too admitted he couldn’t sleep the night before.

The next game was played under the scorching sun. I wouldn’t say the boys played badly – they still had the control of the game and provided attacks after attacks.

But they committed too many mistakes. Most of them were basic mistakes and basic rules that they should know. The mistakes provided some breathing space to the opponent and they couldn’t keep the pressure; or couldn’t convert attacks into a goal.

We drew with STSSS and suddenly the panic set in, especially because we had under estimated STSSS. If we couldn’t score with STSSS, we would have a problem at a later stage. The mood in the contingent was very bad.

Earlier on, Mr Thaman had already told me that the morale had been low especially due to numerous run-ins and confusion over training schedules for the last 2 weeks. He asked me to say a few words but I took that for granted.

After the game against STSSS, suddenly everything was at stake and staring starkly at us and Mr Thaman. We knew that if we fail to bring the team to the national level, it would provide a good excuse to cut us off. After 3 years and a large chunk of money that we couldn’t afford to spare, we would be told (not in a polite manner) to leave. Mr Thaman knew it, I knew it too though we didn’t talk about it.

So I thought the only intervention I could make was to sit down with the boys, make them feel at ease and comfortable so that they can go onto the field tomorrow with focus. It’s not that they were de-motivated or didn’t understand what Mr Thaman was saying – but they needed to relate. And it’s a lot easier to relate to an old boy whose age gap is a lot smaller than your coach’s.

Armed with packets of nasi bungkus from the best mamak restaurant in town – we left for Kepala Batas.

We spent the first half an hour getting the boys to clean the room – I shuddered to think how I survived boys dormitories especially during a tournament when I was in college. Then we showed them the recordings of their previous game and some of their training – I think they spent more time laughing than observing their mistake; but at least they were at ease.

Finally, it was the crunch time – telling the boys in a subtle manner that their quarter final game in the next morning could be their last time seeing us and Mr Thaman.

It was not easy for two reasons.

First, I was not close to these boys. Not as close as I was to their seniors or as close as I wanted to be – in fact I was a complete stranger to them. When we started with their seniors, we had months of frustration before we broke down the wall and many times I wanted to give up. There were periods when I actually didn’t like some of them for making me tried so hard just to communicate with them. But at least we had a few months to try. That night I had a few minutes to deliver the most important message and make them understand.

Second, I couldn’t divulge everything. I had to send subtle hints because I don’t want to skew their perception of the school or certain people.

With these two constraints, Pak Tuan and I carefully constructed our sentences. I was on the bed and they were sitting on the floor listening quite attentively.

By the time I reached the last sentence, I felt stupid for initially under estimating them. They reminded me why it was a pure pleasure looking after them all this while – because they are bright boys, it was easy to make them understand many things without having to explain much. We left the room satisfied having seen the look of determination on their faces – I didn’t know how it would translate into actions on the field, but I was quite sure it did change certain things.

We collected all their electronic gadgets to make sure they slept early, otherwise they spent more time on their console.

That night, we checked in to the best hotel in town. I dropped dead instantly on the bed because I only slept 2 hours the previous night and barely could hear Pak Tuan was telling me that Joe and Idzam wouldn’t be able to make it because they had car problem on the way. At about 3, he woke me up to change room because apparently the air cond was not working – again, don’t argue with him so I was walking half asleep along the corridor to a new room.

Across town, Mr Thaman had another sleepless night. This time around not because of the hard mattress, but he understood the stake. He was worried sick that they boys wouldn’t play up to their standard and we would crash at quarter final against SEMESTI. Crashing at quarter final meant the end of Mighty Ducks project. (Later on he told me that this sort of sleepless night is not good for his heart at that age ha ha).

The morning started well. We skipped breakfast and went straight to the pitch; the boys were already doing the warming up.

I noticed they wore the white jersey which I didn’t like much. I asked one of the boys why they didn’t wear the other jersey – “tak ong bang!”. The superstition reigned for the rest of the day as the boys refused to swap jersey till the end ha ha.

SEMESTI looked confident – for once they had the size. On top of that, out of 15 players, 8 were juniors made up of F1s, F2s and F3s. That was why our boys were one of the smallest in size in the tournament.

Last year Mr Thaman put Amer (a Form 2) as the main forward (and I nearly dropped dead already – but he was the coach, so he knew better). This year he pushed the limit further – he put a Form 1 as a forward.

I wanted to query Mr Pala, but luckily I did not because in the end it was the Form 1 who scored ha ha. We won 1 – NIL and cruised to semi final against STAR. By the end of the game, the boys had regained full control and full confidence so much so that there was hardly any panic moments. Once or twice the ball crossed to our side but it was adequately cleared by the defence.

Same thing happened in the semi final. They controlled the game and carried out attacks consistently. For the first time, we scored early in the 3rd minute and after that the boys paced the game and slowed down considerably. Mr Thaman reminded them that the semi final game was the most important game of the tournament and we never lost to STAR ever since Mighty Ducks was started . They maintained the record by the time the whistled was blown and we ended up in the final for the first time since 2007.

Right after the game, Mr Thaman jokingly said that he felt he deserved a hotel upgrade now that the boys were through to the final.

It is hard to describe why it was meaningful to be in the final although it was only the North Zone final (but nowadays there are about 15 schools in North Zone alone!). By MCKK standard, it was a normal thing – after all Cagers win the north zone without a blink of an eye year after year. We did relatively better in cricket and had continuously represented the north zone.

But hockey was a different story.

We went to national level by fluke in 2007 because we drew all games and went through the semi-final because by co-incidence, our points were better. We went to the final because Afique (the goal keeper) saved one penalty flick.

We lost at grouping level in 2008 and 2009.

There had never been a game since 2007 when we could sit down and felt that we were in control. There were too many panicky moments.

Luckily after one year being drilled by Mr Thaman, the boys were good at controlling the game so it felt like watching a Malay College game all over again. The series of problems and head ache (or heart ache) we went through before the tournament made it even sweeter, anyone in our shoes would have sighed a relief and felt we were vindicated. Or Allah has answered our prayers.

In between the one hour before the final, Pak Tuan and I quickly went to a nearby shopping mall to buy some souvenirs for Mr Thaman, Mr Pala, Cikgu Razif (the new teacher) and some grubs for the boys. We had to quietly pass the souvenirs to the boys so that they could give to Mr Thaman and Mr Pala later when we were not around; otherwise the two would refuse to accept it from us. Mr Thaman’s famous last words to us have always been “we’ve burdened you enough” ha ha.

The final came and go.

Mat Jiwa shocked the tournament when they defeated the seemingly invincible SERATAS (three times national champion) to go to the final.

When the boys sang Lagu Kolej before the start of the game, I chuckled because the thunder and clouds followed their singing instantaneously. Then suddenly I saw the opponent singing Lagu Sekolah Mat Jiwa – so I went to see Mr Pala to complain: “how come we end up playing for 3rd placing, we should be in the final!”. I was not around when Mat Jiwa defeated SERATAS so didn’t realise the latter was out.

The game was good. I say we control 70% of the game – by ball control, by no of attacks and by penalty corner. Once in a while Mat Jiwa broke through our defence and there were some near misses, but our boys didn’t panic till the end.

We drew without a goal and had to settle by penalty flick. As it turned out, we lost 2-3 to Mat Jiwa.

The boys were sad and kept apologising to us at the end of the game but Mr Thaman kept saying “there’s nothing to be sorry about”. It was a good game and luck was not on our side.

Most importantly, Mighty Ducks Project was just given another short lease of life, at least until the end of the national tournament.

I went up to the bus to see the boys before they left to return their electronic gadgets.

As I was walking down the stairs, the boys called back and smiled when they said “old boys and Mr Thaman ada lagi kan, sebab kitorang dah pegi ke national”.

That was the single most precious moment of the whole tournament – knowing that they understand the words we could not speak; knowing that our presence is greatly appreciated and meant the world to them; as they mean the world to us.

I wish everyone was there so that they could feel the same way – but sapa suruh tak pegi so padan muka korang ha ha ha! 

POSTSCPRIPTS

1) 

Thanks to:

Azu, Mizan, Syahmie, Amo, Haziq, Nash, Mirza and Apai (F4); Tuan, Afi and Amer (F3), 3 F1 and F2 whom I don’t know their name and Kaza (the F1 who scored!).

Mr Thaman and Mr Pala – nothing that I can conjure here can adequately explain what it means, so I prefer to not even attempt.

Cikgu Razif – for being with the boys.

Bapak-Bapak Itik – lepas ni kena kejar lari bertempiaran for national level.

Sdr Azizi (Class of 97) - for the support, 100+ and bananas!

Sdr Ermal & Sdr Jasmin (Class of 89) - for being a loyal fan throughout.

Everyone who follows and understand what pride and passion means :-)

2) 

Two days later, the school told the boys that they weren’t going to the national final after all because only zone champions would qualify.

Luckily we checked with the organiser and it turned out it was a misinformation. The boys were nearly crying already and it took a while before they could believe that they were going after all - I wished the adults would have been more thoughtful in handling these boys after they worked so hard to qualify.

3)

The boys jokingly said that they would have to find sad songs to sing on the way back because they lost – apparently the bus has a karaoke unit now?

So I was thinking for the clip, I too should find a song that identifies with Mighty Ducks and Sungai Petani. It was quite an easy pick because Idzam played the song over and over when we first went to the tournament in 2007.

It was also apt because suddenly we should be asking ourselves – what do we do now that we reach this point? Ha ha ha.



4)

We finally decided to launch a Mighty Ducks Project fan page at Facebook here :-)

Photos here.

Friday, April 02, 2010

Mighty Ducks: The Quiet Morning Before The End

It’s 3+ am in the morning. Ha ha couldn’t sleep and I finally get to do what I wanted to do for a very long time (bukan bangun jadi batman ha ha) – some quiet moments for the things that matter most.


Pak Tuan ada kat sebelah ni, clearly struggling to have a good sleep on a piece of mattress that feels more like a rock. We are in Sungai Petani for the north zone hockey tournament for SBP. We’ve been here each year without fail since 2007 (except 2008 when the venue was shifted to Kangar).

This year’s tournament is officially hosted by Sekolah Menengah Sains Kepala Batas. I didn’t get any details so Pak Tuan and I left for Kepala Batas this morning. It has been quite a taxing 2 weeks (brain wise) so I thought a quiet time from KL is more productive; and given how flexible things are with my current arrangement, I took 2 days off just for this.

We arrived at an empty turf in Kepala Batas ha ha, only to find out later that the actual tournament will be held at Sungai Petani. Pak Tuan has done all the bookings; complete with Googlemap of Kepala Batas ha ha, but we are back where it all started here in Sungai Petani in 2007.

It has been hard since the last few months; especially in the last 3 weeks. The morale has been low on both sides – the old boys and the boys. I could understand the feeling of pointlessness to continue doing this because the constant run-ins and sabotage just sapped too much of our energy. When I met Mr Thaman on the field, he asked me to talk to the boys because they had been quite down in terms of spirit and morale for the last few days (according to Mr Thaman). Well I don’t blame them; it’s not easy to be caught in between the school and a bunch of outsiders.

Talking about the boys, I don’t know what they feel about this. They spend more time there and only see us once in a while especially this year when we leave things mostly to Mr Thaman and Mr Pala. They are so detached from us, unlike their seniors who we pampered a lot more to get the initial buy in. With all the hate mongering of old boys and my batch that has been taking place lately, I am sure they are quite confused somehow. I grow older by the day and could no longer (or bothered or have the energy) to spend time specifically to get to know them; like I did with their seniors.

But at least I know they wanted us there. For the last few days Azu and others have been sending SMS or trying to call. I was busy so could not pick the phone or returned their call. I used to talk to the boys (their seniors) at least once a week. Nowadays I hardly talk to them once a year. It’s only this morning I managed to pick up their calls and assured them that we (the old boys) will be there. 

Perhaps, that could be one of the main reasons we never failed to make this trip. Not because of MCKK, that one I am sure of. I think we just didn’t have the heart to let them wait for us to turn up and get disappointed before the game that their no 1 fan was not there. Boys at that age require some attention no matter how macho they put their pretences up – I still get SMS or messages from the debaters asking whether I will ever drop by to see them again. Since 2007, no one else had ever watched their game except the old boys (and Mr Thaman & Mr Pala when they came on board). 

Anyway, despite the initial hiccup and confusion, we arrived just in time before the game. Spotted a few new faces. We found out that Mr Thaman brought a few Form Ones and Form Twos – he likes to do that to prepare for the future. I guess all coaches do that, we used to rent hotel rooms to bring juniors to debating tournaments.

I spent 5 minutes to talk to them before the game, as requested by Mr Thaman. I really didn’t know what to say (ha ha ye lah tu) or maybe too tired to say much. Mr Thaman and I agreed that we will put the last 3 months behind and will just focus on the tournament – I wanted to tell that to the boys; but I guess that would just confuse them more.

So we talked about tips how not to be nervous. They laughed when we were talking about the body language, the tricks to send signals to the opponent of your self confidence etc.

That’s one area where I pity the present boys most. Gone are the days when MCKK boys carry themselves with utmost confidence to the point of being constantly labelled as arrogant and snobbish. I carried that tag all my secondary school’s and A-Level’s life – I don’t blame people for thinking that. It’s very easy to confuse the self confidence that MCKK boys were brought up with; with snobbery.

But we were nearly fearless. We may face last year’s defending champion; or a school with reputation – but it never mattered to us. What mattered was how we performed judged against ourselves. The greatest enemy was always ourselves and that made us fearless in competition (and for some; they carry this trait in life later on).

Unfortunately, it’s not the case with the present boys. Not their fault really; but the environment has changed so much that they lack the killer instinct, the self confidence and the demeanour of champions. With our hockey boys, even when their skills match other top players; their fear of opponents always downgraded their game. In the end, they appear as timid and fearful on the field.

But today was different.

After a series of torrential rain that delayed the game for half an hour, the boys were up against SMSAH in a middle of semi flooded turf. It was the best game that MCKK hockey team has played since 2007. The ball hardly crossed the half line and there were attempts at the goal every other minute. All in all there were 14 penalty corners but the water on the turf slowed down the ball all the time – out of all those attempts, in my count only 2 went in (the official results put it at 4-0 in favour of MCKK).

How did it feel? Damn proud. We used to watch SERATAS in awe and our boys got nervous breakdown before meeting good schools like SERATAS. Today I thought we returned the favour to other schools.

Whether they win or not in the next 2 days is no longer an issue with me – I think we partly achieved what we set out to do when we naively first embarked on this journey 4 years ago. We wanted them to have fun, to know the meaning of love for a game, to be fearless, to have the air of confidence and “can do” attitude.

KNO would be proud with the no of penalty corners awarded ha ha and others would feel comforted looking at the manner they hit the balls – no longer any hesitation.

I just hope it ends with some good news this year. We desperately need that to make up for the frustration and sorrow.


POST SCRIPT

1) 
Pak Tuan made a deal that we will upgrade to a better hotel if we win the next game handsomely ha ha. But we already made the booking last night, fully confident that we should win today.

Pak Tuan also brought me around Sungai Petani to relax and sample the food. So last night we sampled a damn good kuew teoy kerang by a longkang (ha ha), a damn good laksa penang that made my lips went Angelina Jolie’s because it was full with cabai (!) and Radix Halal Fried Chicken and kopi Radix. My verdict – the chicken was inferior to KFC, but the iced coffee was good albeit over-priced. Ha ha I know KNO would be green with envy :-p

2) 
MCKK went on a rampage of curses against this batch generally and some of us specifically. I thought of responding immediately but good judgment prevails – I wanted to let it rest so that it does not escalate further. It will entrap the boys further and make life difficult for Mr Thaman and Mr Pala.


But I can understand the frustration and fury of my other batchmates. Over the last few years we had pooled our money to help MCKK boys. We made countless trips to MCKK to help the boys though nobody ever thanked us. We didn’t expect to be thanked at all. We just expect some decency and manners from everyone.


Between us, we divided the coaching of the debaters, the F1 team, the hockey team and the career program. We had frustrations along the way but not in the magnitude of curses hurled at us. 

Sometimes I feel that just because we are relatively younger, people take advantage of our kindness to push us around. We never took a confrontational stand before because it’s our promise to put the interest of the boys first but there are always limits to anything. 

I personally felt a bit down (in spite of the unperturbed facade we put up) reading some of the comments from certain fellow old boys. It’s always rich to preach from high horse about character assassination; about telling off younger people to leave it to people who “know best” when you are not there battling all this. Making comments from behind your computer screen is the easiest thing to do – try to do what we have been doing for the last four years; baru lah kami respek sikit Abang! Ha ha.


But then we expect that; so it’s quite easy to brush it off and move on. There are bigger things to focus on.

Nevertheless, Pyan’s email to the batch perhaps summarised the feeling prevalent in the batch. Of course eventually it degenerated into jokes including on how we should write a formal letter requesting for a permission to crash someone’s car with an army tank (ha ha) – but the mood was generally sombre.

My advice to any junior batches who is gullible enough to do this in the future – don’t expect support from anyone. You only have each other to rely on. If anything, it’s a proof of brotherhood with your batchmates.

In retrospect, I understand why not many would have attempted what we did (which even Koja confessed ha ha). It’s not that they wanted to let things rot in front of their eyes – they knew better. It was a case of we who were being too naive.