SUPERMOKH

Watched the restage of SUPERMOKH last night for CIMB's Corporate Night with our clients and the musical just reminded me of so so so many good memories. Supermokh, as fondly known by many was the legend of Malaysian football. He was one of Malaysia's most celebrated sporting icons who has inspired many! 

When abang and I were younger, we made a visit to Allahyarham's house to learn and get to know more about his life as a footballer. His wife who we used to call aunty Ina happened to be a family friend's best friend. I don't clearly remember every single detail of it, but one thing that I remember from the visit was going through loads and loads of photos of Supermokh in the field, at training sessions and podiums - often proudly carrying the Selangor and Malaysian flags. 

Throughout the show, there were a couple of scenes during the show that I felt I could relate to. 

First 
In one of the scenes, Supermokh mentioned that Selangor paid their athletes well -he used to get RM 28. When I heard this, I remembered how I used to feel the same - that the Selangor state takes very good care of their athletes and I happened to be one of the very privileged one to be serving the state in Rhythmic Gymnastics. We used to have the nicest track suits, the benefits of all those professional doctors' treatments when I had to get my toe stitched up and go through physio when I couldn't walk, supportive management, and monetary allowance as well as rewards when we brought home medals for the state. Hat's off to the Selangor state, I was very well taken care off under their management. 

Second 
Once when Zarina's best friend played by Dina Nadzir was falling head over heels for Reduan Abdullah, she made a statement "Saya sokong pasukan Johor, apa kata korang join je Team Johor?" (I'm a fan of the Johor Team, why don't you guys just join Team Johor) 

Reduan's immediate reply was "Hidup mati Mokhtar takkan tinggalkan Selangor" (Over Mokhtar's dead body, he will never play for any other state but Selangor) 

There is something about state loyalty that you cannot take away from most Selangor athletes and truly, when I was at a crossroad right after representing Malaysia (whether do I stay in competitive sports and (perhaps) become a coach one day or do I drop sports and get down to studying full time?) I was awarded the Kolej Tuanku Ja'afar scholarship and with that I had to relocate to Negeri Sembilan. At that time, I was given the choice to take up a sports scholarship to switch and become a Negeri Sembilan athlete. Right that moment, it was an easy decision to make and that is if I can no longer represent Selangor, I am not going to represent any other state. I quit sports after 9 years of serving the Selangor state. 

Having had the opportunity to represent Selangor and Malaysia when I was in my non-studying days, it brought so much great memories watching Supermokh last night. Added with my passion for performing arts and football, there was no better combination of the things I love than this :)