FUNNYACCENT: Hero From the Past

It seems that the most popular topic on every blog I've been reading for the past two weeks is soccer. I used to be a soccer fan. Somehow along the way the soccer chip in my brain lost its magnetism, I think it was right after Mokhtar Dahari died. I had a crush on him once. I had three red jerseys number 10 that I wore simultaneously when I went out running, while my best friend Mas was crazy about Abdullah Ali.

We seldom missed any live games at Stadium Bandar Raya especially when MD and AA were in town. We hardly see any Malay girls sitting among the male fans and we always chose the safest spectators to sit with: Either Indians or Chinese fans. They practically left us alone.

One time we found out the hotel the Selangor team players were staying. We called the front desk and begged for their rooms numbers. The front desk guy gave us four rooms numbers. We choose the last third number. Guess who answered the phone? Santokh Singh.

We heard the noise on the background and asked Santokh who else were in the room. He told us he was in Super Mokh's room. We asked him if we could talk to MD?

"Tak mau cakap dengan saya ke?" Don't you want to talk to me?

"Kita sedang cakap ni kan?" Aren't we talking?

We heard his thunderous laughter.

Then we heard the Super Mokh himself on the other side. "Hello...." Throaty and sexy. Ohh.... my lord, my knees turned into agar-agar lapis - jelly. Mas and I giggled.

"Are you Ana and Mas?"

We gasped. Mas snatched the phone from my hand.

"How do you know?"

"Every month I get two post cards or letters from two girls from Penang, and I figured it must be you."

All those post cards and letters we sent him were congratulations notes or newspaper clips or his pictures.

"You keep all those postcards and letters we've been sending you?"

"Ohh.....yess, I keep them all."

If a girl's chest could burst with honor. That was it. Our chests could have had splattered all over the pay phone booth.

He asked us would we liked to meet him in and the gang at the coffee shop on Transfer Road.

If a girl could die of happiness to meet her hero, Mas and I would have had dropped dead right there in the pay phone booth.

Thirty minutes later we walked into a coffee shop, and there he was my hero Super Mokh, Arumugam and Santokh Singh. Three of them stood up as we approached the table.

Super Mokh extended his hand while R. Arumugam the Spiderman and Santokh pulled two extra chairs for us.

Funny though, I couldn't remember much of our conversation.

We didn't stay long. But one thing I always remember is how respectful he was to both of us. So did Arumugam and Santokh.