Abang Ben

This is the first post for 2011. I rarely updated my blog lately since I am busy with the examination. I have one subject left and after that, I am done.

I am taking this extra little time to write about someone who was very special to me. He passed away 3 years ago, thus leaving such a big vacuum to many people who were very close to him. His kindness was a thing in the past, yet many people would remember him as one of the greatest men they have ever encountered throughout their entire generation.

Abang Ben passed away in 2008. He was my coach. He was the one who coached me since I was 14 years old. When I was 13, I met him first during Pesta Piala Perdana Menteri (PPM) in Kangar, Perlis. While I spent most of my times listening to the discussion, he would take my notebook and draw a cute little piglet on it.

While I was trying very hard to understand the sophisticated lingo and terms used in every discussion, he sat next to me and continued to talk about Sejarah Raja-raja Melayu (particularly about Royal family of Perlis since we were in Perlis) for endless hours.

I can’t avoid but to ask myself a question, “Who is this guy?”

Growing up in MCKK also means getting maximum exposure on many things. While others found it in sports, I found in debate. During my first competition, Abang Ben was my coach (since Abang Raf was busy with the senior team). His role at that was time was to provide us with a variety of facts that many of us had never heard before (ha ha and that was due to my lack of reading!).

Izzat was also there to assist the team. Together with Abang Ben, we sailed to next round with full confidence because we knew that behind our back was the real ‘walking encyclopedia’. While others were making so much noise asking relevant facts from their huge files, my team enjoyed the luxury of having facts instantaneously coming from him.

It was because of him, I had my first taste of winning. When I won a debate competition in 2007, I was very sad because he was not there. I wished he was there to see us crying for us to finally understand how it felt when the justice was finally delivered to us. I wished he was there to smile with us and look at each other with full pride and fondness.

I had many regrets while knowing him for almost five years since I did not do much to show my appreciation for all the kindness that he showered us. I had never sent him any ‘Thank You’ or ‘Happy Birthday’ card despite me being the closest to him.

He never failed to call me late at night just to check how I was doing or how I was coping with the team. We spoke on so many things and again he never failed to impress me with his unparalleled intelligence.

I take this opportunity to write something about him as I am afraid that my memory will fail me sometime later. As time passes by, our focus keeps changing from one to another. As we are easily trapped in a mundane life as we grow older, we too tend to forget those who are very important in our life.

If he was still around, I would love to have a long chat with him sharing my stories. I have a lot to tell him about my A-Levels, the books that I love to read and catching up with the latest issues and gossips. But that is life, when he or she is no longer around, then the ‘what ifs’ start to haunt us.

I shall write more about him in the future. Let me revisit those years with the same good feeling that used to hit me five years ago, so that the story would stay as it is.

I miss you so much Abang! 

AL-FATIHAH