Sunday, April 11, 2010

'Tahniah STAR' Dinner


I was in Ipoh last night. Together with Azlan and Yahya Daud alias Wahab and Fathil Sharif, playing host on behalf of STAROBA to a group of athletes from the school who had done us, STAROBAns, STAR and parents, proud. In the recent concluded athletics meet in stadium Perak for the Zone Kinta Utara, they were declared the champion in the boys team event. Dinner was held in Hotel Impiana (the old Casuarina).
We assembled at Fathil's place and left for Ipoh around 440 pm, having assured ourselves that we would be in Ipoh by maghrib. InsyaAllah!. Apart from the slight jammed in Subang Jaya, journey was 'smooth and relax' and easy. Being the co-pilot, Azlan has no choice but to play DJ through out the journey. Azlan performed remarkably well! With his many repertoire of jokes, yeah.., who cares about HotFM or Era Radio or Radio Sinar! And the three of us, we were keen listeners! Lan., you rock! We arrived in Ipoh at 730 pm as scheduled.
Dinner however, started slightly late - at almost 930. There was this unforseen things happening that has to be resolved first. Biasa lah! There were about 30 of them excluding teachers.You could tell then that the boys were really starving! Azlan in his opening address expressed his appreciation and conveyed STAROBA's gratitude on the achievement and acknowledged the effort put up by everyone involved in sports. Yahya during his speech, expressed out his burning desire (together and with the help of the school) to unleash and groom STAR hidden talents, in the quest to bring back the glory days of STAR in athletics!. It was almost 1130 pm when dinner was finally over.
We dropped Yahya at Bukit Beruntung toll station on the way down and three of us safely arrived in KL around 245 am.

As I drove home from USJ Subang Jaya, I could not help but admiring the effort, and energy that Yahya had put up to lift the standard of athletics in STAR. Having to spend one's time, almost daily for 2 1/2 hours, travelling all the way from Telok Intan, starting at 450 pm and arrived home at 9 pm, is one hell of an effort!. What a sacrifice! What a commitment! He did it simply for the love of the sports and his beloved alma mater. As Yahya said it in his dinner speech, ..'at the age of 57, I should have been spending more time praying at home! but...' I wonder how things would have been if Yahya had been the school principal , not in Perlis but in Ipoh.
Anyway, well done boys. Well done STAR. Keep up the good work. As Azlan said it .., Tahniah STAR, teruskan usaha! Of course they can. Yes, we can!