THE LAST OF THE MOHICAN

There were ten of them and the eldest became a ~~Dato'~~... ~~Datuk~~.... Atuk more than 10 years ago and all had successfully scored many many goals with some as many as 7, except for one of the ten. Some of them grew exponentially bigger but he sustained his size. The last of the ~~Mohican~~ Mohamad ended his bachelorhood at the age 45 on 22 July 2011. Azhar Mohamad, my mother's only bachelor sibling open a new chapter in his life when he took Alina as his wife. Azhar Mohamad was my primary source of inspiration to get into the Corporate Sector when I was doing my General Certificate of Secondary Education O'level. Being raw and fresh out from the Bone Marrow transplant (BMT), most school does not have the experience to handle 'special needs' student and I had to opt for either private home study or defer my study until I was able to be out of isolation and attend normal schooling. Azhar Mohamad was my room mate at home in Ealing Broadway during my whole two years stay in London when he was doing his Association of Certified Chartered Accountant (ACCA) while I underwent the BMT and recovering form Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) some 20 years ago. Sharing a room with a straight A's student and second class Upper graduate, my lifestyle changed from a party teen to the nerd that Azhar was. I completed both my GSCE (O'level or SPM equivalent), A'level (Form 6) and went into CML permanent remission (or known as "CURE" in a layman term) in less than 2 years as I turned 17 years old while my friends in Malaysia was about to seat for their SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia). Azhar Mohamad of course, passed his ACCA on first seating!!! Wowww... I wanted to be him!

This actually reiterate the importance of people that we associated ourselves with during teenage. I practically follow Azhar's daily schedule of waking up at 6am, go for a jog, comeback home watch news, have breakfast and study.... two hours later, break, read the paper and study!! then break, lunch and study!! Then break and study.. then break and study and break and study... goodness in contrast to my pre-london lifestyle of girls.. party.. girls.. party.. girls... party. So there are always the good side of any downturn. CML actually shaped up and changes my life.

I first bought and played the stock market with Azhar Mohamad at the age of 16 years old. We bought the British Midlands electricity board that went for Initial Public Offerings (IPO) and made I think triple (or was it double) our investment. Buying IPO shares at that time was affordable with only a denomination of 100 shares per lot. When I graduated with an honours degree in Economics from the University of Buckingham, I quickly call Azhar Mohamad and asked for the best platform for the best exposure into the corporate sector and Azhar Mohamad whom at that juncture, was attached to the Securities Commission, the God of the corporate sector said, without a doubt Corporate Finance (CF) at the COMMERCE INTERNATIONAL MERCHANT BANKERS BERHAD aka CIMB. Immediately I declined the offer from Malaysian International Merchant Bankers Berhad (MIMB) and practically went begging to get into the CF at CIMB and was accepted before I can legally vote at 20 years old but was paid almost half of what MIMB offered. A good exposure and experience is worth more than a short gratification of high paid remuneration but this is a story for another occasion. For now..... not surprising for Azhar Mohamad, he married an accountant and an ex-colleague from the Securities Commission. When he is determine to get something, he will get it.... and finally he got Alina. I do not know after how many years of courtship.

Their akad nikah was held at the same hotel that I had my wedding function although the hotel went into a rebranding phase from the earlier Sheraton to now the Grand Dorsett. Alina converted to a muslim and my father was appointed the speaker for both side.

The rest of the story is as follows......

(below, Annuar Mohamad, Azhar's brother, my uncle with the Pak Imam)