A Sheikh's Tale

Forget Barack Hussein Obama for a moment!

This is a Sheikh's Tale. Not your regular serban wearing, sermon preaching, kebab eating Sheikh of Arabia! Those are Sheikhs Version 1.0.

This is..the Sheikh of Tanah Malaya. The modern version of a Sheikh. Sheikh Version 123.456. Very updated. Very modern. Shirt wearing, nasi lemak eating, space travelling Sheikh.

Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor is Malaysia's first astronaut, who works as an Orthopaedic Surgeon. Since his looks were far more superior (sadly,Sheikh's looks are more inferior to mine) to Dr. Faiz, he was chosen to be Malaysia's first astronaut.

You're lucky i wasn't there Sheikh.

It was debated that his forays to outerspace were a waste of funds. In other words, a waste of taxpayers' money. The money of the people. OUR money. I would, say, slightly disagree with that. That's a personal opinion.

And there are accusations of him demanding payments from giving talks, lectures and whatnots around Malaysia.

A Russian tabloid reports that he is a sex symbol of Russian women! Phew.

Human beings do show a higher affinity to negativity. These are rumours nevertheless and IF those accusations are true, i hope he does good with the money and spends the fortune for charity.

Now i want to talk about the fame that comes after being the first cosmonaut. Fame is a two sided coin. Pros and cons. Duality in nature. And Sheikh has shone the positive side of the coin to the kids who aspire to become astronauts.

Come on! Imagine you're at school and Sheikh drops by. Girls will be dazzled by his good looks, while boys would go, "CoOoOL! Now he's a real spaceman!".

The plump Afiq Fikri at the age of 10, although relatively shy, would go :-

"Assalamualaikum Sheikh!". With a thick Arabic accent.

"Waalaikumussalam handsome boy!".

"Did you like..errmmm...ya know...meet Ultraman over there. I heard that he's from outerspace."

"Yeah, i did! In fact Ultraman Taro and Father of Ultra sent their warm regards to you, their number one fan!"

"Ow really! That's ultracool! I wanna meet them too!"

Cut the crap. Well, you see that projection of fame. Fame could be toxic, but Sheikh has inspired lots of kids to have dreams and ambitions. So don't take fame as blindly as cheap popularity, because if you manage to control the fame attached to your name, you will be able to make a whole lot of difference in the world.

He managed to show the world that Islam is practical and is a life discipline even in outer space.

As a representative of Malaysian Mosques Youth Assembly, he went to Gaza to as a part of the humanitarian aid and whenever kids in Gaza saw him, in an instant, they would recognize him as an astronaut.

To put smiles on the faces of those kids in a war torn country, Sheikh has taken away the misery in their sorrow hearts, although it is temporary. But he has done his part.

My good friend Rizal (hope you're reading this), pursuing his medical degree in Indonesia, also dreams of becoming an astronaut one day, just like Sheikh.

Well Rizal, you've got a competitor. May the best man win. I'll make my six pack to become eight or nine starting tonight.

Now, where did i put my orthopaedics and traumatology text book?