Monday, June 27, 2011

Jakarta, kampung saya.


Dalam perjalanan pulang dari rumah mama, calon mama mertua saya berkata, "Wah, nanti kamu gimana yah? Sudah terbiasa kemana-mana sendiri di Jakarta yang segede gini. Nanti di Bandung mah, ya situ-situ aja." Saya menjawab dengan berhehehe. Hehehehe yang artinya saya sendiri juga belum kebayang; apakah saya yang terbiasa sumpek dengan chaosnya Jakarta akan juga merasa sumpek dengan sempitnya Bandung? On verra!

Ibukota, yang semestinya sudah dipindah ke luar Jawa, entah sejak kapan sudah jadi kian menyesakkan. Dada ini sesak karena nasib tragis para pendatang yang saya baca di berita, sesak karena asap knalpot kendaraan yang jumlahnya bak garam di lautan, sesak karena kena AC siang malam (maklum hidup tanpa AC di Jakarta badan bisa lengket bau keringetan), sesak karena uang lekas habis setelah gajian (maklum kontrakan, listrik dan uang makan sungguh menguras uang).

Dalam perjalanan pulang dari Bandung, calon kakak ipar saya bertanya, "Kamu betah tinggal di Jakarta?" Saya jawab, "Sudah terbiasa dengan ritmenya, sudah tahan banting juga dengan tekanannya, tapi sadar kalau saya pantas hidup lebih baik dari ini." Insya Allah.

Jayakarta, nama dulunya. Dari bahasa Jawa yang artinya complete victory, kemenangan mutlak. Pernah dengar nama adalah doa? Mungkin karena bawa-bawa "menang", jadilah Jakarta ajang pertandingan, antara pintar dan bodoh, kaya dan miskin, sial dan beruntung, sarjana dan tak berijazah, cantik dan jelek, aktif dan pasif, rajin dan malas, sederhana dan sombong, pendatang dan warga asli, semua bertanding. Harus pilih kalah atau menang. Tak ada zona aman.

Di tengah bincang santai di rumah mama, calon tante saya bertanya, "Bener kamu mau pindah ke Bandung? Gapapa gitu ninggalin Jakarta?" Saya jawab, "Gapapa, sudah dari lahir juga di sini, kelamaan."

Betul, dua puluh delapan tahun lalu saya dilahirkan. Di sini, di kota ini. Enam tahun sesudahnya saya ingat setiap hari melewati jalan raya Pasar Minggu, pergi ke sekolah. Jalan yang saya lalui tiap hari hingga sepuluh tahun kemudian. Saya ingat jalan itu masih lengang, meski mikrolet, metro mini dan kopaja sudah bersliweran. Saya pun tak takut menyeberang, asal, pesan mama, hati-hati lihat dulu kiri kanan. Kini, sudah setahun saya melalui rute itu lagi, bedanya sekarang bukan ke sekolah tapi ke kantor. Sungguh mengerikan untuk menyeberang jalan, para pengendara seperti kerasukan Valentino Rossi dan lupa posisi rem. Jalan ini sekarang juga saya beri nama "jalur setan." Karena melewatinya sungguh buat saya emosian. Emosi jiwa karena macetnya sungguh luar biasa, masa saya langsung menaiki bis yang dalam posisi berhenti? Iya, berhenti. Dikarenakan macetnya sudah dari depan rumah saya dan terus sampai Pancoran. Kalau normalnya butuh lima belas menit, di hari kerja memakan waktu satu setengah jam. I knoooowww... sucks!

Calon suami saya pernah bertanya, "Nanti kita kalau lebaran gimana?" Saya jawab, "Digilir saja. Setahun di Bandung, berikutnya di Jakarta, begitu seterusnya." Waduh, akhirnya bisa ngerasain pulang kampung nih!

Lahir, besar dan berasal dari bapak asli Jakarta membuat saya terkungkung di sini sini saja. Memang, mama saya asli Sumatera. Jadilah saya dua kali merasakan pulang ke kampung mama. Tapi sebagian besar hidup saya ya di kota kelahiran saya. Beruntungnya setelah besar saya punya kesempatan ke luar kota, ke luar pulau dan ke luar negeri. Jika tidak, mungkin kotak pengalaman saya akan terkungkung juga. Kalau Lebaran saya ke rumah Mbah, tadinya di Jakarta dan sekarang di lingkar luar Jakarta. Depok, Jakarta coret. Enak sih, orang-orang pada ribet, kena macet, saya ongkang-ongkang kaki di Jakarta nan lengang. Tapi boleh dong saya sedikit iri? Iri pada mereka yang harus mengeluarkan effort besar untuk bertemu sanak keluarga. Iri karena libur Lebaran kian dinanti-nanti.

Aaaaahhh.. Jadi tak sabar tinggal di luar kota. Walau Bandung hanya sekepretan dari Jakarta, tetap saja beda KTP. Eh, KTP sudah nasional ya sekarang? Gosipnya. Meski luas Bandung hanya sepersekiannya Jakarta, tetap saja tempat baru buat saya. Meski Bandung juga kota besar layaknya Jakarta, tetap saja bukan ibukota. Meski Cipularang buat Jakarta-Bandung hanya berjarak dua jam, tetap saja namanya pulang kampung buat Lebaranan. Meski Jakarta sudah mengalir kental di darah saya, tetap saja tak sabar saya untuk meninggalkannya.

Jakarta oh Jakarta, bersiaplah menjadi kampung saya!

Friday, June 24, 2011

What are your favorite books?


This question comes from Jo, what are your favorite books?
Hhhmmm.. I suddenly listing on mind. Some books come immediately, some are just gone. But if we change the question, what is your favorite book? I can surely answer this. Petit Prince.

Little Prince, translated in English, Pangeran Kecil in Bahasa Indonesia. I firstly knew this book around my first year in university. There was a small bookstore near house where Dyence, Nasto and I, both are my besties, usually visited on our way back home. I forgot the store name, but it's a special bookstore which not only sell the bestsellers, but also the uncommoners. It's a type of signatured bookstore, like the one of Kathleen Kelly in You've Got Mail. Feel like i wanna have one in the future.

Back to that time, I found Pangeran Kecil there. Eye-catching, with a draw of the little prince in color. Seducing me with his lonely pose; standing alone as seeing the sky. No needed so long to think, I grabbed it. And it wasn't expensive, just like almost all books they sell there. May God bless the owner.

So there was I, hypnotized by the prince. Finally found my true friend. I still can't believe how Antoine de Saint-Exupery read me and write it so beautifully. That's how I feel about the book. And from that moment on, the prince, Exupery and I are friends.

People often talk a lot about their friends, right? So did I. I talked about them to Monsieur Carles, a french businessman to whom I worked as an interpreter. He said that he read and love it. It's one of a kind. Children and philosophy students read it. That is what we call a book for all. Hmm.. what a good remark, Monsieur!

This is the best part. Monsieur Carles sent me Petit Prince from France! See how three of us meant for each other! Lol! So I have him in Bahasa and French. And one day, iIfound him in English, so I bought it! Yay!!

Nasto asked me to collect it in many languages. A quoi ca sert, Nasto? Since I can only speak those three languages. Lol! O yes, since I spread the magic of Little Prince everywhere, I have one special person who truly fell for him.

My dear Syarif, please allow me to share your beautiful write.
You all, be prepared for the journey. And you my Little Prince, the trip is yours.


Thursday, June 23, 2011

Ibu, keajaiban dunia.


Tak perlu ku menunggu kesempatan menjadi ibu
Tuk bergidik menghirup keagunganmu
Tak sabar ku menanti hari ibu
Tuk menyebar sucinya kasihmu

Ibu,
Memanggilmu
Ibu,
Menyentuhmu
Ibu,
Menatapmu
Ibu,
Memujamu

Tuhan bersamaku.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Il pleure dans mon coeur

Celui ci, ce n'est pas mon œuvre. Mais celui de Paul Verlaine; un poète français de la fin de siècle. Ce poème, est un de mes préfères. Des que je l’ai écouté pour la première fois dans la classe de la littérature où mon chère professeur l’a lu, je l’admire. Simple, profond et blessé.


Il pleure dans mon cœur

Il pleure dans mon cœur

Comme il pleut sur la ville.

Quelle est cette langueur

Qui pénètre mon cœur ?


Ô bruit doux de la pluie

Par terre et sur les toits !

Pour un cœur qui s’ennuie,

Ô le chant de la pluie !


Il pleure sans raison

Dans ce cœur qui s’écœure.

Quoi ! Nulle trahison ?

Ce deuil est sans raison.


C’est bien la pire peine

De ne savoir pourquoi,

Sans amour et sans haine,

Mon cœur a tant de peine.

Paul Verlaine

Photo


Thursday, June 16, 2011

WHY?


The world wasn't this cruel.
People weren't this blind.
Leaders weren't this deaf.
Media wasn't this fool.

The air wasn't this dirty.
Rivers weren't this dark.
The earth wasn't this hot.
The sky wasn't this gray.

Children's eyes weren't this sorrowful.
Young people weren't this disrespectful.
And I, wasn't this faithless to the future.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Aujourd’hui, c’est à Yenq!


C’est jeudi ici, là bien sûr aussi.

C’est le seize juin au présent, l’anniversaire de quelqu’un.

C’est mon amie, ma meilleure amie.

C’est une fille, s’appelle Yenq.


Joyeux anniversaire, ma chérie.

Vois le soleil est bien éclairé.

Que ce jour soit beau, ma chérie.

Comme ces jours qu’on a passés.


Aujourd’hui c’est à toi.

Aujourd’hui tout le bonheur t’approchera.

Aujourd’hui nasto, dyence, dewo, karcut, boiq et moi volerons chez toi.

Aujourd’hui les anges seront occupés de noter nos prières, spéciales.


Que notre chère Yenq ait toujours de la bonne santé, des expériences superbes, des bonnes notes, des super repas, des petits amis charmants, de la paix d’âme, du succès, de l’amour et de la joie éternelle.


Amen.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Hightech cellphone, introversion and I.


Nasto, a bestie of mine, once asked me whether I'm an introvert or extrovert person. I answered that I'm always kinda confused to categorize myself based on that. But today, I finally find the answer. Here it goes, Nasto.

I cant precise the year, but I remember that I was student that time. When Yahoo Messenger, also well known as YM, was a la mode, or it's still now? Dunno. Young people who started to use internet actively exchange their YM ID so that they can meet in their chat box. I don't know exactly how YM works, but my friends seem happy to communicate with others by using YM. While me, I wasn't interested to chat with others because I already have an intensive communication with people I want. So I wasn't a la mode.

Blackberry (BB) is a smart-phone which with it people not only can make a call and send sms, but also e-mailing and connecting to internet through mobile network service or Wi-Fi. It was released in 2003 and commonly use in Jakarta around 2006, as I remember. My friends, who are technology up-daters threw their conventional cellphone and started to use BB. And it didn't took so long for Jakarta people to follow the trend massively. I can see BB everywhere, in my house -mom and sister in law are two of the tech up-daters- at the office, mall, public transportation, even in public restroom -not the visitor, but the cleaning service officers.-

High tech means high price? Yes, it is. BB is an expensive stuff for me, from the launching and even 'till now. I was curious with "what make people adore it," so I asked them how they advantage their BB. Face-booking, BBM(Blackberry Messenger)-ing and chatting (most using YM). Hhmm.. not that interesting. But still, BB is a la mode!

My besties and I entered the working life since 2006. Since that we hardly arrange our time to hang out and update our news. Finding out that people out there are not so nice, we become more addicted one to other. Okay, we need to communicate intensively. We benefited phone call, sms and gtalk (Google messenger) at first, but since two of my besties live overseas, phone call and sms aren't recommended. So we become active skypers (Skype is also a messenger), we have conference chat almost every day and a video call sometimes. It's all for free! May God bless the inventor! Lol!

I connect to internet on work days and work hours only, by Wi-Fi in my office. So on weekend, I lost contact with my besties while the addiction grows more. Nasto and Karcut, who already use smart-phone (BB and i-phone), provoke me to buy it so that we can communicate whenever and wherever. Considering the need and the price, I decided not to buy it. It's still expensive for me though!

Until last week, I finally buy one -not BB neither i-phone- which is much cheaper! Yay! Samsung galaxy mini, my first smart-phone. Since I'm not a high-tech person, I need much time and concentration to learn using it. And communication problem solved! I'm online on skype most of time and we even find a new application, whatsup! It can connect BB, i-phone and other smart-phone with Android (this one you can googling) in it. I start to love tech! Lol!

With this phone, I can also be online in other social network and ready to chat. I was, for several first days. But no oh no, I can't help being online everywhere like others. When the phone beeps because of a "hi" from someone on my friend-list, I was panic. Feel I'm being forced to chat with him/her. Soooo uncomfortable! Now I realize that those who I want and need to communicate everyday are my besties and my boyfriend. They are more than enough to brighten up my days!

So Nasto, I'm online on skype, gtalk and whatsup where I can find you all there. And yes, I'm an introvert, dear! I'm not loner but I tend to have fewer numbers of friends, those who I believe are truly friends. I know that I have a good social skills, but I'm well energized by you all. Should I ask for more?