Di Radio, Aku Dengar...

Di radio
aku dengar
lagu kesayanganmu
...

(Kugadaikan Cintaku - Gombloh)


Bukan, bukan karena ketika saya membuat posting ini waktunya bertepatan dengan malam minggu, malam yang dirutuki 'aku' dalam lagu di atas. Tulisan saya menyinggung-nyinggung lagu tersebut lebih karena hari ini saya baru saja selesai membaca kumpulan artikel tulisan almarhum Umar Kayam, "Sketsa-sketsa Umar Kayam - Mangan Ora Mangan Kumpul", dan dalam buku tersebut ada cuplikan potongan lagu seniman yang juga sudah almarhum, Gombloh. Rasanya kenangan masa kecil melesat ke depan mata saya ketika saya menyimak potongan lagu tersebut.

Saat lagu Gombloh itu menjadi hit, saya masih kecil, kira-kira masih kelas dua-tiga SD. Berhubung lagu seniman nyentrik itu cukup catchy di kuping anak-anak (Tapi apa sih yang tidak catchy di telinga anak-anak? Jingle iklan, lagu anak-anak, lagu dewasa, lagu berbahasa Inggris, lagu berbahasa India, lagu berbahasa Mandarin, sumpah-serapah dalam sinetron, you name it...), maka dengan mudah saya mengingat lagu tersebut dan bahkan merekamnya dalam ingatan masa kecil saya yang masih indah dikenang-kenang hingga kini, meski sekarang tidak secara utuh lagu tersebut saya ingat syairnya. Apalagi lagu tersebut sering diputar di radio Suzana, radio paling ngetop di Surabaya (menurut saya) yang beruntung punya penggemar setia seperti saya (lho?).

Tapi ya itu, saya suka lagu tersebut tidak sampai yang sukaaaa sekali. Paling saya suka lagu tersebut karena memang sedang ngetop dan rumah Gombloh itu satu kompleks dengan rumah saya, jadi rasanya lain begitu, jadi ikutan bangga (Duh, bolehnya bangga padahal siapa coba yang ngetop? Terus, kita kan cuma tetanggaan saja, hehehe. Sudah begitu dia dan saya itu tetangga jauhhhhh - tuh, lima 'h' berarti jauh sekali kan?). Saking bangganya sampai saya pernah sepedaan dengan teman saya ke rumah Gombloh, di saat matahari Surabaya sedang terik-teriknya (yang dengan sukses bikin kulit saya yang aslinya hitam jadi tambah gosong). Sampai depan rumah Gombloh, ya sudah, lihat-lihat dari luar siapa tahu ada Gombloh, kemudian lanjut lagi keliling-keliling kompleks. Hm, benar-benar dunia kanak-kanak yang begitu sederhana dan indah.

Lagu-lagu dari masa kecil yang justru membawa kesan khusus tersendiri, beberapa di antaranya justru adalah lagu-lagunya Ari Wibowo dan Ervina. Saya sudah lupa judulnya, tapi waktu saya cari di Google, ada satu lagu yang dinyanyikan mereka berdua, judulnya 'Angin Surga'. Tahu tidak, kenapa berkesan? Waduh, sebenarnya konyol alasannya. Soalnya, waktu itu lagu Ari Wibowo-Ervina dikonteskan di radio Suzana. Maksud saya, radio itu bikin lomba nyanyi lagu duet mereka berdua.

Nah, saya saking seringnya dengar lagu duet tersebut, saya jadi hafal lagu itu dan kepikiran untuk ikut kontes tersebut bareng ... Om saya. Om saya itu jarak umurnya cukup dekat (tapi juga cukup jauh) dan kita berdua sudah seperti orang kurang waras saja, nyanyi-nyanyi lagu yang dilombain di lantai atas ... tempat menjemur baju. Andai saja ada yang mendaftarkan kita ikut lomba tersebut saat itu, bisa-bisa kita jadi peserta termuda dan ternekat. Lha wong suara pas-pasan, bocah ingusan pula, kok berani-beraninya ikut-ikut lomba orang dewasa?!

Tapi coba memang saya benar-benar ikut lomba itu ya, saya dan om saya mungkin sudah diliput koran walau cuma koran setempat, hehehe. Ari Wibowo, Ari Wibowo, ke mana ya penyanyi yang selalu berkaca mata gelap itu? Jadi kangen dengar lagu-lagu ringannya...

Madu
di tangan kananmu
Racun
di tangan kirimu
Aku tak tahu mana yang
akan kau berikan padaku
...

(Madu dan Racun - Ari Wibowo)

Ehehehe, Metty Bandel, Ma!

Iya, mestinya saya masih dalam masa off dulu nih dari nge-blog, berhubung pingin fokus kus kus kus ke tesis. Tapi gimana dong nih, udah kangen untuk bikin tulisan, jadilah mampir ke blogger.com dan ... voila! Here I am now :D

Ceritanya Kamis minggu kemarin saya sempat sakit. Baru Selasa kemarin terasa benar-benar sembuh. Sakitnya biasa, typhus (baca: tipes). Eh, aneh ya, saya bilang 'biasa'? Yah, berhubung saya anak pertama - saya selalu percaya bahwa anak pertama adalah anak 'percobaan', i.e. 'percobaan' orang tua kita jadi orang tua untuk pertama kalinya, sehingga nggak heran kalau anak pertama sering sakit-sakitan (Well, mungkin ini berlaku buat saya aja, sih.) - sakit typhus sih biasaaa. Pada dasarnya saya nggak boleh terlalu capek, tapi yah, mau gimana lagi. Wong sudah tuntutan pekerjaan makanya bolak-balik Salemba-Gatsu-Depok dilakoni saja. Yang biasanya baik-baik saja ndilalah jadi tidak kuat. Ya sudah lah. Namanya juga waktunya sakit, jadi terima saja. Mudah-mudahan bisa jadi penggugur dosa-dosa di masa lalu.

Nah, sekarang sudah puas tulis-tulis, maka waktunya bagi saya untuk... kembali offline :) Eiya, ingat, saya sudah sembuh jadi tidak perlu dikirimi bunga, oke? Chocolate will do, though ;)


PS.
Buat yang bingung baca tulisan saya sebelumnya ('La vie c'est tres dur'), tenang. Nanti akan saya bikin terjemahannya... dalam bahasa Madura, hahahaha!!!

La vie c'est tres dur

On le sait
Mais il est devenue plus dur
Ce jour la

Pemulung

"Mbak, nggak usah pakai plastik deh. Ini tas saya muat kok."

Macam-macam reaksi yang saya terima jika saya saya minta kepada pramuniaga di kasir untuk tidak membungkus belanjaan saya dengan kantong plastik. Ada yang heran dan seterusnya masih dengan keheranan memandangi saya memasukkan belanjaan ke tas kain yang saya bawa; ada yang sedikit gusar karena beberapa barang belanjaan saya telah ia masukkan ke kantong plastik; ada juga yang dengan ringan mengabulkan permintaan saya, tanpa pandangan kebingungan ataupun keheranan. Di antara sekian reaksi yang saya terima, kebanyakan yang mengemuka adalah reaksi "tersenyum membolehkan tapi dengan tatapan penuh tanda tanya" - yang membuat saya jadi balik bertanya-tanya dalam hati:

Terlalu anehkah permintaan saya?

Pada kondisi saya tidak membawa tas yang cukup besar untuk memuat barang belanjaan saya atau tempat saya berbelanja tidak mengizinkan saya membawa belanjaan saya tanpa kantong plastik meskipun hal itu memungkinkan (berbelanja di toko buku G......a, misalnya), maka (dengan terpaksa) saya tidak keberatan menggunakan kantong plastik. Hanya saya akan lebih suka pulang tanpa membawa tambahan satu dua kantong plastik lagi untuk disimpan.

Ya, disimpan. Di lemari saya ada satu kantong plastik hitam yang berisi lipatan-lipatan kantong plastik lainnya. Dan setiap saya pulang belanja (Catatan: pulang belanja dari toko-toko ber-AC. Kalau dari pasar tradisional, kantongnya malas saya simpan. Lha masa kantong bekas bungkus ikan mau disimpan juga? Nggak lah ya!) membawa kantong plastik dari tempat saya belanja, hampir bisa dipastikan kantong tersebut akan saya lipat rapi dan saya simpan di kantong plastik hitam tadi. Begitu juga kalau ada orang rumah yang membawa kantong plastik belanjaan. Kalau plastiknya bersih dan tidak bau, akan saya lipat juga dan saya simpan.

Hehehe, saya jadi seperti pemulung saja ya? Habis, bagaimana lagi? Saya tidak suka kalau saya harus membuang kantong plastik bekas belanjaan begitu saja. Rasanya bersalah bila saya melakukannya. Entah kenapa. Mungkin saya merasa sayang melihat kantong plastik yang masih layak guna dibuang begitu saja. Di samping itu, dengan membuang kantong plastik, saya merasa ikut andil menghasilkan lebih banyak sampah yang tak terserap tanah, seakan-akan sampah plastik yang sudah ada sekarang masih kurang.

Eh, tapi saya bukannya sok idealis atau ingin kelihatan sok mulia lho. Buktinya, tidak semua kantong plastik yang saya jumpai saya simpan. Lumayan sering juga saya malas menyimpan kantong plastik belanjaan dan malah membuangnya. Lama-lama sebal juga melihat kantong plastik hitam di lemari saya itu menggelembung, jadi beberapa kantong plastik belanjaan tidak saya simpan melainkan saya buang atau saya jadikan kantong untuk menampung sampah, atau saya pakai untuk membungkus sesuatu yang akan saya berikan kepada orang lain.

Saya paling suka dengan pendekatan 'menyingkirkan kantong plastik' yang terakhir saya sebut, karena dengan demikian saya dapat 'berpisah' dengan kantong plastik dengan cara 'baik-baik', yaitu memindahtangankan atawa mentransfernya ke orang lain. Masalah nanti orang lain itu akan membuang atau menyimpannya sudah bukan urusan saya. Yang penting, bebas euy! Lagipula, memangnya enak, jadi 'pemulung' seumur hidup?!

And the statistics said...

Drum roll, please?

Ta-da! :)

Alhamdulillah. Mind you, this is not an act of boasting. Just trying to celebrate moments in life, however small they are/seem to be. And thanking Allah the Almighty, of course...

Maafin

You might have received an e-mail containing this jpg file. I thought it would very much fit this Eid Mubarak moment and my sincere wish.

Memorable Eid Mubarak Greetings

This year's Eid Mubarak I received several short messages via my cellular (SMS). Among those SMSes, there were some greetings that I just couldn't miss. So I decide to write them down. Who knows next year I could use these materials to send you my next year's Eid Mubarak greeting (so uncreative of me!)?

Andai jari tidak kuasa (tangan tak sempat) berjabat,
setidaknya kata masih dapat terungkap.
Setulus hati mengucapkan
Selamat Idul Fitri 1425 H ...
(Patria/Iggi)

Taqabalallahu minna wa minkum,
shiyamanna wa shiyamakum.
Selamat 'Iedul Fitri ...
(Dephi)

Sebelum Ramadhan usai,
sebelum lebaran tiba,
sebelum jaringan dan operator sibuk.
Selamat hari raya Idul Fitri.
Mohon maaf lahir batin.
(Sondi)

Bila ada langkah membekas lara,
bila ada kata merangkai dusta,
bila ada tingkah menoreh luka,
mohon dimaafkan.
Minal aidin walfaidzin 1425 H.
(Meta S2)

Untuk lisan yang tak terjaga (Jika ada kata yang tak terjaga),
janji yang terabaikan,
(akal dan) hati yang berprasangka
dan semua sikap yang pernah menyakitkan
(dan semua sikap yang tidak menyenangkan/semua luka yang menoreh luka & kecewa),
mohon maaf lahir batin ...
(Romaz/Kokko/Meci)

Setitik maaf di lautan dosa
laksana lentera di kegelapan.
Ramadhan berlalu tinggalkan kita.
Semoga terkenang dalam amalan ...
(Isti)

Hembusan angin kemenangan pada hari yang fitri
merobohkan semua dinding keangkuhan
dan membuka pintu keikhlasan
'tuk saling memaafkan ...
(Umar SFS)

Jernihkan hati, sucikan diri.
Mohon maaf lahir batin.
(Iboy)

Ketupat pulut di atas bara,
hendak direbus di tepi perigi.
SMS dihantar sebagai perantara
ucapkan "S'lamat Idul Fitri 1 Syawal 1425 H" ...
(Dian UIN)

Takbir dikumandangkan, Idul Fitri kita jelang.
Mari bersihkan hati, berbagi kasih dan mensyukuri rahmatNya.
Selamat Idul Fitri 1425 H ...
(Diarmila Sutedja)

Selamat Idul Fitri 1425H.
Taqobbalallohu minna wa minkum.
Kullu 'am wa antum bi khair.
Mohon maaf atas segala kesalahan.
(Sigit)

Slamat Idul Fitri.
Smoga Allah meridhai amal ibadah kita di bulan Ramadhan ini
dan memanjangkan umur kita agar dapat berjumpa kembali dengan bulan Ramadhan
tahun depan :)
(Yulianti)

Indahnya saling memaafkan
dengan hati yang suci.
Selamat merayakan hari kemenangan
"Idul Fitri 1425 H" ...
(unknown)

Adakala mata salah melihat,
mulut salah mengucap,
telinga salah mendengar,
hati salah menduga.
Selamat Idul Fitri, mohon maaf lahir batin.
(Ratih 28)

Semoga untaian badah menjadi ungkapan syukur terindah
di hari kemenangan ini.
Mengucapkan "Selamat Idul Fitri 1425 H, mohon maaf lahir/batin".
(Neni SFS S1)


And here's my greeting to you all - guaranteed original :)

Happy Eid-el-Fitr!

Semoga Allah menerima amal ibadah kita selama Ramadhan.

Bila ada salah saya yang menyinggung perasaan,

mohon kiranya dimaafkan.

Thanks.

-Metty-

Never bite more than you could chew

But I did, and still do...

Figures on the bottom-right corner of my laptop showed '11:27 AM'. "Shoot! Why does this copy-paste works fail me at difficult times like this?" I grumbled to myself. I was supposed to have an appointment in Salemba at 12, but there I was, still busy moving tables from Excel to MS Word. A colleague was expecting me to send him the Word file via e-mail immediately, so I couldn't budge from my chair until I got it all done.

Darn! As time was drawing near the dreaded appointment schedule, I was showing all the signs a restless person could show: tuneless-tones humming, nervous-hands clasping, sighing and re-sighing. I guess the coffee I drank this dawn had something to do with the anxiety - a lot.

Finally, after several efforts of correcting the split-up tables, I managed to solve the problems by simply forget the idea of putting on titles over each of the tables. I darted to my room as soon as the word 'Sent' popped up on the screen. And it's 11.57 already! Arrggghhh!!! I called the person I was about to meet, saying that I would arrive there at 12.30.

Yeah, so much of a rain check. Been trying hard to be at the promised venue as fast as I could, though, which means driving like mad! Note this: leaving my home (near Warung Buncit area) at 12.05, arriving at Salemba at 12.40. Well, I guess it was not fast enough, but with a bit traffic jams and traffic lights here and there (I thought traffic 3 days before Eid-el-Fitr would be more smooth but clearly I was wrong), it was not bad, was it?

Finished with the supposed-to-be 12 o'clock meeting, other task was already waiting for execution. It's like this almost every day - I run from one place to another place to get my jobs done. When I say 'run', I mean 'run' literally. The whole thing makes me feel like a juggler: I have to be able to do several tasks at the same time (the IT people call it 'multitasking').

A dear friend has warned me to focus on one or two jobs because I'm lousy at working in a parallel way. 'Don't bite more than you could chew' is the ideal paraphrase for it. But I did, and still do...

Kecil-kecil Jadi Pengusaha

Subhanallah, Ramadhan sudah 2 minggu ya! Ck, nggak kerasa. Kalau sudah mendekati Lebaran seperti ini, pas banget kalau kita... JUALAN!

Kebanyakan orang pasti merasa aneh mendengarnya. Buat mereka, sekarang ini waktunya MEMBELI sesuatu buat Lebaran dan bukan berjualan. Yah, harap maklum, otak saya ini otak dagang. Kalau lihat barang yang terpikir di pikiran saya adalah "Saya bisa nggak ya bikin/jualan barang ini?" Well, nggak selalu gitu juga sih, tapi sekali dua kali pikiran itu melintas di benak saya.

Saya nggak tahu apa ini ada hubungannya dengan keturunan, karena memang saya ini dilahirkan di keluarga yang sedikit banyak merupakan keluarga pedagang, terutama dari sisi ayah. Almarhum kakek saya dulu pedagang sapi (tipikal orang Madura) dan istrinya juga pedagang (tapi saya lupa nenek saya itu dulu jualan apa). Kalau pakde saya bisnisnya jual beli mobil bekas. Itu baru dari saudara dekat. Belum lagi saudara-saudara jauh yang rata-rata jadi pedagang.

Dari sisi ibu saya, ada beberapa saudara yang juga berprofesi sebagai pedagang, kendati tidak sebanyak pada keluarga ayah. Almarhumah mbah putri saya dulu pernah berjualan kue untuk membantu ekonomi rumah tangga. Lalu Om saya adalah peternak (dan sudah pasti penjual) sapi. Makanya, nggak heran kan kalau saya juga suka berjualan? ;)


Sejarah saya 'berbisnis' sudah dimulai sejak di bangku SD. Karena ibu saya adalah seorang dokter, beliau sering mendapat merchandise seperti bolpen, block note, map, dan printil-printil alat tulis lainnya dari dealer obat (obat legal, mind you, bukan obat terlarang). Beberapa merchandise tersebut lucu-lucu (bukan lucu yang bikin orang ketawa lho) bentuk atau warnanya, dan saya jadi senang mengumpulkannya. Tapi lama-lama barang-barang yang dibawa ibu kian banyak, dan "Ting"! Di otak saya yang waktu itu masih kelas 5-6 SD tercetus ide untuk menjual beberapa dari barang-barang tersebut.

Begitulah. Mulailah saya berjualan map, block note, bolpen, kaleng tempat bolpen, dan lain-lain. Saya ingat, map waktu itu satunya saya jual Rp 50, lalu block note Rp 200. Menyenangkan deh, karena saya jadi punya tambahan uang yang sebagian saya tabung dan sebagian buat jajan. Ceritanya, kecil-kecil udah tajir*. Tentunya dari sudut pandang anak kecil lho ya, dan tajirnya juga nggak tajir-tajir amat kok :)

Alhamdulillah orang tua saya tidak melarang saya jualan. Mereka sih senang-senang saja saya bisa menghasilkan uang sendiri. Kaget juga saya ketika saya baca suatu artikel. Di situ diceritakan ada orang tua yang melarang anaknya jualan. Alasannya, mereka punya cukup uang untuk membiayai uang jajan si anak. Mungkin mereka malu kalau ada orang lain yang tahu bahwa anak mereka berjualan. "Nanti disangka saya tidak bisa kasih uang jajan ke anak saya," mungkin itu yang dipikirkan para orang tua macam ini.

Wah, salah besar tuh pikiran seperti itu. Membiarkan anak mencoba berbisnis sebenarnya banyak manfaatnya. Setidaknya hal itu akan menanamkan percaya diri dan positive thinking (pemikiran positif) pada anak. Anak akan berpikir, "Wah, saya bisa juga ya menghasilkan sesuatu dari jerih payah sendiri." Selanjutnya anak akan berpikiran bahwa tidak ada yang bisa dikerjakan jika ia mau mencobanya. Anak juga akan terdidik untuk mulai mandiri. Ia jadi terbiasa untuk mengusahakan sendiri uang yang akan digunakan untuk membiayai pengeluarannya. Ujung-ujungnya, ya dia akan percaya diri. Terakhir, anak jadi belajar untuk menjadi enterpreneur alias wirausahawan. Negara ini butuh banyak wirausahawan, dan sangat bagus jika sejak kecil anak-anak telah dididik untuk menjadi wirausahawan.

Iya sih, itu kalau bisnisnya berhasil. Bagaimana kalau gagal? Nggak apa-apa. Dia akan belajar sesuatu, paling tidak belajar untuk merasakan pengalaman gagal. Orang tua cukup mendorong anak untuk tidak berputus asa. Kalau gagal terus? Yah, paling tidak, anak itu jadi sadar kalau doing business is not in his/her blood, hehehe.

Oke, mari kita kembali ke masa kini. Menjelang Lebarang tahun ini saya berjualan kemeja lengan panjang untuk perempuan. Maunya berjualan kemeja batik seperti tahun lalu, tapi nggak sempat nih cari barangnya ke Tanah Abang (iya, saya ambil barangnya dari sana). Besok insyaallah saya mulai menawarkan kue-kue lebaran. Yang bikin ibu dan saudara saya, sementara saya kebagian tugas promosi dan berjualan di kantor saya. Doakan jualan saya laku ya? Kalau bisa, sekalian aja cobain jualan saya. Enak lho! Mau beli? :)


*tajir = bahasa betawi untuk 'kaya'

Ifthor

Huaaaaa!!!! Seminggu terakhir kerjaan saya bolak-balik Depok-Gatsu-Salemba. My life is on the road! Apalagi di Jakarta yang dalam tahun-tahun terakhir kemacetannya makin menggila. Mau pergi ke suatu tempat harus setidaknya 2 jam sebelumnya atau tanggung risiko telat. Andai ada mesin yang memungkinkan kita pergi ke mana-mana dalam sekejap, seperti pintu ajaibnya Doraemon... Yeah, in your dream, Met.

Tapi sudahlah. Mungkin di dalam perjalanan kita (saya, lebih tepatnya) malah jadi punya waktu untuk berpikir dan merenungi apa yang sudah kita lewati dan menyusun rencana untuk mengerjakan apa yang belum kita kerjakan sampai saat ini (a.k.a ngelamun), melihat sekeliling untuk mengambil pelajaran dari apa yang kita lihat dan kita dengar lalu bersyukur atas apa yang kita miliki/orang lain telah capai atau beristighfar atas kelalaian dan kesombongan kita (alias ngeliatin orang lain dan apa yang sedang ia lakukan), atau bila kita beruntung mendapatkan kursi di bis/kereta/disupiri, kita bisa sejenak beristirahat (maksud saya, tidur, gitu).

Lepas dari itu, gara-gara lebih banyak di jalan, akses ke komputer dan internet jadi menurun drastis dan saya jadi tidak sempat membuat posting untuk blog ini. Kalau buka blog sih masih dilakoni, tapi untuk bikin posting dibutuhkan waktu yang cukup dan feeling yang pas (alasan klise, hehehe). Hihihi, jadi malu karena disambangi teman-teman tapi posting baru tak kunjung ada. Akhirnya, di antara segabruk pe er yang masih harus saya kerjakan, plus di antara undangan-undangan ifthor atau buka puasa yang lamban namun pasti makin banyak menghampiri hp saya, tercapai juga keinginan bikin tulisan baru.

Tentang ifthor rasanya tahun ini nggak banyak undangan ifthor yang saya terima. Sejauh ini baru ada acara ifthor bareng teman-teman sekelas di S1 dulu (sudah diadakan kemarin) dan bareng teman-teman di Bursa Mahasiswa (BM)* nanti sore (Padahal saya bukan anggotanya lho. Habis dulu saya hampir setiap hari nongkrong di BM, jadi sudah dianggap keluarga sendiri, mungkin :P). Sementara tahun lalu, ada sekitar 4 undangan ifthor yang saya hadiri. Nggak banyak juga sih, tapi kan tetap saja masih lebih banyak daripada tahun ini.

Sedih juga rasanya karena kesempatan bersilaturahim jadi tidak ada. Mungkin kesibukan telah menenggelamkan banyak orang hingga sulit menaut janji untuk bertemu sejenak demi mempererat lagi hubungan yang telah merenggang. Tapi yang paling sedih adalah jika kesempatan untuk ifthor dengan keluarga sendiri makin berkurang, which is exactly what is happening to me. I miss you, my family.


*Bursa Mahasiswa, disingkat BM, adalah organisasi kemahasiswaan di FEUI yang bergerak dalam penyediaan buku, ATK, makanan dan minuman, dan barang-barang yang dibutuhkan mahasiswa. Semacam koperasi mahasiswa. Lokasi: Lobi A Kampus Baru FEUI Depok. Kalau ke sana, mampir ya! :)

Ramadhan 3 Hari Lagi!

Dari sekitar dua minggu lalu, gembar-gembor mengenai datangnya bulan suci bagi umat Islam di seluruh dunia sudah mulai ramai. Iklan acara televisi untuk penayangan selama masa Ramadhan sering 'berkeliaran' di layar kaca kita. Banyak orang jadi mulai tersiapkan secara mental - paling tidak mengingat-ingat atau mencari tahu tanggal berapa shaum Ramadhan dimulai (ya tanggal 1 Ramadhan dong, kok bingung sih? ^_^)

Di tempat saya bekerja sekarang, si bos minta pekerjaan-pekerjaan yang penting diselesaikan sebelum Ramadhan dimulai. Alasannya, pada saat Ramadhan fokus orang adalah pada ibadah. Ah, tapi kemudian bos saya mengedipkan matanya, karena maksudnya fokus kebanyakan orang di bulan Ramadhan adalah "Jam berapa adzan maghrib hari ini?".

Saya sebenarnya nggak suka kalau Ramadhan dijadikan alasan buat menurunkan produktivitas bekerja kita. Malah dengan berpuasa kita jadi bisa lebih berkonsentrasi pada pelaksanaan/penyelesaian pekerjaan kita, dan bukan pada "Siang ini kita lunch di mana ya?"

Tapi saya nggak munafik juga sih. Di tempat saya dulu bekerja, sering kali saya harus menahan kantuk, sementara bos ada di meja sebelah (maklum, di divisi saya, atasan dan bawahan bekerja di satu meja yang sama, yaitu sebuah meja yang panjanggg macam meja untuk jamuan makan). Biasanya jam 10 'momen-momen kritis' saya sudah dimulai. Sebenarnya jadwal tersebut berlaku juga untuk hari-hari di luar Ramadhan, tapi setidaknya pada saat itu ada secangkir kopi susu yang bisa diteguk untuk membuka mata ini. Sedang di bulan Ramadhan, it's impossible - tentu saja kecuali jika saya sedang 'berhalangan', hehehe.

Jadi apa yang saya lakukan? Yah, kalau sudah tidak dapat ditahan lagi, saya kabur saja ke toilet dan cuci muka. Atau buka-buka e-mail untuk mengalihkan perhatian ke hal-hal yang bisa bikin kepala ringan lagi. Atau sholat Dhuha. Tapi pernah sekali saya benar-benar mengantuk. Waktu itu saya berhasil bertahan membuka mata sampai waktu Dzuhur, meskipun itu harus melalui perjuangan yang amat sangat keras.

Begitu selesai sholat Dzuhur, saya sudah tidak tahan lagi. Kebetulan sholat Dzuhur di kantor saya waktu itu dilakukan di ruang rapat. Saat duduk berdzikir, saya melihat ada kolong di meja di sudut ruangan yang sepertinya pas untuk ... bersembunyi dan tidur. Daripada melalui jam-jam mendatang penuh dengan siksaan kantuk, maka saya memutuskan untuk menggelar sajadah saya di kolong meja tersebut dan berbaring lalu tidur.

Berhubung ngantuk sekali, ya tidak perlu waktu lama-lama buat saya untuk dapat terlelap. Sempat saya terbangun dan mendapati ada teman kantor yang sholat, tapi saya pura-pura tidak tahu teman saya itu tahu dan melanjutkan tidur saya. Ketika terbangun, badan saya pun segar kembali.

Entahlah. Sejak bekerja, rasanya toleransi tubuh saya untuk begadang makin berkurang. Kalau waktu tidur berkurang, harus digantikan. Kalau perlu waktu penggantiannya lebih lama, hehehe. Beginilah tanda-tanda penuaan...

By the way, selamat menunaikan ibadah shaum bagi teman-teman sekalian yang muslim. Mohon maafnya ya jika selama ini saya ada salah-salah. Semoga maaf yang teman-teman berikan bisa membuat saya memulai shaum Ramadhan tahun ini dalam kondisi yang 'suci'.

Selamat bershaum!

In Love and War: KRL*

Hop!

Finally I made it to get in. Oops, it's not over yet. Behind me, people were still pushing in to find their way in. 'Hm, I'd better turn to the right,' I said to myself. And better quick, because I hated the way this person behind me pushing me; He - I guessed the person must have been a guy - was like poking my bootie. As I found a nice spot to stand, I looked to my right to see who the person was, and yes, I got my guess perfectly right. A short guy in yellow shirt took a place nearby me and looked straight outside the window innocently.

For the rest of the journey, I kept my guard on and watched the guy through the corner of my eye restlessly. Nevertheless the hot air and my anxiety to get to Depok as fast as possible made me able to distract my thought away from the guy. There was an electric fan over my head, but alas, it was broken. The air wouldn't have been that hot if there weren't many people blocking the air circulation from and to the windows and the open doors.

Well, I'd better stand it. This was so far the fastest means of transportation during Friday's afternoon traffic in Jakarta. To rely on other means of transportation was not a wise thing to do as traffic was getting worse in this Indonesia's capital city. If I took a bus, the fastest time I got to Depok from Salemba would have been two hours. The difference would not be much if I went on my car - a time saving of +/- 30 minutes - plus it did not justify the weariness and the stress I had to bear upon driving through the streets of Jakarta.

So, to hell with the hot air and the crowd and the flirtious & harrassing guys and the ever-ready pickpockets. My aim was to get to the destination I was heading to as fast as I could and KRL suited my need the best. I guess this must have been the same reason so many people in the Great Jakarta area choose to get on this means of transportation despite all the inconvenience. Okay, we had busway, but was there a busway transportation running to and fro the outskirt of Jakarta?

Next reason: low ticket price. With 1,500 Indonesian rupiahs** (around US$ 1.5 cent), you could go as far from Depok to Jakarta Kota, or the other way around. Some people in fact do not bother to go to the ticket booth and buy the ticket. If one has to travel that far, it sure is a real bargain. With ticket price so low, it is logical that travelling security and convenience are luxuries we can only dream of.

But do we have to take the poor treatment from the KAI (PT. Kereta Api Indonesia, the KRL operator) for granted all of our lives? KRL is a mass transportation and we are human beings, not animals nor lifeless things. Shouldn't the government make it one of their top priorities, providing a more humane means of transportation for the people?

Okay, in one point, the government has succeeded in providing a cheap means of transportation. But the homework does not stop to that. I wish the government officials would be willing to take time to ride on the KRL and they would understand what I'm trying to say here. But nah, I reckon they will be too proud to jostle in the KRL with other passangers. Or if they would, they'll ride on the locomotive or on the business class. Yeah, they might as well take a chopper...

Judging all that, it is urgent to make a great deal of changes regarding KRL. Yet I believe there will be some people who go against the changes. To mention a few, there's those people selling beverages, food/snack, candies and cigarettes, fruits, women accessories, books and maps, etc. you name it - who can really get to your nerve if they keep pushing their way onward amidst the dense crowd; and then beggars and handicapped people looking for some money by singing or simply dragging their body over the KRL floor; train singers or music bands (a phenomenon which perhaps we can only find in Indonesia) who sometimes are more of a nuisance than provide entertainment; traders who find KRL to be the cheapest transportation there is to take their bulks of merchandise; and you might never guess this: parents with children who just learn to walk - KRL is a playland for their children!

To wrap my posting, I guess this motto will be just perfect for KRL:

KRL - Find a lot MORE meaning to the word 'travel'!

*Kereta Rel Listrik or Electrically-powered Train

**Tariff for the economy class

Songs You Grow Up With

Never do I live my everyday life without listening to music. Well, in events like travelling out of town, it is not easy to get a grab of a teevee or radio. Still, I can make the music play out loud inside my head and I would hum along a bit - I don't want to make everyone start staring at me admiringly and beg for my signature if I sing the whole song ;)

I guess I owe my ears for music to my dear mom. She has always liked to listen to the radio or music tape. It is because of her that I know songs like "New York-Rio-Tokyo", "Careless Whisper", or Vina Panduwinata's "Burung Camar" and her other songs, and also Harvey Malaiholo's song collection. In fact, the songs are like tokens of stages of my growth.

"New York-Rio-Tokyo" was a song that remind me of the time when my family and I would go to malls or to my uncle's house on our car on Saturday nights, when we still lived in Surabaya. That's because the tape that contained the song was played more frequently than any other music tapes we had (yeah, like we had had many music tapes), during our journey. I was like 4 or 5 years old at that time.

And then I got Peabo Bryson's song. No, not that Aladdin's soundtrack. I'm talking about Bryson's song that became the theme song of Santa Barbara soap opera. Remember? I can't bring up with the title but I'm sure you know what I mean. The song was like the theme song for my life at the age of 10-12, when I was already in Jakarta and spoke "gue-elo" instead of "aku-kamu".

Woosh... Let's speed to the era of Spice Girls. When Spice Girls released their first album, I was busy preparing for my state university entrance test, or what we all knew as UMPTN. Great song it was to 'spice up' my spirit for studying.

"Leaving on a Jet Plane" was a must-remember song. I have so many songs that I like but I never get to remember the lyrics of any of them, except for this one. I was in my third/fourth year student when the song became a hit, and it was like the right song for me to express my heart sentiment during that full-of-moments-of-broken-heart of time. Not that the lyrics suited to what was happening. It just felt 'right'. And since the song was not so difficult to remember, I chanced to learn and remember it. Yippee! At last, I have a song to sing for karaoke!

Talking about songs to celebrate a broken heart, I find this song very very representative. How about you?

Mengapa Firaun Membangun Piramid?

Dan berkatalah Firaun:
"Hai Haman, buatkanlah bagiku sebuah bangunan yang tinggi supaya aku sampai ke pintu-pintu, (yaitu) pintu-pintu langit, supaya aku dapat melihat Tuhan Musa dan sesungguhnya aku memandangnya seorang pendusta".

Demikianlah dijadikan Firaun memandang baik perbuatan yang buruk itu, dan dia dihalangi dari jalan (yang benar); dan tipu daya Firaun itu tidak lain hanyalah membawa kerugian.

(QS. Al Mu'min: 36-37)

Saya Geli

Saya geli
ada narapidana dan petinggi Polri
bisa asyik nongkrong bareng di Starbucks

Saya geli
Indonesia kecolongan bom dua kali
sepertinya di dunia yang luas ini
tidak ada tempat lain untuk dibom
selain Indonesia

Saya geli
rekaman wawancara tidak bisa dijadikan bukti
Kata jaksa, "Yang diadili di sini bukan suara."*

Saya geli
ketua partai korup yang dulu disanjung-sanjung
sekarang diancam dilengserkan oleh (mantan) penyanjungnya

Saya geli
demi kepentingan perut dan partai
kawan jadi lawan, lawan jadi kawan**

Saya geli
dulu teman saya golput
dahi saya langsung berkerut,
sekarang saya manggut-manggut
karena saya juga jadi golput***


*Pengadilan kasus Tempo vs Tommy Winata.
**Kasus penonaktifan anggota Partai Demokrat (PD) yang duduk di DPRD DKI Jakarta terkait dengan gagalnya calon dari Partai Keadilan Sejahtera menduduki kursi ketua akibat pengalihan suara anggota PD ke kubu kandidat dari partai beringin.
***Rasionalitas berpikir: Jika ada hak memilih, tentu ada pula hak untuk tidak memilih, bukan? Yang penting penggunaannya dilakukan dengan penuh kesadaran.

Susu Ultra Coklat

When I was a little girl, my father used to take me to a nearby shop on his motorcycle on Saturdays. There, he bought me chocolate-flavored milk - known as 'Susu Ultra Coklat' - and 'Full Milk' chocolate bar. How I loved those moments! I know, for other people it meant nothing, but for me, it was a lavish treat and I always looked forward to it every week end.

Now that I'm all grown up, every time I go to a shop or to a super market and catch the sight of the milk, all my childhood memories flash back in front of my eyes all of a sudden. It's like I am being reminded to look back and be thankful to Allah for everything - both the high and the low - that has made me what I am right now.

My family and I used to live in 'rumah kontrakan' and motorcycle was our means of transportation. Then things got better. We moved to a house of our own and after one or two years, my parents could afford to buy a car. Things were okay, but then my father was assigned to move to the headquarter by his employer. That means we had to move from Surabaya to Jakarta.

For me our family's moving to Jakarta was more than just moving. It also means a change of the way we - or I, to be precisely - look at life. Surabaya has always been a home to me and I never dreamt of living my life anywhere but in that city. Now, here I am, walking, eating, inhaling and exhaling the air of Indonesia's capital city. I don't know what would happen if I stayed on living in Surabaya. I guess I would never have thought of how much variety the life offers or how many opportunities are out there had I lingered in Surabaya.

A long journey indeed. And all started with my favorite 'Susu Ultra Coklat'.

Minggu Tenang

Dari namanya, minggu tenang mestinya jadi suatu pekan di mana kita bisa menenangkan dan menyiapkan diri untuk sesuatu. 'Sesuatu' tersebut lazim berupa ujian semester/cawu bagi mereka yang masih kuliah/bersekolah. Tapi tentu saja, buat kebanyakan orang - atau setidaknya saya - istilah tersebut merupakan salah satu dari sekian banyak istilah dalam bahasa Indonesia yang penampilannya lebih 'wah' dibanding kenyataannya.

Bagi saya pribadi, minggu tenang mestinya dinamakan 'minggu panik' atau 'minggu rusuh' karena itulah masa di mana saya akan pontang-panting cari fotokopian bahan kuliah yang saya belum miliki, begadang untuk menyelesaikan tugas, membolak-balik halaman buku teks kuliah sambil terkantuk-kantuk untuk menghitung berapa bab atau berapa halaman lagi yang harus saya baca, mencari teman yang bisa dijadikan mentor atau belajar bersama agar saya bisa lebih cepat 'menghisap' berbagai teori yang menghiasi halaman-halaman dalam buku teks kuliah, dan tentu saja, masa di mana tiada hari tanpa kopi. Dan bukan saya (baca: mahasiswa) saja yang panik. Para pengajar yang punya 'hutang' pertemuan kuliah beramai-ramai melunasi hutang tersebut pada minggu tenang tanpa tenggang rasa terhadap kepanikan mahasiswanya dan tanpa mempedulikan aturan kampus yang sebenarnya melarang penggunaan minggu tenang untuk kuliah.

Oh well. Minggu ini saya tengah berada dalam periode itu lagi. Kebiasaan menunda-nunda pekerjaan membuat saya kini tengah 'kejar tayang' urusan tesis. Saya ingin merutuki diri saya sendiri tapi sepertinya lebih baik saya mulai mengerjakan tesis saya daripada terus-terusan menyesali kejadian yang telah berlalu. Beberapa kesenangan seperti membaca e-mail dan berkunjung ke halaman friendster serta blog kawan menjadi hal yang terlalu mewah untuk dikerjakan, padahal saya ingin sekali melakukannya. Melalui tulisan ini saya ingin menyapa kawan-kawan. Semoga tulisan ini bisa menjadi apologia dan pelipur rasa rindu saya pada kalian semua. Hope to see you all soon!

Schumacher F1 World Champion - Michelin Ngeselin!

Ubber Alles!
Fabulous!!! Although finishing his race in the second place after Kimi Raikkonen, Michael Schumacher made it getting his world championship title in today’s F1 race in Spa. After battling 44 laps to the finish line, Schumacher was finally able to score his 7th title of the world champion, which was also the 7th for Ferrari team. He actually would have been able to finish in the first place had he geared up during the start and not lost his position to number four. It was said that it happened because the car Schumacher was driving in was carrying a lot of fuel which made it more difficult for him to speed up the car. Another commentator said that it was Schumacher’s wisdom to slow down a bit so that he could prevent his car from colliding with another car.

Whatever the reason is, I truly admire him for his cool disposition even though he didn’t manage to become number one in the race. At first I thought he would be disappointed for not succeeding on being number one. But when the winners took their position in the podium, there was no trace of such disappointment in Schumacher’s face. He showed his smiley face as usual – although it was not as wide as when he became the number one champion, I think – and merrily burst the champagne and sprinkled it to his team.

Later at the press conference, Michael confessed that he would have been happier had he finished the race in the first place, but he couldn’t have asked for more. With such rough start he had to go through, finishing the race as number two was the best result he could get and he was very thankful for that. Schumacher also said that the result was satisfying for the whole team as Barichello who was left far behind during the start, turned out to finish in the third place, so it was joy to everyone. Wow, I said to myself. Had I been in his place, I would be disappointed, I guess, because that was the way I felt when the result came out.

Surely I was being emotional. It felt as if I was the one behind the wheel, and it was so depressing to know that you’re just inches away from being number one. Well, I suppose I have to learn a lot about mastering my emotion from Michael after this :) . I say, Michael, you’re one true champion.

Full of Drama
The race itself was full of drama as one tragedy after another took place in the Belgium race runway. It was begun with Schumacher slowing down and letting Coulthard steal his position, which forced him to race from the fourth position. Meanwhile, cars behind Schumacher were fighting each other to become ahead of the others, and crash! Suddenly all I know, debris of the front wing of a car (I’m not sure whose car it was) were anywhere and Sato (or was it Button?) was sent out of the track. Not far from Sato (or Button), Pantano’s car crashed into errm, whose car was that?

Hahaha, I’m not making a good report, here. What I’m trying to say is the start was something you don’t want to miss because of the major drama taking place. Barichello, for an example, was made to do an early pit stop so that he could get some parts of his car fixed. It was so unlucky of him as it made him drop his position down from top 10 to the 17th. Finishing the race in the third position indeed signified the fantastic and great job Barichello had been doing during the race.

Anyway, the drama did not stop there. Half way through the race, several cars had a puncture due to overheating. Coulthard, Button and Montoya were among those who experienced such incident. The interesting thing is that all those drivers had been using Michelin tires. If those drivers knew Bahasa, I’m sure they would have said: “Michelin ngeselin!*%@!!” The term itself is perhaps not enough, because the low quality of the tires had endangered the drivers’ safety, let alone their racing position. I wonder whether Michelin would still be regarded the tire of choice by the racers after this.

Overall, I was contented that I followed the going of today’s F1 race all the way from the start to the finish. Tomorrow, there’s another race to go through; the race where I get to be the person behind the wheel. So buckle up, drivers in Jakarta, for here comes Metty! ;))

And She Cried

Although my prediction was proven to be true, still it was eerie watching the turn of the show. What I’m talking about here is Nania’s failure to continue to the Grand Final of the Indonesian Idol singing contest.

The Kedirian singer Nania Kurniawati Yusuf had become many many people’s favorite of the three remaining finalists. The competition was tight between her and Joy, the other female finalist, but when it came to her and Delon “Melon” – that’s the name his aficionados as well as people favor against him have been using to cheer or mock him – the difference was great. It was Nania who won the juries’ compliment most of the time. The only critics she received was mainly regarding her stage appearance and sometimes her unability to put her high voice in the right place.

Meanwhile Delon had to face critics – harsh ones, a lot of times – almost every week. It was because the juries and a great many people thought that the guy made it to join the contest, let alone survive to this very day, owing to his handsome look only. Cynically, Indra Lesmana - one of the juries – had even said once that Indonesian people should have looked beyond the physical quality if they wanted a good quality singer to represent the country in the World Idol singing contest.

So it was a bit surprising to see Delon kicked other contestants out the contest stage week after week and survived to the semifinal round. Yet many people and the juries still put on high hopes considering the best contestants namely Joy and Nania still hung around to save Indonesian Idol from losing its glamor and attractiveness. The Delon’s phenomenon did not escape attention, nevertheless, as the show hosts - Ata and Irgi - had to remind people to send their vote sms or make vote calls for their favorite singer unless they wanted to see the singer get to be sent home.

I myself partly agree that Delon counted more on his looks than on his singing capability to win his fans’ heart and support. Lately somehow I see that he has been making great improvements. His voice was no longer flat during his performance in the last two weeks and I actually began to enjoy it. I believe a lot of people felt the same way I did, and as more negative talks cast over him, at the same time Delon gained more pity and support from people who saw him to be the “abuse victim” of the juries and the anti-Delon society’s sarcastic remarks.

At least that was what I learnt from people’s opinion on the radio and blogs. I remembered someone commenting that Delon perhaps right now felt sorry for having a handsome visage that for the first time in men’s history the guy might have thought of having a plastic surgery on his face so he could have the face of Shrek instead of the current one, just to get a more objective judgment!

Of course, that is an extreme comment, but hey, we couldn’t see this guy with one eye’s shut! Wasn’t it clear that Delon had successfully brushed off the other Indonesian Idol contestants, some of them were better than him? Not only that, he was never in the danger of being in the two most bottom positions. I don’t know if this is true or not, but I think the guy has a strong support not only in the matter of the number of fans but also the ring a chink chink, clink clank, jingle jangle of money poured out to ensure his steps to the following week’s performance. No proof so far to back up my opinion, but it all makes sense, doesn’t it?

That’s why I predicted that Delon would overcome Nania. It’s not cool and I actually did not want it to happen, but when rationally pondered upon, it was what would likely to happen.

And the dreaded thing did happen. Nania would not go back to the stage next week and duel with Joy in the Grand Final, for it was Delon who would join the big event. And people, a lot of people cried. The first jury I noticed sheding tears was Dimas Jay. Commercial break cut off the show for a moment, then it was apparent that Indra Lesmana and Meuthia Kasim, with their hands over each others’ shoulder, just broke into tears. I don’t know what was in the head of Titi DJ, but I think she was also emotional at that time.

In the mean time, the person these people had spilled their tears over looked calm and quite in control. It all changed when she got to sing the finale-goodbye song, Ruth Sahanaya’s Ingin Kumiliki. The mental siege she had built was slowly tumbling down into pieces as she reached the refrain; Her voices trembled … and she cried.

(Nania Dear, I think I owe you an apology for having not sent any sms to vote for you. I should have, shouldn’t I? Well, I guess I made the mistake a lot of people often do: Relying on other people to get what they want. Sorry, Nania.)

Selamat Hari Ulang Tahun Kemerdekaan, Indonesia!

Hai Indonesia! Selamat ulang tahun kemerdekaan ya!

Euleuh, euleuh, udah 59 tahun yak, kita merdeka. Tapi kok aku nggak gembira ya? Rasanya ada yang ngeganjel gitu. Abisnya kalo keluar rumah terus liat lalu lintas yang macet, orang-orang yang seenaknya aja di jalan (well, that probably includes me, sih), anak kecil di jalanan ngamen atau minta-minta padahal mestinya mereka pergi ke sekolah dan main, trus senior mereka yang melakukan hal yang sama; orang-orang yang ketika aku turun dari kereta di sore hari di stasiun Pasar Minggu Baru, aku lihat lagi baringan di bangku peron stasiun atau lagi duduk di pelataran peron sambil berbagi sebungkus nasi; pedagang asongan yang jualan pupuk tanaman di dalam kereta (ya Allah, apa bakal laku jualan barang seperti pupuk?), atau buku peta dan buku doa-doa... rasanya bukan seperti ini Indonesia yang aku atau para pendiri negara ini inginkan.

Belum lagi korupsi dan pungutan-pungutan liar di mana-mana... Duh, mau jadi apa negaraku ini? Aku jadi pingin tinggal di negara lain yang lebih manusiawi terhadap masyarakatnya (Kanada kayaknya asyik ya, Mbak?). Tapi nanti dibilang nggak setia ama negaranya karena nggak mau ikut ngebangun negaranya. Serba salah.

Bukannya kurang bersyukur. Alhamdulillah, kita bisa belajar, bekerja, dan melakukan aktivitas apapun (almost) tanpa takut diberondong peluru atau dikekang oleh jam malam. Listrik, tivi, air, komputer, Internet, semua cemepak (di Jakarta dan kota-kota di Pulau Jawa sih. Kalau di luar Jawa, ya nggak semewah dan selengkap di Jakarta. Jadi inget pemadaman listrik yang sering banget di Metro Lampung waktu ke sana untuk nikahan Om). Tapi susah buat merem dan tidak melihat kesusahan yang dialami orang lain yang notabene adalah saudara sebangsa kita juga. Aku takut, semakin lama aku hanya ngomong "sedih", aku jadi mati rasa dan hanya jadi salah satu dari corporate slaves (Ah, bahkan budak pun punya perasaan. Lebih tepat lagi corporate cyborg, mungkin).

Yah, mudah-mudahan Allah mencatat niatku deh, untuk berbuat sesuatu. Masalahnya: Berbuat apa dan mulai kapan? Semuanya kok terasa terlalu rumit untuk diatasi. *Menghela napas

Weekends = Eternity

What do you usually do on Saturday nights?

Duh, what an annoying question! People usually ask this kind of question to dig information whether the person they ask:

is single/married/in a relationship/in threesome relationship;

is somewhat boring/interesting/dorky, judging on the activity she/he’s doing every saturday nights;

still has much money (to judge how much money's left) at this period of time (tengah bulan, bouw) / already penniless, judging on the activity she/he’s doing at specific Saturday nights of the month;

other reasons which accidentally do not pop in my mind by the time I'm writing this.

For someone who prefers to stay at home during the night, has not much money in her pocket , and rather single like me, Saturday nights mean torture (actually because I got no money, like it or not I have to stay at home more frequently than I want). No interesting show on TV (AFI? Sorry, I’m over it.); No body to talk to since my sister has already gone somewhere since 5 pm with … I don’t know whom she’s going with tonight, and my mom is busy chatting on mIRC (yup, that’s my mom); Feels like going out but you know, with the state of broke I am in right now, staying home is a definitely healthier option...

Wanna go browsing over my comic books again, but I already learn them all by heart (haha, I’m exaggerating there); Surfing the internet? Well, you know my mom is already taking the lead; Working on my thesis? Hm, shouldn’t I deserve a fresh air today, after battling for almost a week to get a chapter done?; Baking a cake? Okay, let’s save that for another Saturday; Going to VCD/DVD rental? Nah, it’s taking much time for me to wear my jilbab. And duh, it's like I have plenty of money to spend :P

So… *Sigh What can I do? Most people can’t wait to get to Saturdays. For me, Saturday feels like eternity, yet Monday is a dreadful reality. Ya udah lah, enaknya tidur aja kaleee :))

One Phone Call and Gone's All Your Happiness

Uhh, kenapa sih elo pake kasitau gue, Bal, kalo gue ternyata dipanggil buat tes?
Gue kan jd kesel dan nyesel kenapa gue taunya telat.
Setelah gue nulis application form-nya yang berhalaman-halaman itu dengan penuh darah, air mata, dan sekian lembar puluhan ribu, hiks hiks :(

AMRO: Murder Next Door

-----Original Message-----
From: Hepta Sangkan Nugroho [mailto:hepta.nugroho@kabelvision.com]
Sent: 30 Juli 2004 8:34
Subject: Mohon Bantuan ...... Tolong Forward - TOP URGENT -
Importance: High

Dear all,

Minta bantuan dengan sangat, …. Atas nama Keluarga Bp. Sapto dan Ibu Anik. Mereka mencari anak perempuannya bernama AMANDA yang sudah 2 hari tidak pulang. Dia mahasiswi Elektro Universitas Trisakti.

Kronologis:
Rabu 28 Juli, dia terlihat pulang cepat diantara teman-temannya sekitar pukul 11.30. Kamis 29 Juli, dari pelacakan sinyal Telkomsel diketahui posisinya ada di Cipayung Puncak pukul 13.00. Setelah itu hp mati.

Ciri-ciri per Rabu 28 Juli:
Tinggi badan kurang lebih 165 cm, kulit sawo matang, rambut panjang. Memakai baju warna pink dan celana jeans. Mengendarai Nissan Terrano warna Silver No. Polisi B 1167 QU.

Tindakan yang dilakukan:
Sudah menghubungi Polisi per kemarin. Saat ini, keluarga bersama beberapa teman kampus sedang menyusur di daerah Cipayung.

Jika ada yang tahu informasi mengenai Amanda, harap hubungi:
1. Bp Sapto : 0811 950 793 (Ayah)
2. Ibu Anik : 0812 923 1015 (Ibu)
3. Hepta : 0811 106 318 (Kakak Sepupu)

Tolong forward email ini ke milist dan komunitas Anda. Kami mengucapkan terimakasih sebesar-besarnya atas bantuan Anda, semoga Tuhan memberkati selalu.

Salam,

Keluarga


When I first read the above e-mail a friend of mine had forwarded to me, honestly I did not pay too much attention to it. I thought the family would soon find the missing girl, so I soon engulfed myself in reading other incoming e-mails.

Last Sunday (August 1), a feature news on the bottom part of Kompas Minggu’s first page was titled this:

Tersangka Pembunuh Itu Ikut Mencari Amanda

Interested by the title, I read the whole story.

HARI Kamis (29/7) kegelisahan Ny Sri Andiani dan suaminya, Sapto Hartoyo, semakin menghebat. Anak sulung mereka, Amanda Devina (22), yang berangkat kuliah sejak Rabu (28/7) pukul 06.30 belum pulang ke rumah. Padahal, biasanya Amanda langsung pulang ke rumah begitu kuliahnya di
Universitas Trisakti usai siang hari.

Keluarga ini berikhtiar keras mencari. Semua teman dekat Amanda dihubungi, tetapi yang dicari tetap tak ditemukan. Polisi, media massa, internet, termasuk radio, keluarga, dan kerabat, juga sudah dimintai tolong untuk ikut memantau, tetapi belum tampak hasilnya.

Ny Sri Andiani dan suaminya tak putus asa dan terus mencari. Ny Sri, yang berbagi tugas dengan suaminya, pergi mencari anaknya ditemani beberapa teman dekat Amanda, termasuk seorang lelaki muda bernama Ronald. Namun, pencarian tak menemui hasil, dan pada pukul empat sore, Ronald minta diturunkan di kampusnya, Universitas Trisakti.

Pencarian atas Amanda pun memasuki fase-fase menentukan. Keluarga tersebut mencari hingga keluar kota, termasuk di sekitar kawasan Cibinong, tetapi tetap nihil.

Lalu datanglah kabar yang pahit itu dari petugas Polsek Bojongloa Kidul Bandung dan Polres Jakarta
Barat. Petugas mengabarkan bahwa telah ditemukan mayat di sebuah mobil Nissan Terrano, di Jalan Soekarno-Hatta, sekitar 150 meter ke arah timur perempatan Jalan Kopo dan Jalan Soekarno-Hatta, Bandung.

Jenazah korban ditemukan pertama kali oleh seorang tukang becak yang sedang melintas di samping kendaraan korban. Ketika itu dia mencium bau menyengat yang berasal dari dalam mobil tersebut. Tukang becak itu lalu berhenti dan mengajak orang yang ada di sekitar lokasi itu untuk memeriksanya.

Mereka melihat sesosok tubuh di dalam mobil tersebut. Setelah dipastikan sosok tubuh itu telah tewas, sejumlah warga melaporkannya ke petugas kepolisian setempat. Petugas Polsek Bojongloa Kidul segera menuju lokasi. Polisi terpaksa memecahkan kaca pintu bagian tengah kanan
mobil tersebut untuk mengidentifikasi korban.
…

DRAMA atas peristiwa
pembunuhan ini rupanya masih panjang. Hari Jumat malam polisi menciduk teman Amanda, Ronald, di rumahnya. Polisi yang sebelumnya sudah memeriksa dan mencurigai Ronald, langsung menahan pemuda itu.

Kepala Kepolisian Daerah Metro Jaya Inspektur Jenderal M Firman Gani yang dihubungi Sabtu malam menjelaskan, polisi menahan Ronald dalam kapasitasnya sebagai tersangka. "Polisi menemukan bukti-bukti permulaan yang cukup kuat, dan karena itu langsung menahannya. Ada, misalnya, beberapa bukti di rumah dan juga di tubuh tersangka. Polisi menduga, ketika hendak dibunuh, korban melawan sekuat tenaga, termasuk mencakar leher dan dada tersangka. Maka, tersangka Ronald
langsung kami tahan," kata Firman Gani.

Kepala Polda Metro Jaya menyatakan, polisi tengah mengembangkan kasus ini kepada beberapa orang yang diduga terlibat dalam kasus ini.

Dihubungi secara terpisah, Kepala Polres Metro Jakarta Barat Komisaris Besar Suhardi Alius mengatakan, penetapan Ronald sebagai tersangka itu setelah dilakukan pemeriksaan.

"Sebenarnya ia sempat diperiksa bersama empat-lima orang temannya sebelum ada kepastian korban meninggal. Tapi, setelah Amanda ditemukan meninggal dan ada konfirmasi dari ayah Amanda, maka saya perintahkan anggota untuk menangkap Ronald di kediamannya karena dalam pemeriksaan sebelumnya ia sudah nervous. Dan ternyata ia mengakui perbuatannya," ujar Suhardi Alius.

Mengenai tersangka yang menemani ibu korban keliling Jakarta mencari korban, menurut Firman Gani, itu memang taktik lazim yang dilakukan para tersangka. "Sekitar 70 persen sampai 80 persen pembunuh mempunyai kedekatan dengan korban, dan untuk menghilangkan jejak, ia pura-pura ikut mencari korban," kata Firman Gani.

Seorang sahabat dekat korban yang tidak mau disebut namanya, yang bersama Ronald menemani Ny Sri membantu mencari informasi mengenai keberadaan Amanda, sama sekali tidak menyangka jika Ronald yang menjadi tersangka kasus ini. Ia menceritakan, saat berkeliling mencari informasi
mengenai Amanda itu, wajah Ronald biasa-biasa saja.

"Saya tidak menyangka, bahkan teman-teman saya dan juga dosen saya tidak menyangkanya sama sekali," katanya.Sementara itu, ibu korban, Ny Sri Andiani, tampak amat terkejut ketika disampaikan bahwa tersangka pembunuh anaknya adalah Ronald. "Akh, jadi dia...?" cetusya. (RAY/J11/GUN/NIC/AS)

Wow, it’s like reading a murder story! But my interest in the case came to that point only, that the murder was like in detective stories.

And then everybody started to talk about it. At first, it was my mother who told my sister and me that the girl was killed because she asked for the guy’s accountability for having made her pregnant. Being an mIRC-freak, she found out about it after conversing with someone who happened to go to the same university as Amanda, Sunday night. She went on telling that Amanda was in her 4-month pregnancy (later I read in the papers that it was 5 months, not 4) when she died.

On Monday afternoon, I opened messages coming to my alumni-mailing list and was pretty much surprised seeing that my college buddies were all talking about the murder. One of them even forwarded the friendster link of Amanda and Ronald, the murderer. Provoked by a friend’s comment “…what an irony. Liat favorite booksnya.”, I checked out the friendster page of both of them. There, I read that her favorite books was books about ‘murders and chicklits’. It is truly an irony.

The next day, conversation about Amanda and Ronald kept going. Up to this day, people still clamored about it, though the topic started to take turns to silly subjects. Many question and wonder why the topic did not slip people’s mind easily although it had been days after the incident took place. Here’s my analysis.

Firstly, of course it is the media that has successfully raised the story and grabbed everybody’s intention. Printed media, TV, to online publication, all covered the story and the progress day to day. As long as the media keeps on squealing over the topic, we’ll never find the end to the discussion over Amanda & Ronald.

Secondly - and this I believe is the most logical explanation - the use of e-mails and mailing list to announce the search for Amanda and inform the links to Amanda-and-Ronald’s friendster page have brought everyone closer and felt more intimate with the subjects of the story. People discuss about Amanda and Ronald like they were just next door neighbours, like they exactly knew all along who these two unfortunate souls had been. Well, it is actually not a magic wonder considering the existence of Internet has connected almost anyone on earth and made it possible for two persons living on far away, different places – one in Alaska and the other one in Capetown, for example - to communicate as if they were neighbours. When I checked the friendster page, I found out that my sister’s page is linked to Amanda’s and Ronald’s page via her friends. So, somehow all of us are linked one to another. Amazing, huh?

Moreover, this AMRO (that’s the way my friends have been calling Amanda and Ronald) case took place in Jakarta, which made the attachment and the chain of links to the two persons go stronger. Combined with continuous expose by the media, no wonder the discussion resists to die away. It’s no wonder too, why Ronald even bothered to make a press conference to make explanation and apologize to Amanda’s and his family and to everyone. Some people think he behaved like an artist, but my guess is because Ronald understood well that with the power of Internet, almost everyone in Jakarta by this day had gotten to know him much better and consequently would pay much more attention to what he had done and would do.

Lesson to learn? Behold the power which the Internet possess to move people. It may move people to do something good/to think of something in a positive perspective, or the other way around; It can encourage people to make a negative act/judgment. My wish is that more people will use it for the sake of the well being of the majority of the community (sorry if the line has too many 'of's and make you dizzy as you read it). Me, for example, I wish that by using the links of friends available on the net, I could bring people in Jakarta to collect Rp 100 each person every day. The money collected then could be used to educate more people and educate people better. Whoa! What a passionate daydreamer am I! :D

By the way, what am I talking about? :P

Oleh-oleh dari Prambanan (3)

I'M FLYING! I'M FLYING!

It was on the second day of the AG and we were just dismissed from the last activity we had that afternoon so we could get ourselves ready for the gala dinner, a special event which the Sultan himself chanced to come (and I was busily taking pictures of my friends instead of listening to his speech, hehehehe). Suddenly Fitri, my college buddy, tapped my shoulder and said: “Ke jembatan situ yuk, kayaknya seru deh di sana.” I glanced toward the bridge and tried to see what was going on there. But I couldn’t get a clearer view until I reached some kind of a valley near the bridge. There I could see around six fellow scholars – all except one were men - and trainers staring at a person standing on this roofless tree house set up on a tall tree across the river. The guy’s all wired and buckled up, his hands hanging onto a pair of ropes, ready to lurch and glide all the way across the river to the place where the devoted crowd had awaited for him to jump into action.
There, he finally made his move. Swoosssh… It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a … scholar trying out an outdoor game called the Flying Fox*. Like a Superman he flew his way straight to where we were standing. “Arrhhhh!!!” An expression of excitement, and a bit of fear blasting out of his mouth. Hm, it seemed fun. Soon all the scholars there, including Fitri, begged for turns to try out the game. But I wasn’t moved and challenged to try it, considering the eagerly-waiting-long line and the time that was approaching night time. I was thinking of the natural view around the game area and wondering whether there was a good place to take one or two pictures of the surrounding. I did so because hey, I was taking my camera and during AG it never went far away from my grip. Yeah, it’s just an automatic camera, but the sense of beauty inside of me was hungry for beautiful and interesting scenes to be captured.

So, after watching for some people taking turns for the Flying Fox, I decided to walk to the bridge and saw whether the view from there was a good one. The bridge was a cable one, so when one walked over it, it would sway a bit. It turned out the view there was neither as good as where I had been. I stayed there a bit longer though, watching my friends fight their way crossing the bridge and climbing the tree and then ‘flying’ to the landing spot. Not all lurched well. Some ‘flew’ with their feet facing the different direction, not straight as they were supposed to be. But the scream remained the same: They all show the thrill and exhilaration, also a faint fear here and there, hehehe.

After a while, I got tired standing on the bridge by myself without the company of any single scholar. So, I decided to get back to the landing spot. As I walked my way there, a photographer (he was one of the photographers hired by SF to take pictures during AG) who had been standing on the other part of the bridge all the time, dropped a line: “Nggak mau nyobain? Mumpung gratis lho. Kalau di Bali kayak ginian mesti bayar.”

Bang! I believe the word ‘gratis’ paced my nerve all of a sudden :) When I got to the landing spot, I had partly made up my mind to try the game. But the line was already a long one. The sun was slowly hiding its ray and I still had to wait for two more people before my turn. It felt sooo long. Finally, when Fitri was up on the tree house, a scholar was ‘flying’ her way to the landing spot. That meant my turn had come.

As soon as the fellow scholar landed and released all the equipments from her body, I prepared myself to wear those equipments. They consist of a strap of belt which spanned from your joints to your shoulders. We wear them like we wear a jumpsuit, only it’s not a suit; it’s only a kind of belt. Then, we wear a helmet (to protect your head, of course) and a pair of hand gloves (to keep your sweaty hands from slipping off the ropes). But I was a bit nervous at the time that I forgot to have my gloves with me. After I put on the strap of belt and the helmet, I dashed off to the tree. However I think another reason I forgot them was because the trainers had urged everyone to hurry as twilight was about five minutes away.

Actually there was one thing I hadn’t told. When one by one people were lurching and landing and my turn was coming near, I actually had a moment at which my heart was pounding fast. Darn! ‘I can’t step back. No, not me,’ I said to myself. To ease my nerve, I made myself to think that when my time to die had come, so let it come. Pretty scarry things to think of, huh? But that was the only way for me to overcome my fear. I say, to have courage in our heart, we must let go all feelings and wants, including the wants to live, and surrender ourselves totally to Allah’s will.

It worked although not instantly. I forgot my gloves, that’s a prove. But there was no doubt in every running steps I took toward the tree and every pulls of rope I groped to reach the tree house (My friends were right; It was a tallll tree). There was no single moment of hesitating. ‘This is it, no stepping back’ was what I said to myself. Yeah, the talks that the two trainers made while waiting for the maghrib call to finish did a big help, yet the most important motivator came from within myself. As a result, when time came for me to lurch, I held tighter to the ropes, whispered goodbye to life deep down inside my heart in case it was my last time on earth, counting one, two, and bismillah …
I’m flying! I’m flying!

*The game is named after a kind of bat species because the way our hands spread when we lurch is similar to the way bats spread their wings when flying.

Pictures shown are courtesies from other websites, due to the absence of pictures taken during the event :D

Oleh-oleh dari Prambanan (2)

UNDERSIZED T-SHIRTS
 
Going to SF Annual Gathering also means getting exclusive t-shirts for free. Scholars have even been receiving school bag starting last year. Anyway, we're supposed to wear the t-shirts for several programmes, i.e. team games and gala dinner on day 2, and social trip on day 3. For male scholars (and female scholars who don't wear head scarf), it means lighter luggage on the way to the venue. Pas moi. Since none of the t-shirts were long-sleeves, I still had to bring long-sleeve shirts to be worn underneath the SF t-shirts (*sigh).
 
I don't mean to show lack of appreciation for the t-shirts. They are of good fabrics and neutral colors. But those t-shirts never fit me perfectly. Last year they were oversized. This year it was the opposite. And I wish we'd get long-sleeve t-shirts, at least for the outdoor activity. That way I could still use the t-shirt even after the annual gathering was over. Last year I gave away several of the t-shirts to some (male) relations because they (it's the t-shirts I'm talking about, of course) would be of little use for me. Where else would I wear them if not inside the house? This year I've been meaning to give away t-shirts again, but they are the kind of t-shirts that fit only for women. Kaos adik, you know. Well, I guess I'd give them to my family's housekeeper. Lucky you, Mbak Sarminah. 
 
HAUNTING HYMN
 
Three days have passed since I got home from Annual Gathering, but I could still hear clearly SF's theme song "Spread Our Wings" buzzing in my ears over and over again. Thanks to SF crew who had played the song repeatedly during Annual Gathering, now I could barely think of another song to hum when I'm doing my works. "SF's trying to brainwash us," my fellow scholars said. Yeah, a successful one.
 
It's not a bad idea actually to sing it over and over again, since the lyrics are inspiring. The song is hard to catch the first time we hear it. But once you get good grasp of it, it'll stick to your head and won't wear off. It creeps into your soul and it haaauuuunnnttsss you, hahahahaha (*udah gila, hehehe)! Go check the words below and you'll understand what I've been raving about. Enjoy.
 
Spread Our Wings 
(Sampoerna Foundation Theme)
 
I can dream the impossible
I fear not the obstacles
For if I believe in me
I can make it possible
 
I'll shine my light for all to see
For a gem can't be polished without friction
Nor a man perfected without trials
 
We all take different paths in life
But no matter where I go
I will feel safe knowing that
We're all together in this journey
 
For we are one big family
There'll always be time for sharing
and caring for each other
even when we are far apart
 
Chorus:
Like an eagle we spread our wings
Soaring high in the sky of dreams
Always strive to be the very best
And help others to soar as high
 
We remember the start
We will go through the journey
We will reach the goals
Let's lend our hands to our brothers and sisters
Let's make a brighter tomorrow for others
Make their impossible dreams possible
For when we believe, when we are together
We can make a difference

Oleh-oleh dari Prambanan (1)

ANNUAL GATHERING 
 
Hi!
Been wondering where I've been for the past 2 weeks? Hm, busy, busy, busy! First, I got my thesis to work on. Next, I had to prepare myself for several activities held by Sampoerna Foundation (SF), one of which was the 3rd Sampoerna Foundation Annual Gathering 2004.
 
Each year, SF invites its scholars and alumni from all over Indonesia and abroad to a special gathering. It's special, because it's no easy job contacting almost 200 persons and gathering them in one place. On the part of the scholars and alumni, the event is a special one because it's the only time that we can really get to know scholars/alumni from other regions (to meet them in person, more precisely). Moreover, it's time for fun (I hate to mention that it is also time for lectures of social responsibility, team and leadership, blabla), because we chance to play team games during the three-day event. Winning is not important since it is the togetherness, the laughter and all the fun we can find that matter most.
 
This year, the Annual Gathering was held in Prambanan camping complex, on 23-25 July. Yup, it's the Prambanan temple I'm talking about. One thing for sure, this year's Annual Gathering is a whole lot different from last years' because this year we slept in a ... tent. Well, not exactly a tent. It was a complex of small houses made of bamboo, which were called 'omah'. We cannot exactly call them 'houses' because I could barely stand straight in that 'omah'. Plus, we used sleeping bags in exchange for beds. I don't mean to complain or anything, but for a person who has been to the previous annual gatherings, in which we stayed in cottages (Anyer, 2002) and hotel rooms (Lido Lakes, 2003), I might as well call the Annual Gathering 2004 'modest'.
 
The good thing was that food and beverages were lavish. Imagine, two coffee breaks a day, plus one more during the night, and of course, breakfast-lunch-dinner were served. We ate not one kind of lauk, but three! Another good thing was I had a good time laughing almost to tears there. My fellow scholars and alumni were extremely, hilariously funny. Well, I think we were all ready to have a good time that nobody put on groovy face and everyone was ever ready to please others. A pal who is known as a complaint maker seemed to enjoy the time spent there (I could judge by the zero complaint the person made, as far as I knew, and the happy face that lingered on the person's face up to the last day of the event). Here's a scholar's testimonial of the event, as a prove: 

Wuaahhhhh...... akhirnya sampe lagi Jakarta..... tp tau ngak seh..(baca: gaya ABG..hehe..) pas masuk kamar kost2-an perasaan kayanya ada yang ilang... rame2... ngumpul bareng temen2 baru... omah... sleeping bag... makanan yg siap sedia.. plus Enuaaakkk banget.... makan tinggal makan... minum tinggal minum.... semuanya itu udah ngak ada lagi..... yang ada VCD warna merah.. langsung aja di puter.. dan hey.... perasaan itu baru aja.. emang bener itu baru aja terjadi..... hebatttt.... ngak nyangka dapet pelayanan yg gitu profesional banget dari SF ama Rakata, DSA.... secara pribadi saya merasa bangga dan seneng banget bisa kumpul di AG kemarin.... semuanya saya alamin bener2 asik.... workshopnya bagus buat ngasah "kapak" saya biar bisa nebang pohon lebih banyak lagi.....

One thing that got in my way during the three-day fun: My sore cough that hasn't ended although it's been two weeks already...