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!