Book Review #1: Dee's AKAR

Hari ini, dengan kecepatan baca kilat (hanya menghabiskan waktu satu hari), akhirnya gue menyelesaikan "Akar"nya Dee, yang dipinjam dari seorang teman dan sudah lama numpuk di daftar tunggu baca. Ada sebuah impresi yang sangat kuat tertinggal setelah gue menyelesaikannya tadi siang. Masih jelas terbayang-bayang sang karakter utama Bodhi, yang bukan hanya seorang anak jalanan tak berharga, tapi adalah seseorang yang telah mengalami pengalaman dan perjalanan hidup yang panjang nan sulit namun bermakna dan menggenapkan. Impresi yang dari tadi terus menggelantungi otak gue, pada akhirnya mendorong si otak ini agar menggerakkan sang pemilik, (which is obviously ME!) untuk membuat review singkat mengenai buku tersebut. Dan inilah review saya mengenai Akar, yang pada dasarnya terdiri dari tiga inti, yaitu kronologis dari awal gue meminjam buku tersebut sampai tamat membacanya, kemudian ke penilaian mengenai isi buku itu sendiri, dan berakhir pada buku versi yang mana yang recommended untuk dibaca.

Impresi kuat dari Akar tersebut sebenarnya dibawah ekspektasi gue, karena justru buku "Supernova" sebelumnya, "Ksatria, Putri, dan Bintang Jatuh", meninggalkan impresi yang jauh lebih kuat dan lebih dalam. Malah, ketika awal membaca Akar, gue sempet berhenti karena kecewa atas ekspektasi yang gak terpenuhi. Kemudian gue menganggurkan buku ini berbulan-bulan, sampai akhirnya beberapa hari yang lalu, teman sebangku yang sudah sekelas 4 tahun (dari MOPD dan ga pisah-pisah sampe sekarang kelas 3), Bujang, bilang dia sudah menamatkan Akar dan merekomendasikannya dengan amat sangat kepada gue. Nah dari situlah akhirnya gue mulai baca (lagi) dan menemukan sesuatu yang lain di Akar. Berbeda bentuk dari pada karya Supernova-nya yang pertama, namun meninggalkan kesan dan makna yang hampir sama besar. Jadi, kronologinya berawal dari sebuah ketidakpuasan, kemudian berakhir pada sebuah kesan penuh makna.

Yah, gimanapun juga, Dee tetap selalu memikat di setiap karya-karyanya. Pada karyanya yang satu ini, Dee membawa pembaca menyelami bahasanya yang kadang rumit namun dapat berubah menjadi sangat santai. Terkadang kita dibuat berpikir, dengan metaforanya yang melibatkan hal-hal asing tak terduga yang janggal dalam kehidupan sehari-hari. Namun, sering pula pembacanya dibuat santai, dibawanya dengan halus mengarungi cerita demi cerita, sampai akhirnya terkejut sendiri ketika menemukan kembali bagian-bagian metaforanya Dee yang janggal tapi unik dan mengesankan. Tapi membacanya memang butuh energi dan niat yang ekstra, soalnya 200 halaman keseluruhan buku hanya dibagi ke dalam tiga keping dan sekitar 150-an halaman diantaranya dipadatkan menjadi satu bab. Jadi, memang seperti membaca novel tanpa bab, yang bagi sebagian orang bisa jadi sangat membosankan. Tapi gue suka, dan merekomendasikannya kepada teman-teman yang bener-bener suka baca, apalagi yang suka sastra.

Nah, sekarang di tahun 2012 ini, setelah Dee mengeluarkan debut Supernova terbarunya, Partikel, semua seri Supernova termasuk di dalamnya Akar dicetak ulang dan diterbitkan dengan cover yang sepenuhnya berbeda, dan berwarna seragam: hitam. Isi di dalamnya tidak banyak berubah, hanya Dee memperjelas setiap keterangan tempat beserta tahun, dan ada beberapa detil lain yang sedikit berubah, mungkin lebih untuk kenyamanan pembaca. Gue, bedasarkan pendapat sendiri, lebih merekomendasikan untuk membaca versi yang lama, karena perubahan detil seperti penggunaan tanda kutip, ataupun penambahan detil tahun dan tempat membawa banyak perubahan suasana pembaca. Pada versi yang lama, pembaca dibawa hanyut dalam misteri yang sering kali menggantung. Memang sensasi ini lah yang gue cari dari karya-karyanya Dee, yang sedikit banyak hilang dengan penambahan detil-detil tertentu pada versi yang lebih baru.

foto cover Akar (kanan: versi cetakan baru; kiri: versi cetakan lama)

“Sungai menjadi jalan pulangnya ke rumah tak berwadak, tapi ia selalu tahu di mana harus mengetuk pintu” ― Dee, Supernova: Akar

The Best Education

"You must know that there's nothing higher, or stronger, or sounder, or more useful afterwards in life, than some good memory, especially a memory from childhood, from the parental home. You hear a lot said about your education, yet some such beautiful, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education."

Dostoevsky's

The Brother Karamazov

My family had planned to not do "mudik" this year, like we always had the last three years after my grandmother, the last grand-generation in my family, passed away. My mother said that it was not necessary to go there since we don't have anyone to visit anymore and also since my two brothers have happily married, and they will do this "mudik" thing to my house to visit my parents on the Ied moment. So she felt that it was better we stayed here, while my mom and dad enjoyed their moments of being grandparents.

But, yeah we did "mudik" anyway, all in a sudden.

On the second morning of Ied, my father suddenly told me that we are going to go. He has booked a train ticket for the departure, then also a plane ticket back to Jakarta all in a sudden. It was such a very good luck on us that we still got tickets this late. So, all in a sudden, I packed my clothes, my stuffs, and all in a sudden, we did "mudik" anyway.

So, by train it was an 12 hours going. We arrived in Madiun (East Java), at 2 o'clock in the morning. Although my grandparent's house is in the middle of the city, the air was very cold that I was shivering all the way from the station to the house. However, besides all of this coldness and shivering things, the city's look at night really impressed me. It was so calm, so quite, and with the traffic light that at that time only showed the color of yellow, the nightlife at this city has been perfectly amazing. I still love those blue and white striped sidewalk (does not like the one in Jakarta, with only black and white stripe), and the big road with an advertisement billboard crossing over the road. I love the town, for probably some reasons that was not make sense at all.

But it is make sense to me now.

It started to make sense to me one night, in a park.

The next night, I was going around the city with my cousins buying some fried rice for the dinner and also kue putu for snacks, then walking around the big park in the very middle of the city that they usually call alun-alun. It was awesomely crowded, with a lot of booms from firecrackers and fireworks everywhere. There were also a lot of kids, and also family playing around. Then I heard this conversation a boy and his father.

Pa, kita pulang besok?

Iya, nak.

Aku gak mau pulang, pa.

Then I realized I used to be that boy, begging and even crying to my parents to stay there longer.

When I was a kid, Ramadhan had been something that I really waited for. There were two main reasons of it. First, because in that month, I got a chance to play more at night after tarawih prayer. Second, because in the end of the month, we will do this "mudik" thing, and had a lot of fun from it. There in the city, I saw the big love of my big family. Every morning, we greeted each other, we had breakfast together, we talked together for hours, we were sleeping in a very limited place because the house, which was not big, was overloaded with the coming of all my big family. That moment was priceless, and I will make sure that I will have that kind of family later on.

So, Dostoevsky and other wise man is right. The reason why a lot have said that childhood memory is the best education is simple: because the childhood memory, whether it is depressing, sad, or beautiful and sacred, it will stay in one's mind and heart for the rest of the life. One of the memory of the childhood for me is on those blue and white striped sidewalks. Now, whenever I go there, walk on those sidewalks, I felt like I'm home, like I used to be here, as the little boy. So in years, people can experience a lot of unpredictable thing, that is probably gonna change them, little or much. Those memories on the childhood is going to stay there, to be a reminder who, where, and with whom they were, and those memory, can also heal them whenever the "real world" hurt.

So, a memory from childhood, is perhaps the best education.

Special

I used to believe it when people say that senior high school is the most delighting moment the whole life.  On the brink of senior high school, I started to not believe it anymore. Being a student in this school (my school, actually) will make your teenage moment unimpressively pass by. You will be forced to adapt to the “real life” with a lot of assignments, deadlines (which surely make you REALLY want to dieL), with a small number of time that you will get stressed caused by it. However, I feel lucky being the part of this school, because besides all those stressing stuffs I have to face, I get this people; teachers and friends; who make me feel that all the deadlines, assignments and stresses worth the lovely and beautiful moments with those extraordinary people, and that stressing together with those people is going to be the best memory staying alive in my head, and heart for the rest of my life.

AKSI 35 Heritage, the Last Jargon of AKSI 35 Heritage, Tour de Bali Bro, Flawless SMANSA 34 (from the top)

[Courtesy: Run Production, Abrar Khairi]

Now I do believe in such a good memory. Years later, if I was depressed or stressed or even lonely, I will certainly look back to this time to remember how my life have been so incredibly extraordinary and to know that the universe will work in its way we do not understand to bond our heart even if we are thousand miles away apart. Although we are really going to grow older, meet a whole new people, feel the new atmosphere, or maybe walk on the different land, we will be still united as one in those corridor we used to walk on; or in the field on which we had made a lot of events; in the trees, leaves; or even in the big lake and under the big electricity tower on the back of our school.

“But of all these friends and lovers,

there is no one compare with you.”

-Beatles “In My Life”

Bali (Photo Roll)

"Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything."

 #1 @Tanjung Benoa

#2 @KutaBeach and surrounding

#3 @PanglipuranVillage 

#4 @TanahLot 

Road Trip to Bali

Only a day after finishing the biggest events of our school, the 34th generation of smansa started the trip to Bali. 

What made me very excited about this trip was that we were going to go to Bali from Depok by bus. It was very challenging for us to sit more than 36 hours on those very comfortable, but narrow chair. Well to be honest, I always prefer going the distance on the road to going through by plane. Hundreds or even thousands meters above the ground, you can only see clouds, clouds, clouds again, or maybe at some lucky times, a view of the ground from above. However, here on the bus, you can see the changing of culture including the type of building, people, or atmosphere. So the trip to Bali was very exciting. I saw the metropolitan of Jakarta with its stressing traffic jam, then I went through the almost pristine area with all the fresh green everywhere, then I entered Javanese city view which is very relaxing with its specialties: the blue white striped sidewalk (I love it the most) plus its crowded traditional market in the morning, then I saw the sea so close to me while the bus was on the road next to the beach. That kind of trip was what I meant. I want to see another people, another culture, another landscape. I want to see different things. I want to see the world. 

We (34th generation and I) started to hit the road at seven in the morning. It took a day for us to get into the east java. Since we took the south route, for almost a day, we continuously saw shady trees on our right side and steep field on our left side on the road in the Middle Java. Getting used to see the green and feel the mild air everywhere, it was a little shocked when we woke up the next day when we entered the East Java. There, the green was rare and the air was very hot. The day before, it was so freezing being inside the bus that we close down all the air conditioner. But that day, we opened up all the air conditioner, but still feel stiflingly hot. 

Before the touchdown to Bali, we had to take a ferry to cross over the Bali Strait. This was also the most exciting part for me because that was the first time I took a ferry. So in those forty five minutes oscillated, I did not show any expressions but the excitement. I went to the back edge of the ferry and watched the point of Java Island getting further (on that part, I felt homesick). I went to the right and left edge, feeling wind, seeing the wave in the dark, looking at the stars and having a conversation with friends. With the sound of other friends singing sweet songs from the distance, that moment became perfect. Those perfect moment became much more perfect when we finally did the touchdown. This was the best part of going to Bali by bus that the 36 hours, the stiff feeling and all the tiredness, was really worth it when I finally arrived at the destination.

At the time we did the touchdown at Bali, it felt like I wanted to shout very loudly "BALI, HERE WE COME!"

Being Lonely + Coffee = Heaven

“Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better.”

-Henry Rollins (American Rock Singer, Author, Actor, and Poet)

R.A.I.N: Room for An Inspirational Narrative

I woke up today and found that it was raining heavily outside. It was so cold that i was being very lazy sneaking up and down on my own bed. As a growing up teen, it has been becoming my habit seeing the world in twitter to start the day. Then there they were, on my timeline, cursing and hoping for the rain to stop. Yeah, a lot have said, and I could do nothing but agree, that rain can be a wall that ban people from doing their activities. Rain forces people to stay home or keeps people at any places from coming home. It forces people to watch, to see its beauty, and also the beauty of life. At the time people can not go anywhere nor do anything, they are forced to think, to brood over their life that actually has a lot of beautiful and inspiring story. Now, at half past seven in the morning, here i am, looking at the rain and feeling its sound, thinking about destiny and future, and life.

A piece of story that "forces" me to think about destiny comes from a plot in a movie. Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind. It is a story of a couple that undergo a procedure to erase the memory blah blah and blah. A very long and complex story actually-- you should watch that movie anyway (recommended)-- but refer to one big point, that soul mates, is destiny. No matter how hard people try to avoid, erase, run, or deny their mates, it will always come to them. Destiny will work in the way we do not understand to keep people on the way they should be, with the person they should be with, and on the places the should be.

Social network is the next thing that bring me another story inspires about future. There is this friend of mine, tweeted few days ago about future: No matter how uncertain future might seems, what belongs to you, comes to you. At the present days, every time i study at school, I am worrying about my future. Most of my friend have chosen the faculty they want, the job they want to take, or simply the future they want. I am the only one among them who still does not even know what to choose yet. As the system of universities in Indonesia is based on score, I am also worrying about my score. From the first grade of senior high school, my score has been decreasing fast like it jump from the highest cliff to its bottom. However, after reading that tweet, I feel like a stupid person, worrying about something I do not even know yet. Yeah it real, what belongs to you will come to you. As long as you work as hardest as you can, the future will be magical, in its own way.

So, life is not that complex. It is simply just today, yesterday, and tomorrow. Most of people are afraid of tomorrow. People get stressed, depressed, and tired in their days worrying about their tomorrow. They forget that the most important time in life is today. Future has its own surprise for people, a big big surprise. It is the best to color the day with the excitement to know what surprise the future might be giving us tomorrow.

At the end of story, I can still hear the sound of the rain tapping the roof, and the window. While it was raining, I was stuck and not able to go anywhere but here, at home, thinking about life, its beauty. Rain gives you room to think, about life, the greatest narrative ever. Be in that room and think. I have done that and this is my story. What's yours?

“I’ll tell you what I really loved: the version of Somebody to Love that was in Happy Feet. That was a fantastic version. It was great.”

- Roger Taylor (the drummer from Queen)
Somebody commented on youtube. And it is REALly great version

Resolusi

Tahun lalu, saya memutuskan untuk tidak memiliki resolusi. Sebenarnya punya sih, seingat saya hanya untuk memiliki sebuah kehidupan yang menyenangkan. Hell yeah, i had happy life last year. Tapi kalau dipikirkan lebih lanjut, sebuah kehidupan yang  menyenangkan terlalu luas untuk dijadikan sebuah resolusi, atau memang bukan sebuah resolusi. Jadi ya saya hidup selama 365 hari terakhir tanpa sebuah resolusi. Dari 365 hari yang melelahkan itu, saya akhirnya tiba pada suatu kesimpulan bahwa saya membutuhkan sebuah resolusi. Karena satu, saya tidak terlalu pintar dan dua, saya dalam satu dan lain hal berantakan dan butuh untuk dirapihkan.

Dari segala pengamatan, saya memang tidak pintar, atau lebih tepatnya tidak cerdas. Saya bukanlah seseorang yang bisa mempelajari apapun dengan cepat. Saya bukan seseorang yang bisa hidup dan tetap berjaya dalam kondisi apapun. Hal ini menjadikan saya tidak bisa hidup mandiri. Saya bisa hidup di dalam kehidupan yang diatur bukan sebuah kehidupan tanpa aturan dengan prinsip flow on the go. Dalam pikiran saya yang abstrak saya tahu apa saja yang harus saya lakukan, tetapi saya yang bukan cerdas ini memang tidak bisa mewujudkan abstrak tersebut menjadi sesuatu yang konkret. Untuk itu saya memang harus mulai mencatat, dan di awal tahun 2012 ini, saya rasa menulis apa-apa saja yang akan saya lakukan satu tahun ke depan adalah suatu permulaan yang baik untuk saya yang tidak pintar, atau lebih tepatnya tidak cerdas ini.

Kedua, saya memang berantakan. Keberantakan yang terjadi pada diri saya sebenarnya adalah hasil dari keadaan saya yang kurang cerdas. Satu tahun kebelakang, kehidupan saya secara struktur menjadi berantakan. Ada banyak hal yang harus saya lakukan dan saya tidak bisa mengingat semuanya. Ada banyak tujuan yang harusnya saya tetapkan sejak awal saya mulai melangkah. Tapi, karena saya tidak menetapkannya, kehidupan saya berjalan entah kemana. Jadi untuk merapihkannya, saya memutuskan untuk mempunyai resolusi.

Pada intinya tahun ini, saya memutuskan untuk memiliki resolusi. Ada banyak sebenarnya, namun saya terlalu  malu untuk menyebutkan poin-poin bodoh itu. Resolusi yang berhubungan dengan blog ini adalah saya akan tetap menghidupkan blog ini sepanjang tahun, so stay tune. 

Good Bye

There are a lot of things that can take us fly through our life in the past. There are some songs remind us of some moments in the rain, or in the hug of our family, or in some beautiful laughing moments with pals. There are some videos, or movies remind us of some places, some hard moment, or some magics turning us up to the top. There are also some pictures with a powerful and dangerous effect to our brain with making it thinks that we are in the different era, situation with different people, and different us. An easy example is this picture.

This picture brings me away to the very past moment in my childhood memory when I was a very kid and that was a lot of time at home for just playing, sleeping, watching TV and read some silly books (just like the winnie the pooh yeah haha). It is really working for me, and I personally think it was really beautiful. I mean, in every time we're listening to the clock on our wall ticking on every second, we know that we are all changing. We are all growing and changing. Our self is not what we used to be, and our family, friends, teachers and people that we may not know are also not what they used to be. Our world is now running on the big and fast transformation and we have to join it. The question is whether we want it or not, but we are ready or not.

Well that was just an stupid intermezzo from me (yeah i know i'm silly okay, just stop). All i'm going to say is written on that inspiring picture:

"If there ever comes a day when we can't be together, keep me in your heart, and I'll stay forever."

Honestly, I really want to dedicate this to my family which is going to be leaving. I have done an awesome year, and lot of great moments with this family. We have been very successful on fighting for the heavy streams of our tears with standing together, holding each other hands and making a good team family.

We have been running together for at least a year. We have known at the beginning that we are going to face the hardest problem of the year, which is the goodbye. We have known that there will be a day that we cannot be together anymore, that there will be a day we are taking the different road and waving our hand to say goodbye to each of us. We have known that we are going to have tears again not only for the hard moments but also all beautiful and great moments we have been through. We have known that one day we are going to be standing alone and walking alone, that we are going to meet a whole new world and new faces, that we are going to have a new family somewhere we will really belong.

Today is the day. The day that we have to say goodbye, whether it is hard or not. This is the day when we cannot be together anymore. In the end, I want to say that we have had each other in our hearts. I will keep this family deep inside my heart, to make it stay forever there. Now, I really want you, my family, keep me inside your heart, and I will really stay forever in each and every hearts of yours.

Wave your hand, to make it easier for saying goodbye -Bima

Source Of The Code (Source Code, huh? -___-)

"This world's s*ck!"

Don't tell me you disagree. We can see in the advancement of the technology that we can barely see the friendly faces from the people walking with their head down straight to their phones, laptops, and tablets. Then don't tell me you are not worried seeing a lot of free sex leading to a lot of killing diseases, or seeing the non-hearted people who cut our trees greedily for money, or seeing other greedy officials having fun for their own happiness with the people's money. I agree and not to mention that I do care. I do care, and then I realized that running from those problem is not the best solution.

I watched the Source Code few moments ago. It was a great movie with a lot of physic stuff and unpredictable story (really recommended). At the beginning it was like inception thing and more like science fiction movies. I kept watching and got more interested with the movie. The story got more complex and inspiring. The ending which is my favorite was the most inspiring part of the movie.

At the ending, there was this man who is about to crash the world as the result of his thought that the world's s*ck. From many point of view, let us see this man is having good motives to make a better world so that he can take away the world from suffering. Then let's see it from the process, that he is trying to create a new world, thinking that it is the best solution for the world. Let's see that after he create a new world, he will leave the world he lives in with the unsolved problem behind. At the end, let's conclude that he is running away instead of standing bravely facing those hard problems.

At the very end (of the movies), after taking control of the man, the main character (Jake Gyllenhaal) who has refused to be agree with the man, choose to do different way to the world. Instead of crashing the world to pieces, he choose to make the oldies, some man controlled by their laptops, some individualist, and a lot of people who do not know each other being united and laugh together. It was just beautiful for sure.

taken from youtube

In short, do not ever think to run from your problem instead of facing it. You really do not want to feel the regret of the choice you did not do, the choice to solve your problem. There must be a way out from every problem. Why don't we stand together facing those tiring problem. Why don't we unite our people like Jake Gyllenhaal do in the movie. Stop crashing our world, and start building it.