Bath-tub

Beberapa hari tidak pulang ke "home sweet home" Cimanggis, gue rada kaget melihat ada "bath-tub" di samping garasi. Bath-tub siapakah itu gerangan? Tanya punya tanya...ternyata itu hasil instruksi ibuku yang genius, dan itu bukan bath-tub melainkan kolam ikan! Kolam ikan kok seperti bath-tub??? 

Ibu yang harusnya datang ke sini hanya melancong saja, tapi kok ya seperti yang punya rumah itu, memang tidak pernah bisa diam. Beliau punya kecenderungan menyediakan segalanya di rumah supaya tidak perlu belanja lagi. Bayangkan, dulu waktu masih di Riau, ketika kita punya halaman rumah seluas lapangan bola, ibuku memelihara ayam banyaaaaaak sekali sehingga kita tidak perlu beli ayam dan telurnya. Ada juga pohon pisang, pohon kelapa, mangga, jambu, sayur-sayuran, dll. Hanya kolam ikan saja yang tidak ada. Beliau pergi ke pasar hanya kalau mau beli beras, ikan dan daging (untung beliau tidak punya ide menanam padi dan memelihara sapi!). Tapi kalau dipikir2 kembali, mungkin beliau bakal punya ide itu kalau tidak punya kegiatan lain. Tetapi karena ada kegiatan darma wanita, arisan, bisnis bersama tetangga dan sebagainya, maka usaha tanaman yang tidak perlu diurus, dan memelihara ayam yang sejahtera kalau tidak ditengok terus-terusan lah yang menjadi core businessnya kala itu.

Sekarang ketika beliau punya banyak waktu dan tidak punya kegiatan, maka ide yang aneh2pun muncul. Kolam ikan itu salah satunya, di samping berpot-pot bunga beraneka macam menghiasi teras rumah. Gue betul2 bingung...nanti kalau beliau sudah pulang ke Medan, siapa yang mengurus itu semua?? Bahkan anggrek hutan yang tidak perlu diurus pun bisa mati dengan sukses di tangan gue! Satu-satunya pohon kebanggaan gue yang bertahan hanyalah zodia, yang sebetulnya tidak perlu diurus juga hidup sih...

Back to "bath-tub", ternyata itu bukan kolam buat ikan sembarangan. Itu khusus untuk ikan2 yang boleh dimakan. Artinya, memelihara ikan mas koki atau arwana (eh arwana juga bisa dimakan ya?) menjadi tidak mungkin dilakukan di sana. Gue jadi ingat keinginan adik gue untuk menaruh satu bathtub di kamar mandi gue yang sedang direnovasi, dan gue menolak keras karena tidak terlalu suka berendam di bathtub (punya kecenderungan menenggelamkan diri soalnya). Sambil tertawa geli gue hanya bisa bilang ke adik gue, "Akhirnya lu punya bathtub yang lu idam-idamkan juga, kalau lu bosan mandi di kamar mandi, lu bisa mandi di mari, bersama ikan2nya mama" 

Oalah...mama...mama....

Selamat Nyepi

Sms-sms iseng bersliweran antara Depok - Purwokerto dari dua anak manusia yang kesepian di hari raya Nyepi:

P (Pwt): Bu kmrn aq krm cnth via mms nyampe ga sih. btw day off kmn neh

D (Dpk): Nyampe bu tp aq blm smpt ngapa2in ni. Renc hari ini mo k t4 kakekku bu tapi takut ditanya2 hehe

P: Gpp aq cm tya aja coz krm jg ke tmnku di riau tp failed trus...kakek drmn bu, nyante aje kl dityain wong Tuhan blm ks jwbn koq

D: Kakek dr ibuku, hwaaaa...Dia prnh blg bkn salah tuhan tp sala aq yg ga pedulian. Masa aq dituduh autis sm kelg ibuku, ga ada emosi dsb. Sedih ga seh?

P: Ngapain jg musti sedih bu kan yang lbh tau soal psikologi itu bu debbie gmn sih...wong anteng gt koq diblg autis...ajak aja k*** ktpt kakek

D: K***? siapa tuh?

P: Itu lho abangnya tmnmu, orgnya kutu buku diem bgt cndrung pasif n batak jg...aq tau dr chintya tuh

D: Hahaha, k*** itu! Iya dia ga bs dideketin sm skl!!! Adiknya aja nyerah. Aku pkr dia dah kawin...Adiknya prnh kesel berat sm aq wkt aq minta dikenalin ma dia

P: Kawin pa nikah bu hehe. kau sih ikut2an pasif jd ya ga nyambung, knp jg adekny sebel...kl nemu org kyk k*** kau hrs tancep persneling 4 lsg bu

D: Bs ga jalan mblny lsg gigi 4 bu? Btw kau jg gt y kmrn? Wakakakakak....

P: Soalny dah ngebet bu hehe...kmrn cm gi2 3 coz pdktnya long distance jd lbh PD+brani

D:O gt...Aq long distance aja sm k*** kali ya meski sama2 di depok? Btw aq jg musti jago fis biar dia nengok ke aq

P: Fis? Mang gaweny dia apa, cr tau dl dia dah merit pa blm...kterlaluan deh klian ya wong sekota koq ga bs/mau ngedate...ampun deh bu

D: Musti dktin adikny lg deh...aq kan ga enak krn prnh nolak adiknya. Hihihi....

P:Gt toh storyny....ya pantes aja adekny gondok wong situ yang ditaksir malah abangnya yg situ suka...btepuk sblh tgn donk tp moga2 aja skrg dia dah netral jd bs tlgin kau pi

D: Yey...aq suka abangnya sejak sma lg...abang yg nyentrik...smntr adikny rivalku d kls krn rebutan glr ketua kls. hahaha...Aq takut ma istriny...(loh mang mo ngapain yak?)

P: Ya syukurlah kl dia dah merit mlh kau bs dktin bininya basa basi dkt trus 2 the point deh tp kau tetap hub adekny dl ok

D: Huh boro2.Stiap kl dtg k rmhny istriny ga mau nemuin, pdhl aq dtg slalu rame2 lho. Suaminya jg malas ngenalin, malah suru aq dtg sdr k rmh abangnya. Sinting, mang kite cw apaan...

P: Dont worry bu kl dah pegang no hpnya hub aja smsan dl trus telp skli2 br ajak ktmu ato ke grja bareng ato pura2 mnta tlg tmnin kmn kek, kreatif donk bu n terapkn ilmu anda bwt mnaklukan si gunung es ok

D: Kyknya lbh pakar kau deh bu. Aq kan tkenal jago teori sejak sd. hehee...

P: Its show time 4 u lah darling..mang blm knyang mkn teori. btw ktny mo ke tpt kakek, jd ga tar mlh sibuk sms-an soal k*** lg

D: Hehe..lg nunggu adikku.Iya dah lama ga dgr nama dia jd agak2 surprised. Brasa muda lg. Halah

P: Umur blh byk tp jiwa +pkrn te2p muda bouw...btw kl lg off drmh ngapain bu, jgn bngong lho tar kcolok garpu

D: Kl lg off pengennya bobo tp aq pny kbiasaan bw kerjaan ktr k rmh jd y kerja jg. Hehe. Bahkan brencana bw laptop k rmh kakek spy bs krj dsana kl topik pmbicaraan dah ga kondusif lg.Ceile....

P: Ampun deh bu, bw sdkt sante donk biar bs mmkrkan cr2 ngedeketin gebetan ato apalah istilahmu...ada saatny istirht bu, tarik ulur gt lho jd ga tegang

D: Yg ditarik ulur apaan yen?

P: Tenaga n pkrn mu bu, tu kan ga nyambung mknya skli2 cooling down biar fresh lg. btw ikut yoga aja bu bgs bwt exercise lhr bthin lho

D: Eh kau ikutan yoga ya bu? Enak ga sih? Aku kok malas br liat aja blm ngelakuin ya?

P: Aq cmn baca + diajarin sepupu cmn dikit2 gerakannya palq aq ga telaten kdg rajin tp byk malasnya hehe...sbtlnya grknnya kayk org snm aja tp kl yoga kan nafasnya diatur, sering2 stretching aja biar bdn ga kaku..

D: Kl stretching always tiap pg tp nafas msh senin kamis. Oks d bu, thx ya dah ditemenin nunggu. Adikku dah dtg gotta ciaow now

P: Otre bu take care ya...

Moral of the story: Kadang2 kalau lagi bosan menunggu sambil balas2an sms, ada saja content di sms yang bikin hidup jadi lebih semangat....

Selamat hari raya Nyepi.....

Just a weekend note

I'm facing my notebook now....not knowing what to do first. I have my to do list, and starting to hate it bad times. I even like it more to be surprised like they did last week, when I was told that I had to present my research report on a seminar 2 days before the seminar, and organized my presentation a few hours before the seminar. Hhhhh....real procrastinator!! 

In the middle of writing this entry, I feel the urge to examine my student's thesis. After reading 5 pages, I am exhausted by his line of reasoning, so I open my facebook page to refresh my brain (while these dvds are constantly seducing me up but thank god my heart's stay stoned until this minute). I decide to write my slide prez for tuesday lecture, oh God...that needs an Einstein brain so hold up for that one (until monday evening???). I open my books to search for ideas to present to Sekjen DPR, that can wait also. I look for something to give to my students for their intervention theory because next week is their deadline, and I decide promptly that it's their homework, hehehe. 

I look at my office homework to map the salary structure for non academic staffs, forgot to bring the rest docs home. Hwaaa....silly me...I open email from Prof Coenen suggesting me to turn my proposal into what they want....Dunno what to answer, and dunno what to write either. It's mine or theirs? So what's my achievement for today? Nothing but a full stomach and lazy sunday attitude :-P

Happy sunday everyone....Btw I miss someone who always greeted me happy sunday until he was married. I don't know why he stopped doing that after marriage, does marriage turn someone into a frigid person? Hehehe...

Changing people and changing tax ehehe...

Today I went to Al Bahar to see the mothers' progresses on paper recycling business we've taught. There were some progress here and there, but many of them are dissapointing. Can we apply some sophisticated theory on a very simple community? We were wrong in the first place. We trained them how to be an achiever, we trained them on technical stuffs. We hoped that they could be on their own, doing the business with the help of their instructors.

Eko was right, they are the marginalized kind of people with very learned-helplessness attitude. In Eko's term, they're "rakyat jelata" that cannot be changed (you damned right, Eko!). I had this hope and optimism toward them, all went wrong suddenly with a single shot. They were happy with their lives being a garbage pickers, and they tend to continue that profession because they instantly see it as a cheap kind of business compare to paper recycling business. See how their visions are limited to their sights.

I talked to a mother who were so willing to be in the program then. I asked her why she left the program. She just laughed bitterly, and said she's very busy doing her job. I asked her how much she's been paid for 1 kg of plastic garbage. It's Rp200,-!! She said she ran out of money since she just got back from her village in East Java for Maulid Nabi. I asked her how much she paid for the trip. It was only Rp100k/person for God sake, and she went broke after the trip. Oh Lord...suddenly I felt lucky tho' I have to pay another Rp3 millions for last year tax! 

We have to change the method again. Tho' they come from a so-called collective community, they cannot work in groups! That's for sure. So we've to forget teamwork here. All we got left is 4 individuals who are still seeing the business as prospective one. We have to develop them, help them open their networks and opportunities. It seems we need small sample of success people in the community to attract the attention of others.We will create leaders for them to follow.

On the way home, we reflected all the efforts we've been giving, and plan another effort to cultivate the enthusiastic individuals. We can't be wrong this time. 

PS. Still upset by the fact that I have an indebted tax of 3 millions thanks to gross up method. Gosh, that is a lot of money to be blown away uselessly. 

Kampanye oh kampanye...

Beberapa bulan ini jalan dan gang di seluruh Indonesia dibanjiri foto-foto, testimonial dan janji-janji muluk caleg. Muka yang tersenyum arif, menyeringai, serius, memelas, you name it, semua ada di jalanan, bahkan sejak akhir tahun lalu.

Saya jadi ingat bulan Desember tahun lalu berlibur ke kampung halaman ayah saya yang kiri kanan jalanannya kebon kelapa sawit melulu. Namanya kebun kelapa sawit ya sejauh mata memandang tentunya cuman ada kelapa sawit, jarang ada orangnya. Tapi ada caleg yang nekat membuat spanduk diri di tengah-tengah kebon, entah untuk siapa spanduk itu.

Sebelumnya ada baliho sebesar rumah di pinggir jalan sepanjang pemukiman penduduk dari arah Medan ke kampung bapak saya. Spanduknya Rudolf Pardede, mantan gubernur Sumatera Utara yang jadi caleg untuk DPRD Sumatra Utara kalau tidak salah. Oom saya yang satu itu memang nekat, udah ketauan track record-nya sewaktu jadi gubernur masih ingin jadi wakil rakyat.

Dalam perjalanan ke kampung, saya dan adik2 saya memutuskan untuk mampir di Serdang Bedagai. Ada sepupu saya yang mencalonkan diri jadi caleg di sana, dan dia ingin memesan atribut kampanye dari Bandung. Sepanjang jalan hampir tak ditemukan spanduk Bang Maman (begitu panggilan sayangnya). Ada satu spanduk melintang di atas jalan untuk Bang Maman. Kalau tak membaca namanya "Rasdiaman Damanik", saya tak akan mengenali wajahnya yang sangat berbeda, meskipun tetap ganteng. Hehehe...Bang Maman terlihat seperti "anggota" (you know what I mean) di spanduk itu.

Ah, sah-sah saja orang memajang dirinya, berpose bak fotomodel. Tapi siapakah sebetulnya anda, apa sumbangan anda sebelum memajang diri di pinggiran jalan hingga nekat mencalonkan diri jadi wakil rakyat? Saya akui prestasi Bang Maman yang luar biasa di kampungnya, Kota Tengah. Selama bertahun-tahun dia mengajak para pengangguran untuk bekerja (you know, di daerah Deli Serdang sana hampir tidak ada yang punya etos kerja baik, compare to Bataknese hehehe). Ibu-ibu pun tak luput dari perhatiannya, sehingga ia pernah mendapatkan penghargaan sebagai pengusaha muda paling sukses di daerahnya.

Kalau spanduk Bang Maman hanya kelihatan satu dua dibandingkan caleg lainnya yang bikin mata sepet karena sepanjang jalan harus liat mukanya terus menerus, itu karena dia tak khawatir dengan posisinya sebagai caleg. Dia tak mengumbar janji. Bahkan di spanduknya, dia hanya mengucapkan selamat Idul Fitri dan Natal (digabung jadi satu biar hemat katanya).

Tapi begitulah Bang Maman, sejak dulu dia tak pernah mengumbar janji. Meskipun dulu kita mengenalnya sebagai anak nakal yang "jebolan" perguruan tinggi (by "jebolan" i meant "drop out") dan sempat membuat keluarganya prihatin, dia bangkit kembali by himself (dan istrinya yang luar biasa tentunya) dan menjadi orang yang bertanggungjawab seperti sekarang.

I'm not campaigning for him of course...dan tidak mengharapkan dia membaca tulisan ini karena bisa tersipu malu dia. I was just wondering for others who are so brave campaigning for themselves, what did they offer for the sake of society before they did that?

Oh btw, kemarin dalam perjalanan pulang ke Depok, sebelum masuk terowongan batas antara Jakarta-Depok, mata saya tertuju pada satu baliho besar di sebelah kiri saya. Seorang teman saya dari PKS mencalonkan diri jadi caleg. Hampir tak mengenali wajahnya, karena sekali lagi, wajah di baliho kan beda sama wajah yang sebenarnya, saya melihat namanya dan berteriak kegirangan "itu temanku...itu temanku..." sampai-sampai adik saya mengernyitkan keningnya dan mendesis "norak lu". Di antara kelelahan melihat spanduk muka orang tak dikenal, akhirnya saya gembira melihat muka orang yang saya kenal. Mudah2an si Mbak punya sesuatu yang membanggakan sebelum mencalonkan dirinya :)))

Have a nice Tuesday everybody...

Happy wedding day Pakde Ibut

Today is Mas Ibut's big day with Anyi. He finally took a big leap, after some struggles on both parts. Congratulations to Mas Ibut and Anyi, hopefully this would last forever. The wedding invitation is a very cool one, I like it! Forgot to take the picture of it. 

Everybody wants to be Italian

Have you seen the movie? Not that I don't like it, but it constantly hurts my brain from the beginning of why they titled it that way instead of "everybody wants to be needed" or "everybody wants to be in search of soulmate." They are too exaggerating in picturing Italian as the most wanted ethnic in the world (?) I'd rather be spanish because they are the most sexiest people in the world. Hehehe. 

There are awesome scenes in the movie, like when they are mocking at psychologists and compare the profession to doctors. Oh, they're mocking at "doctors" as in PhD also...like doctor in philosophy, doctor in english literature, etc. And ofcozzz...the veterinarian also. They call themselves doctor too, but to idiots they're not really doctors because they're not dealing with human.    

The other scene is when the Harvard educated people are lectured by a senior high dropped out of how to develop fishery business and make more money than they get with their harvard education. 

Pretty good one as an intermezzo...

I've to get back to my work now. 

Wisdom

My thought of the day:

By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest ~ Confucius ~

My song of the day:

Bridge over troubled water ~ Simon & Garfunkle

My painting of the day:

A Balinese dancer worth 650k which I condemned since I've seen a much more larger and beautiful painting for only 200k in Sukowati, hehehe.

My first word in the morning:

I wish I could say T.G.I.F

My first laugh of the day:

MEM came in in the morning and handed me bakpia from Yogya.

My hopefully not stupid act of the day:

Purchase something online from Indonesian blog.

Lesson of the day:

If you are to finish your proposal, take 3 days off and go to the beach...to write.

The darn day...ups...the lovely day....

Today I considered myself to be unlucky, evil was around me almost all hours from morning to evening. Start from morning hours, I forgot about many ‘to do list’ that were listed in my head (sape suruuuu…) so I was fortunate enough since I remember to pay my debt to the bank (wakakakak…imagine what would happen if I forgot this one). Upon giving more than a quarter of my monthly pay to the bank, I began to act devilish (just be careful that quite a lot debt has a very significant correlation to satanic behaviorJ)

Mom called me afterwards, asked me to buy the ugly paint because they were running out of paint. This was my mom talking, I couldn’t yell at her though I wanted to. It’s not fair…I couldn’t just think about work and home at the same time. Aaarrrrgghhh…but I could only say “OK”. So after office hour I hurried to Mitra10 to get that darn paint. Guess what! They were running out of that golden brown color!! That was the ugliest color in the world, the reason why I picked them at the first place was that they (Mitra10) had a lot of stocks of that color compare to any other color. I was thinking about buying it again in the future just in case we’re running out of it. But I was wrong…

Apparently I’m a trendsetter here. Just after I picked up the ugly color paint, people gathered around the shelf. I didn’t know whether they eventually bought it, but I knew exactly that when I left the shelf, I left around 20 cans of paint of the golden brown color on the shelf. They still won the biggest number of color on the shelf. But a week after, I could only get one can of that color. Mom said they needed about two more. Today I still couldn’t get it, so I concluded that Mitra10 is not the best supermarket in town, because they always run out of things that once were there. So be careful if you all plan to buy things at Mitra10, don’t expect too much for repeated buying because they only stock once in a lifetime. Guys, I gave them lectures about marketing, business bla bla bla…for about 15 minutes!!

To make things short and sweet, I finally bought other higher price can of paint approximately the same color as the previous ones (it turned out that it was completely different…). ‘Twas raining outside and I decided to stop a cab. It stopped, I went in, and then we’re on the road. The driver asked about where to go, I replied, “Cimanggis”, and guess what…he said sorry he couldn’t get me to Cimanggis because he’s on the way to his customer. Omigod!!! Again??? I decided to be cool, so I sweetly nodded at him and said “Apparently I’m not your customer, get me out of here sir…so that you can go to your customer”. He said sorry, and I said, “No comment”. Oh btw, it was Express Taxi.

I took another cab, this time the driver’s sweet but I wasn’t (and I paid my debt afterwards, I hope it’s even). He patiently waiting for me looked for small money at a minimarket nearby home, but suddenly there was a blackout! Damn it…really…I was tired, it’s raining outside, and dark as well. Finally I got small money from the minimarket by exchanging money with…money. I walked home in rain-in dark and in pain, to find my fence locked. I couldn’t call mom since my mobile was also blackout. I stood by the fence hoping they would hear me knocking and shouting, but it was my neighbor who’s hearing me. Where are they, for God shake! Oh mom…I’m hungry….forgive me to have sinned today…