Rest in Style

The habit of posting an obituary is surely
imported from our Dutch colonialist.
Especially so amongst our Chinese Indonesian brothers
who duly adopted it.
It's even become reciprocal.

So, when someone important dies,
you will be seeing a lot of obituaries.
From any people on his/her walk of life.
They might be vary in sizes,
but they all share the same tag: Rest in Peace.

It's a strange concept, RIP.
I don't think you could rest without having any peace.
For me, resting is always about getting peace
with your mind, body and soul.
So the underline message,
the read-between-the-line of a RiP
is a wish, a hope, a pray.
A positive intention
coming out of the negative event.

Today, an obituary I helped to write,
appeared gallantly on Kompas, and some other newspapers.
Someone dies?
Not even close.
It's the death of a brand
It's the death of a brand-consumer intimacy
It's the death of a perception
It's the death of an aspiration,
and surely
the death of the childhood dreams
Something that I have guarded with all my heart
for the last 10 months..

but we don't want to be appeared so sadly, hopeless
we refused to be taken for granted, to be forgotten
We bravely decided,
if our coming has made the different
so does our leaving

It is not Rest in Peace,
it is Rest in Style..

20 October 2008

Waiting

Waiting.. the most boring thing to do. But it is something you could not avoid. One way or the other, you will encounter with your ‘waiting’. It took 60 minutes of waiting for a 20 minutes meet and greet with your son’s doctor, another 40 minutes to get a 20 minutes dental check. 2 hours on ground before a 45 minutes flight. In fact, if you follow the religious preach, living on this very life is actually a waiting, a halt before embarking into another life.

People react differently to a ‘waiting’, or to be more precise, to the boredom that comes in a package with it. Japanese, and most of westerners, will dwelt into book/magazine/newspaper whenever they have to kill time, on train, on airport lounge, during flight. While most of us will end up gossiping..

And waiting has become a business. That’s the raison d’etre of Sony PSP. Nokia even introduced a specific game-oriented mobile phone in their line up. That’s why there’s a LCD screen next to the elevator door in most of the office buildings around Jakarta.

But what about if you are waiting for an execution, like what Amrozi cs or any other death sentence convicted criminals are doing right now? Surely, it is no fun at all. It could be the most effective diet ever. If you took it positively, it could be the best time for self-contemplation. It pumps up your adrenaline. Those who have a weak heart, might not even be survived the waiting. But, I guess, they will be thankful to the boredom. That indefinite boredom is prolong their life day by day..

Once AT&T produced this funny commercial:
A person sentenced with a death penalty is given the chance to make his final wish before the execution team who are lined up ready to shoot him dead. “I want to make a final call to my wife, may I?” And so his last wish granted. But, his smart enough not to make his call short. Till the next morning, he’s still talking on his phone, while the execution team were tired of waiting...

Kopi Luwak

Ini jenis kopi yang paling eksotis.
Konon difermentasi di dalam pencernaan seekor luwak.
Entah benar atau tidak cerita itu.
Tapi yang jelas luwak memang terkenal pandai memilih biji kopi terbaik.

Kopi ini sudah mendunia:
menjadi kesukaan Jack Nicholson dalam film The Bucket LIst
dan menjadi topik bahasan di The Oprah Show.
Di Indonesia di jual seharga Rp 80,000 secangkir,
disajikan dengan air panas khusus yang dituang di cangkir bewarna keemasan.

Salah satu kehebatan kopi ini adalah aman buat pengidap maag,
karena sama sekali tidak terasa asam
meski terbilang cukup kuat caffein-nya.
Aromanya sedap, pekat namun tidak berbubuk.

Bila Anda seorang coffee-lover,
belum lengkap kalau belum pernah merasakan kehebatan kopi luwak ini.
Apalah artinya uang Rp 80,000 untuk sebuah pengalaman rasa yang luar biasa ini...

It’s the wrong turn..

Who are never made the wrong turn? Who are never get lost? Every one, in one time of their life, must have made that mistake.

As for me, I am completely idiot in spatial observation. That’s one of the reason I could not become an architect. That’s why there is a GPS on my car. I can even get lost in finding my car at the mall’s parking lot.

But that kind of mistake is not bring about serious consequences. What about if you made the wrong turn in your life? You made the wrong choice?

Life is about making choices, one after another.. But, when you made bad choice, the one that you will regret after a while, for sure it will make you looked back, wondering why you made that turn, and not went straight instead..

Well, God has HIS own scheme of managing things.. Obviously you will feel regret if you choose something that do not work out as you wish. But you never knew, that what seems to be a BAD choice, was actually a good one because if you not made this choice, a more devastating consequence could be waiting for you..

I am always try to believe that every single thing that happen in your life were an opportunity.. It’s God sent. It’s up to you how you best capitalize it... Carpe diem, seize the day... said Robin Williams in Dead Poet Society, my all time favorite movie.

La Ta’zan and The Secret told us the same thing: the power of thinking positive. With that positive mind, comes a healthy attitude towards things and embrace the challenge more willingly.

Shoichiro Honda is the legend whose whole life were driven by a dream that in turn become a passion. And he achieved it, finally, eventually.. He taught us that nothing is impossible, everything is within reach if only you worked hard enough to get it done..

So, back to the question above, what about if you made the wrong turn in your life? If you were agreed with La Ta’zan, The Secret, and Soichiro Honda, there’s no such thing like a wrong turn. It’s just a hidden treasure of golden opportunity. It boils down to how you uncover it. They key is within you...

As for me, I, once, have preferred a Blackberry over a new CRV. How crazy can it be?

Kotak Pandora itu...

Box itu sudah setahun dibiarkan begitu saja. Sejak meninggalkan gedung di daerah bisnis termahal di Jakarta persis 12 bulan lalu, box itu terus tertutup rapat

Berhubung harus mencari satu dokumen penting, maka tadi pagi box itu dibuka.
Box itu penuh berisi artefak-artefak perjalanan hidup selama 7 tahun di sebuah gedung di Golden Triangle. Satu demi satu isi box itu dikeluarkan, hingga menemukan yang dicari. Seluruh proses tadi laksana perjalanan waktu:

Aku kembali ke Novus workshop bersama client..
Di foto bersama dengan tim hasil jepretan expatriate itu, aku tampak begitu segar dan penuh energi...
Foto bersama peserta conference di Tokyo..
Berbaju Hawaii di sebuah dinner event di suatu malam di Bangkok..

Selama ini, aku punya kebiasaan. Selalu membawa segala barang yang terakumulasi di kantor lama ke kantor baru setiap kali pindah kerja. 12 bulan lalu ritual ini diputus. Saat beres-beres di kantor sebelum ini, 7 tahun itu ternyata mengakumulasi banyak hal dan barang. Berhubung aku selalu merasa every single thing could be important someday, pekerjaan beres-beres itu membutuhkan 4 box besar. Those boxes is where I kept my memories.

Saat pindah ke kantor yang sekarang, a different industry, aku tidak membawa apa pun. Kupikir ini adalah simbol akan hijrahku ke sebuah dunia baru. A life beyond advertising...

Kini kota pandora itu terbuka sudah.. It creates a mixed feeling though…

Laskar Pelangi: Sebuah Teladan

Cerita masa kecil Andrea Hirata di pelosok pulau Belitung itu memang fenomenal. Tidak hanya sukses secara komersial, filmnya yang sedang main di sejumlah bioskop saat ini mungkin sekali juga akan sukses besar karena Andrea telah memesona banyak orang.

Laskar Pelangi mengundang banyak interpretasi. Sebuah biografi yang nyelengeh dan tidak linear, sebuah karya antropologis, sastra humanis (memang ada sastra yang tidak humanis ya?). Tapi lebih dari itu semua, LP menyajikan satire sekaligus cermin untuk sebuah keteledanan. Sesuatu yang langka di negeri ini..

Orang bijak bilang hidup adalah perjuangan. Andrea, dan kebanyakan dari kita, memang bukan child born with silver spoon on the mouth. Buat mereka setiap kesempatan adalah peluang: carpe diem, seize the day. Andrea beruntung mendapatkan kesempatan itu, dan memanfaatkan sebaik-baiknya hingga ia menjadi seperti sekarang. Tapi tidak buat sahabatnya Lintang dan Mahar. Potensi mereka berdua begitu besar, paling tidak demikian kesaksian Ikal, panggilan akrab Andrea. Potensi besar itu hilang percuma karena kesempatan mereka terenggut kesulitan ekonomi. Sebuah masalah klasik bangsa Indonesia sejak sebelum merdeka dulu.

Lintang dan Mahar tidak sendirian. Masih banyak ribuan bahkan jutaan potensi-potensi bakat besar di seluruh Indonesia yang tak sempat berkembang karena kemiskinan. Pendidikan memang tidak pernah dilihat penting oleh penguasa negeri ini. Dari tahun ke tahun biaya riil untuk mendapatkan pendidikan yang memadai makin mahal, bahkan banyak pengusaha konglomerat melihatnya sebagai peluang bisnis menggiurkan. Dulu cukup membayar Rp 100,000 per semester untuk kuliah di sebuah PTN ternama, kini untuk PTN yang sama dibutuhkan biaya beratus-ratus kali lipat.

Saat kuliah dulu, masih sering bertemu mahasiswa dari negeri Jiran yang begitu bangga bisa bersekolah di Indonesia di kampus yang menjadi Center of Excelence. Kini sebaliknya, banyak orang Indonesia yang mengirim anaknya bersekolah ke Malaysia atau Singapore karena tidak percaya lagi dengan mutu pendidikan negeri sendiri.

Tapi di sisi lain, kita akan jauh lebih sering menemukan Toyota Alphard, Jaguar, Mercedez S Class, BMW serie 7 di jalanan Jakarta daripada di Malaysia atau Singapore sekalipun. Pelataran parkir gedung Parlemen di Senayan seperti miniatur Tokyo Motor Show. Lebih dari dua minggu lalu, di salah satu segment acara Kick Andy ditampilkan sebuah sekolah Muhammadiyah di pelosok Tapanuli Selatan yang hanya punya seorang guru, yang sejatinya tidak memiliki kualifikasi sebagai guru, namun terpanggil karena tidak tega melihat anak-anak di desanya yang belum dialiri listrik itu tidak sekolah karena tidak ada guru. Sementara di periode yang bersamaan, ada satu tokoh parpol yang dekat dengan Muhammadiyah gencar menggelontorkan uang milyaran rupiah untuk kampanye citra pribadi.

Negeri ini memang penuh ironi...