Yang Ada Sebelum Lupa

"Tolerance is not enough to be taught, it should be experienced." I grew up in Muslim majority with strong Islamic value. Never had experienced to meet, talk and be friend with non-muslim friends until the age of 15 years old or when I entered biggest school in my hometown. I get used to similarity, even when there was transfer student in my elementary school wearing sunglasses, it looked weird for me, even I never thought she was bad student. Until experiences from time to time teach me about tolerance and diversity, more beyond the difference of religion, more complex than, " oh you are non-muslimm, you are non-Javanese, you are not wearing hijab, you are different ." Until many hatreds, conflict, and war I heard and saw with my bare eyes or in media happened.  In my current workplace, Ashoka (has been here for 2.5 years), I get used to work with global diverse of culture, language, and religion. In a year, the office celebrates different festives to respect ever...

It was a 2.5 hours conversation between two friends, to feed our needs of human connection, even when the physical distance separated us. Because apart from whatever we are currently doing and trying, in the end, all of us are just humanbeings living in the same history, living in a pandemic and try to keep alive in this kind of survival mode. I found there is always something worth to share, so I wrote this.  The call was opened with a very common and predictable question; " how's life ?" But the process to answer was all about reflection into other reflections. Not necessarily to only answer the question itself, but more into re-affirming our current emotion, " am I okay? what do I feel? " then the conversation developed, unstructured still, yet well covered important elements of life. In the midst of debating between " sentil " and " grendel " for the Javaness terminology of locking the doors, we talked about adult life. When we become mor...

17 November 2019 Plaza Surabaya Hujan baru berhenti Sekelebat berfikir, bahwa Bapak itu bisa saja hanya bohong. Tapi, lalu kenapa Tuhan menggerakkan hati ini? Ah biarlah.  Lalu biar Tuhan yang urus sisanya. Si Bapak menangis, mengusap kedua mata dengan telapak tangannya, lalu berjalan menjauh sambil memandangi uang di tangannya. "Saya cuma butuh Rp 16.000 mbak, untuk ongkos pulang ke Bojonegoro. Saya tadinya mau kerja bangunan di sini tapi ternyata saya ditipu. Saya mau pulang. Cuma sisa uang Rp 7.000, biayanya Rp 22.000 untuk naik bus ke sana." xxx Rupiah untuk Bapak, semoga jadi pengharapan baru setelah ujian pekerjaan datang. "Yakin kamu enggak kena tipu, Yen?" temanku bertanya. Hmm, biar Tuhan yang urus sisanya sama si Bapak. Tugasku sudah selesai .

Tepian itu keruh. Dia bahkan tak melihat wajahnya di pantulan air itu. Lalu termangu cukup lama. Baru kali ini ia berkonflik dengan seseorang yang selama hidup paling ia percaya. Dirinya sendiri. Lalu sebuah kesadaran datang padanya. Hanya tepiannya yang bermasalah. Dia tidak ragu. Dia hanya perlu menyelam lebih dalam sampai ke dasar. Di sana dia yakin ada kekuatan yang ia cari.  Mungkin sebuah mata air yang jernih dan lama tak terurus namun tetap menggetarkan dan menyejukkan bagi siapa saja yang berani menyelaminya. Sumber yang berasal dari Sang Penciptanya, yang kesejukannya tak diragukan lagi. Dia kini mulai letih, padahal baru sebentar memulai. Panas mulai membakar tak hanya wajahnya namun juga hatinya. Seteguk demi seteguk dicobanya meminum air tepian itu, tapi yang ada dia makin haus dan lelah. Bisikan itu tiba-tiba saja datang. Katanya dia telah lama pergi dari pesisir, memanjakan gunung hingga lupa akan pantai. Hari ini, di hari-hari yang ...