Nonton Batman

Malam minggu kemarin saya nonton Batman: The Dark Knight bersama Riko. Biasanya malam minggu saya malas nonton, karena pasti ramainya minta ampun. Tapi kali ini tak apalah. Soalnya sudah lama tak bersua dengan Riko.

Benar saja, parkiran Blitz PVJ nyaris penuh. Kami terpaksa parkir di tempat yang areanya nyaris tak layak parkir saking sempitnya. Untung si Mumun langsing. Hehehe.
Filmnya dimulai jam 8 malam. Meskipun Riko sudah membeli tiketnya sejak jam 2 siang, tetap saja kami mendapat tempat duduk di baris C, baris ketiga dari depan. Wiii...

Untung filmnya bagus. Bagus sekali. Sekali.
Tak sia-sia rasanya kemacetan dan pegal di leher lantaran harus nonton sambil mendanga'.
Joker nya keren sekali. Mengerikan.
Batman, Jim Gordon dan Two Face juga lumayan.
Sayang saya tak suka Rachelnya. Sepertinya lebih cocok dimainkan Katie Holmes ups.. Katie Cruise, i mean...

Saya tak ingin menjadi spoiler buat Anda yang belum menonton. Soalnya film ini bagus. Jadi Anda tonton saja sendiri. Ini adalah film superhero dimana superheronya not so superhero. Manusiawi sekali.
Tapi saya tidak menyarankan anak-anak untuk menontonnya. Filmnya agak sadis. Hehe.

The moral I got from the film:
It doesn't matter what people judge about you. The only thing that matters when you have noble intention is the accomplishment of the mission itself. Not the appreciation from people because what you have done.

Waw, that's a huge lesson!

follow the crowd

Saya sedang menunggu untuk interview. Celingak celinguk, saya terlalu cepat setengah jam. Untunglah saya melihat ada tumpukan majalah di meja tengah.
I was actually hoping for Cosmopolitan or Elle but there were only World Oil and other magazines I had not know before.

Jadilah, World Oil.
Saya membaca cukup lama, dan hanya mengerti mungkin 10% nya. Sial.

And then I found these words in an anonymous advertise:
Success doesn't follow the crowd.
It's easy to go with the flow, but will it take you where you want to be?

It hit me quite hard in, somehow, perfect time.

Kosan Matters

Menurut saya ada dua hal krusial yang dihadapi mahasiswa baru terutama yang perantauan : ospek dan kosan.

Saya ingat betul sulitnya mencari kosan pertama bulan Agustus 2004 silam. Berbekal pengetahuan pas-pasan soal kota Bandung, saya dan Bapak mengubek-ubek daerah sekitar kampus mencari kemungkinan tersedianya ruangan untuk menampung saya.

People said practices makes perfect. Jika benar begitu, maka mestinya saya sudah mendekati sempurna. Karena saya tidak hanya dua, tiga, atau empat kali mencari yang namanya kosan. Tidak kawan. Selama 47 bulan saya hidup di Bandung, saya telah merasakan 6 kosan yang berbeda. Kalau dirata-rata, maka kira-kira setiap 8 bulan saya punya kosan baru. Bukan karena hobi, tapi memang selalu ada alasan untuk pindah.
Lagipula, seperti kata Steve Jobs: If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.
Hehehe.

Maka ijinkan saya berbagi sedikit pengetahuan saya tentang kos-kosan. Semoga berguna.


Mencari Kosan

Sejauh yang saya alami selama ini, ada tiga cara mencari kos-kosan.

Pertama, lewat agen.
Saya pernah mencoba menggunakan jasa agen kos-kosan La Maison. Anda bisa langsung datang ke kantornya di Jl Dr Eyckman atau minta dikirimkan (tentunya ada ongkos kirim).
Dulu sih dengan 25 ribu rupiah saya memperoleh daftar alamat kos-kosan di lokasi-lokasi yang telah saya pilih sebelumnya. Dilengkapi berbagai keterangan seperti kosan cewek/cowok/campur, luas kamar, fasilitas, peraturan (seperti ada/tidaknya jam malam dsb), harga plus nomor telepon agar Anda bisa langsung berhubungan dengan si induk semang.

Mudah sekali ya? Ya, Anda tinggal menyesuaikan criteria Anda dengan criteria kosan yang ditawarkan, bila Anda berminat tinggal ditelepon atau didatangi.
Sayangnya, info yang tersedia kurang akurat.

Contoh, saya pernah tertarik dengan profil kamar berukuran 6x4 meter. Namun begitu saya jambangi alamat yang bersangkutan, ternyata yang ada adalah kamar berukuran 6x4 meter dibagi 2. Sial!

Harga yang tercantum pun kadang tidak sesuai setelah saya mengecek ke pemiliknya. Demikian pula dengan fasilitas.
Memang ada juga sih yang sesuai antara kenyataan dan profil, tapi mungkin belum saya temukan saja. Haha.


Cara kedua adalah lewat teman.
Yap, disinilah the power of networking diterapkan. Haha, berlebihan.

Modalnya adalah sering-sering berkunjung ke kosan teman-teman Anda. Mungkin suatu kali Anda akan menemukan bahwa kosan teman Anda ini tidak beda jauh atau bahkan sama persis dengan kosan impian Anda. Bila Anda sudah menemukan kosan impian ini, maka segeralah katakan pada teman Anda bahwa Anda ingin ingin ingiiiiin sekali tinggal di kosan itu. Dengungkan terus keinginan Anda itu tiap kali Anda bertemu teman Anda.
Niscaya lama kelamaan ia akan ngeh dan langsung menghubungi Anda bila ada kamar di kosannya yang akan kosong.

Kalau Anda tidak punya cukup waktu untuk sering-sering berkunjung ke kosan teman, Anda bisa coba cara ini:
di tengah perbincangan yang melibatkan cukup banyak orang, lontarkan keinginan Anda untuk mencari kosan baru. Lalu ungkapkan apa saja kriteria yang Anda inginkan dari kosan impian Anda. Kamudian, langsung tembak asal saja “Eh, kosan si Anu itu enak gak ya?”, tentunya si Anu ini adalah orang yang juga dikenal oleh orang-orang dalam perbincangan. Mungkin Anda akan mendapat jawaban, “Nggak tau deeeehh…”atau “Nggak kayaknya”, it’s okay.
Karena meskipun Anda mendapat jawaban negatif, umumnya setelahnya orang-orang akan mulai memberi saran kepada Anda, seperti begini, “kosan si Itu kayaknya lumayan tuh”.

Istilah (terlalu) kerennya Focus Group Discussion. Dengan cara begini, Anda memanfaatkan pengalaman orang lain yang sudah pernah ke kosan si Anu, si Itu, dan si lainlain.


Cara ketiga, door to door.
Ini adalah cara paling desperate tapi sebenarnya cukup efektif. Simpel saja, datanglah ke sebuah kawasan, lalu datangi satpam yang ada disana, kemudian tanyakan disekitar lokasi tersebut dimana saja ada kosan. Kalau tidak ada satpam, Anda bisa bertanya pada ibu-ibu warung, tukang ojeg, tukang lontong kari, atau tukang-tukang lain yang ada di sekitar sana.
Mereka umumnya adalah orang-orang yang paling aware tentang keberadaan sebuah kosan karena pelanggan mereka juga anak-anak kosan.

Kalau kebetulan lokasi yang Anda tuju sepi dan tak tampak keberadaan orang-orang yang saya sebutkan di atas, Anda bisa lakukan ini: pilih satu rumah yang menurut Anda paling mirip kosan. Misalnya rumah tingkat, rumah dengan beberapa motor dan mobil, rumah dengan dua pintu masuk dsb. Tekan bel nya, lalu tunggu hingga ada orang keluar. Setelah ada orang yang keluar, maka bertanyalah: “Ini kosan Pak/Bu?”, bila Anda beruntung maka orang tersebut akan menjawab iya atau menganggukkan kepala. Bila ia tidak melakukan dua hal di atas, setidaknya tanyalah kembali: “Ou, maaf. Kalo di sekitar sini ada kosan nggak ya? Dimana?”. Kalau Anda sial, maka ia akan berkata tidak tahu atau melengos pergi tanpa mengatakan apa-apa. It’s okay. Masih ada rumah di sebelahnya kan?


**

Berdasarkan pengalaman, saya tidak pernah sukses dengan cara pertama. Dengan cara kedua saya sukses 3 kali. Dan 3 kali juga dengan cara ketiga.

Satu hal penting yang harus Anda perhatikan sebelum mencari kosan adalah menentukan kriteria kosan seperti apa yang Anda mau. Yang biasanya menjadi pertimbangan adalah lokasi, fasilitas, bangunan fisik, harga dll. Prioritasnya tergantung kondisi Anda. Saya akan jelaskan lebih lanjut di postingan berikutnya. Sekarang saya lapar dan mau makan siang dulu.

Dadah.

Favorit

Saya bukan penggila musik klasik, tapi saya sukaaa sekali lagu yang satu ini.

Etude Op. 10 No. 3 by Chopin

Tahun 1953, Bob Russel menulis lirik untuk lagu ini, judulnya No Other Love.
Please enjoy!




PS. Awalnya saya tahu lagu ini karena lagu ini adalah salah satu soundtrack di serial Proposal 101.

101st Proposal (2)

Saya harap Anda masih ingat dengan Tetsuro, tokoh serial Jepang lawas berjudul Proposal 101 yang pernah saya tulis di sini. Karena saya sudah memulai cerita mengenai si Tetsuro ini, maka saya berniat menceritakan endingnya.

Sampai mana ya ceritanya waktu itu?
Oia, ceritanya sampai ketika Kaoru mulai bingung memutuskan antara Tetsuro atau orang yang sangat mirip dengan tunangannya yang telah meninggal.

Kaoru memilih si pria yang mirip tunangannya dahulu (mulai sekarang kita sebut saja dia Makabe, yaitu nama tunangan Kaoru).
Kaoru dapat merasakan jantungnya berdebar kencang setiap kali bertemu. Kaoru mengagumi Makabe. Sangat.

Hal ini yang tidak ia rasakan ketika bersama Tetsuro. Tentu saja Tetsuro baik. Sangat sangat baik dan sangat sangat mencintai Kaoru. Ia mengagumi Tetsuro untuk itu. Tapi kekaguman ini berbeda dengan yang ia rasakan pada Makabe.
Makabe mengagumkan untuk hal yang berbeda. Untuk hal-hal yang bahkan baru dimengerti oleh Kaoru.

Pernikahan pun disiapkan.

FYI, Makabe ini konon adalah duda beranak satu. Dan suatu hari, ketika Kaoru akan menjemput anaknya Makabe dari sekolah, ia bertemu dengan mantan istri Makabe.
Tenang saja, tidak ada adegan pandang-pandangan tajam dengan gambar bolak balik antara Kaoru dan mantan istri Makabe seperti yang sering ada di sinetron-sinetron kita.

Mereka justru duduk bersama menemani si anak bermain. Penasaran, Kaoru pun bertanya pada mantan istri Makabe ini, apa sebab ia bercerai dari Makabe?
Cerita pun mengalir.
Pada awalnya mereka adalah pasangan bahagia. Menikah muda dan mapan secara finansial. Namun semakin hari, Makabe semakin tenggelam dalam pekerjaannya. Ia telalu terobsesi dengan pencapaiannya dengan pekerjaannya. Pada akhirnya sang istri tak lagi merasa mengenal suaminya. Mereka pun bercerai.

Mantan istri Makabe ini bercerita, saat ini ia pun sedang mempersiapkan pernikahan keduanya dengan sesorang yang ia sebut sebagai sangat baik dan rendah hati. Pria ini memang tidak semenarik Makabe, namun ia mampu membuat mantan istri Makabe ini merasa nyaman dan aman.

Maka Kaoru pun kembali bimbang.
Dan saya harus mengakui bahwa saya lupa kelanjutannya. Hahaha.
Saya lupa bagaimana terjadinya, tapi di akhir cerita Kaoru kembali bersama Tetsuro.
Memang saya tidak menceritakannya dengan klimaks, tapi percayalah adegan terakhir dari drama Jepang ini sangat sangat bagus. Saya sampai bingung bagaimana cara menceritakannya, lebih baik Anda tonton sendiri saja.

**

Moral of the story:
Memang menyenangkan bisa bersama orang yang Anda kagumi, tapi bisa bersama orang yang sangat mengerti Anda dan bisa membuat Anda merasa nyaman juga tidak kalah menyenangkan. Dan biasanya, lebih sulit menemukan orang jenis kedua ini.

Sulitnya menjadi anak-anak

Beberapa waktu lalu Bapak saya mengirimi cerita ini via email. Salah satu gambaran children labour yang menyalahgunakan nama agama. Bukannya tak mungkin kisah semacam ini terjadi juga di sekitar kita.
Siapkan 10 menit waktu Anda ke depan untuk membaca kisah ini. :)


(By :RUKMINI CALLIMACHI, Associated Press Writer)

DAKAR, Senegal - On the day he decided to run away, 9-year-old Coli awoke on a filthy mat. Like a pup, he lay curled against the cold, pressed between dozens of other children sleeping head-to-toe on the concrete floor. His T-shirt was damp with the dew that seeped through the thin walls. The older boys had yanked away the square of cloth he used to protect himself from the draft. He shivered.


It was still dark as he set out for the mouth of a freeway with the other boys, a tribe of 7-, 8- and 9-year-old beggars.

Coli padded barefoot between the stopped cars, his head reaching only halfway up the windows. His scrawny body disappeared under a ragged T-shirt that grazed his knees. He held up an empty tomato paste can as his begging bowl.


There are 1.2 million Colis in the world today, children trafficked to work for the benefit of others. Those who lure them into servitude make $15 billion annually, according to the International Labor Organization.

It's big business in Senegal. In the capital of Dakar alone, at least 7,600 child beggars work the streets, according to a study released in February by the ILO, the United Nations Children's Fund and the World Bank. The children collect an average of 300 African francs a day, just 72 cents, reaping their keepers $2 million a year.

Most of the boys — 90 percent, the study found — are sent out to beg under the cover of Islam, placing the problem at the complicated intersection of greed and tradition. For among the cruelest facts of Coli's life is that he was not stolen from his family. He was brought to Dakar with their blessing to learn Islam's holy book.

In the name of religion, Coli spent two hours a day memorizing verses from the Quran and over nine hours begging to pad the pockets of the man he called his teacher.

It was getting dark. Coli had less than half the 72 cents he was told to bring back. He was afraid. He knew what happened to children who failed to meet their daily quotas.

They were stripped and doused in cold water. The older boys picked them up like hammocks by their ankles and wrists. Then the teacher whipped them with an electrical cord until the cord ate their skin.

Coli's head hurt with hunger. He could already feel the slice of the wire on his back.He slipped away, losing himself in a tide of honking cars. He had 20 cents in his tomato can.


______________________


Three years ago, a man wearing a skullcap came to Coli's village in the neighboring country of Guinea-Bissau and asked for him.

Coli's parents immediately addressed the man as "Serigne," a term of respect for Muslim leaders on Africa's western coast. Many poor villagers believe that giving a Muslim holy man a child to educate will gain an entire family entrance to paradise.

Since the 11th century, families have sent their sons to study at the Quranic schools that flourished on Africa's western seaboard with the rise of Islam. It is forbidden to charge for an Islamic education, so the students, known as talibe, studied for free with their marabouts, or spiritual teachers. In return, the children worked in the marabout's fields.

The droughts of the late 1970s and '80s forced many schools to move to cities, where their income began to revolve around begging. Today, children continue to flock to the cities, as food and work in villages run short.

Not all Quranic boarding schools force their students to beg. But for the most part, what was once an esteemed form of education has degenerated into child trafficking. Nowadays, Quranic instructors net as many children as they can to increase their daily take.

"If you do the math, you'll find that these people are earning more than a government functionary," said Souleymane Bachir Diagne, an Islamic scholar at Columbia University. "It's why the phenomenon is so hard to eradicate."
Middle men trawl for children as far afield as the dunes of Mauritania and the grass-covered huts of Mali. It's become a booming, regional trade that ensnares children as young as 2, who don't know the name of their village or how to return home.

One of the largest clusters of Quranic schools lies in the poor, sand-enveloped neighborhoods on either side of the freeway leading into Dakar.
This is where Coli's marabout squats in a half-finished house whose floor stirs with flies. Amadu Buwaro sleeps on a mattress covered in white linens. The 30 children in his care sleep in another room with dirty blankets on the floor. It smells rotten and wet, like a soaked rag.

Buwaro is a thin man in his 30s who wears a pressed olive robe and digital watch. The children wear T-shirts black with filth. He expects them to beg to pay the rent, because there are no fields here to till.
But their earnings far exceed his rent of $50. If the boys meet their quotas, they bring in around $650 a month in a nation where the average person earns $150.
Buwaro expects the children to suffer to learn the Quran, just as he did at the hands of his teacher.

So when Coli failed to return, Buwaro was furious. He flipped open his flashy silver cell phone and called another marabout who kept a blue planner with names of runaway boys. The list stretched down the page. He added Coli's name.
__________________


His tomato can tucked under one arm, Coli jumped on the back of a bus, holding on to the swinging rear door. He was hundreds of miles from the village where he grew up speaking Peuhl, a language not commonly heard in Dakar.
He could not ask the Senegalese for help. So he got directions in Peuhl from other child beggars, who like him were trafficked here from the zone of green savannah just outside Senegal.

Coli made his way to a neighborhood where he had heard of a place that gave free food to children like him.
"Do you know where you come from?" asked the kind-faced woman at Empire des Enfants. The shelter's capacity is 30 children, but it usually houses at least 50.
Coli knew the name of his mother, but not how to reach her. He knew the name of the region where he was born, but not his village. "My mother is black," he said. "I'm sure I'll recognize her."

The shelter worker told Coli what to do if his marabout came. We will protect you, she said. If he tries to grab you, scream.

Days went by. Maybe weeks.
Then Coli's marabout arrived.

In 2005, Senegal made it a crime punishable by five years in prison to force a child to beg. But the same law makes an exception for children begging for religious reasons. Few dare to cross marabouts for fear of supernatural retaliation.

Coli's marabout entered the shelter flanked by a column of religious leaders in cascading robes that tumbled onto the ground. One of them stabbed his finger at the clouds and yelled out, "The sky will fall down on you if you don't hand over our children."

The shelter is used to such threats. But this time the marabouts had discovered the center's legal paperwork was not complete. They threatened to close the shelter if it did not hand over 11 boys.
To save more than 40 others, the shelter handed over the 11. Coli was on the list.

Back at the school, they beat the 9-year-old until he thought he was going to faint. At night, they dragged him off the floor, doused him in water and beat him again.

Three days later, he ran away again. When he arrived at the shelter, he said: "I want to go home to my mom."

_________________

To find Coli's mother, aid workers broadcast his name on the radio in Guinea-Bissau. The names of over a dozen children also from Guinea-Bissau played in a continuous loop, like sonic homing pigeons trying to find their target.
No response. Some boys worried their parents might be dead.

"I'm sure my mother is still alive," Coli reasoned. "When I left her she was well, so why wouldn't she be well now?" Underneath his bright eyes is another worry.
Will she be angry that he disobeyed his teacher?

Over the past two years, the International Organization for Migration has returned over 600 child beggars to their homes. Several had been hit by cars. Some had scars on their backs. One 10-year-old was so hungry he ate out of the trash. Soon after he returned home, he vomited worms and died.

Almost all the boys had begged on behalf of Quranic instructors in Senegal.
"Cultural habits have been manipulated for the sake of exploitation," said the IOM's Laurent de Boeck, deputy regional representative for West and Central Africa.

Two months went by before a shelter worker pulled Coli aside. His parents were alive.


__________________________


The 13 boys from Guinea-Bissau pile into a bus. Coli screams with glee as it takes off for the airport.
"Is this Guinea-Bissau?" one of them asks as they descend onto the cracked runway and enter the small airport of the nation's capital. "Senegal looks better," says another.

Though Senegal is among the world's poorest nations, it's visibly more developed than Guinea-Bissau, listed 160th out of 177 countries on the U.N.'s human development index. The capital they left had streets clogged with taxis and flashy 4-by-4s. The buildings were tall. The capital they returned to has squat, low buildings and crumbling colonial villas.

"I'm not sure I like it," Coli confides.
As the bus leaves the capital, they pass villages of cone-shaped huts and fields where boys herd bulls. They sing songs, clapping their hands. As they pull into the shelter where their parents were told to expect them, the boys fall silent.
Timidly, they file off the bus. A few of the 12- and 13-year-olds recognize their families. They approach them respectfully, shaking hands.
Coli's mother is not there.

___________________


A judge tells the parents they will be jailed if they send their children away to beg again. They have to sign a statement promising to protect their boys from traffickers. Most are illiterate, so they leave a thumbprint in blue ink next to their names.

"You sent your kids to hell," the judge says. "You can't say that because you are poor you're going to allow your kids to be abused."
His booming voice ricochets off the cracked walls of the building. The parents stare straight ahead.

But the conditions that made these families send their children to hell still persist.
Many of the villages do not have enough food. Few have schools. In one, the schoolhouse is a bamboo enclosure that doubles as an animal corral. "We haven't had classes here in over a year," an elderly man says as he ducks into the classroom and skirts a pile of bull manure.

The aid group pays for school fees and supplies. But the stipend cannot cover the economic worth of a child. Some of the children returned in previous months now work as bricklayers and goatherds. Others have already been sent back to the marabouts by their parents. The idea of child trafficking as a crime is so new in the region that no African language has a word for it, experts say.

With each passing day, more parents and relatives come, but not Coli's.
On the third day, the shelter pays for another radio address.
By the fourth, half the 13 children are gone.
The others become increasingly agitated. Maybe the radio is broken, Coli muses. His wet eyes fill with the invisible color of worry.

_________________________


Early on the fifth morning, a woman in a pressed peach robe walks up to the shelter.
Coli rushes outside. He stands a few feet away as tears topple down his cheeks. She covers her face with her veil and weeps.
The two sit side-by-side in plastic chairs. Coli's mother looks at her feet. Her family is poor, she says, and she wanted Coli to get an education. It took her several days to reach the shelter because she didn't have $2 for the bus fare.
For more than an hour, Coli cries. Tears run down either side of his cheeks, forming two watery garlands. They meet at his chin and plop down on his collar bone, pooling above his shirt.

She stands up and wipes his chin. They leave, crossing the dusty boulevard.
Her arm reaches around his shoulder and the long sleeve of her robe falls around the little boy. It hides him from the remaining children, who silently watch Coli go home.

_____________________________

EPILOGUE:
Soon after Coli left, his marabout traveled to Guinea-Bissau. He angrily demanded to know why Coli had run away.
Ashamed, Coli's father promised to make up for the boy's bad behavior.
He is sending the marabout two more sons.

UAS (semoga) terakhir

Jam setengah satu siang nanti, semoga jadi UAS terakhir buat saya di ITB ini.
Time flies, my friends...
Uuww, deg-degaaaaaaan.. Hahaha.

PS. Sebenarnya belum boleh lega dulu, soalnya TA pun masih jauh dari selesai. Hehe.