Thursday, March 23, 2006

Jakarta, City of Lights

When I was little, my parents sometimes took me to Jakarta. We visit my mother’s big brother in Slipi, or because Father has some work in the city. We often spent the night at Hotel Indonesia (which is now being renovated to be a new shopping mall?)

And whenever we traveled at night in the wide roads of Jakarta (they weren’t as wide as they are now, but still humongous compared to the streets of Bandung), I always like to sit close to the window, with my nose pressing the glass, watching the lights from the buildings.

It was the same phenomena as the villagers would see open mouthedly when they first came to the big city. Difference is only that the lights never stop to amuse me.

Seeing the 20 level bulidings, my imagination ran wild, picturing myself as an adult, wearing a suit, being busy inside one of the office inside that building, working so hard even at night. I had this imagination so many times, that when I finally got a chance to worked at one of those tall buildings, I felt so silly, because it wasn’t like that at all (or is it because I wasn’t as successful as I was in the imagination?)

Today I had my dinner (nasi gila) on the street, and maghrib at the beautiful Mosque At-Taqwa near the office. After the prayer, I was going down the stairs to the ground floor, and I saw from the opening of the second floor… a stretched out potrayal of the city of lights… with the background of black starless sky, the buildings were radiated with little glows from the offices windows. The colors of night, golden. The instant thought was “how come I didn’t bring my camera?” Subhanallah.

Isn’t life about the little joy that surprises us every day?

Monday, March 06, 2006

Rindu #10

Malam yang semakin renta. Bayanganmu tenggelam di balik pepohonan dan aku hanya bisa membaca garis wajahmu yang dijatuhi cahaya bintang. Angin membawa hawa hujan berdesir di sela rambutmu.

Ingin kubunuh waktu.

Namun warna langit terus berjalan dari jingga ke biru, lila dan kembali jingga.. Apakah kau mampu membaca kalimat yang kuteriakkan di sela-sela tawa kecilku akan banyolanmu?

Ingin kuhentikan malam.

Namun matahari sudah menggantung dari balik permukaan fajar. Dan waktu merenggut kisah kita yang serasa baru mula.