Prau: The First Climb

There were four of us going for the Prau trip. We used wisatagunung.com as our guide. Gusti, AW and I were to meet Jimmy in Patak Banteng.

The departure, with Gusti and AW.

The trip started with wrong bus tickets booked by me. We were supposed to depart from the nearer terminal (Kalideres) but I ended up buying the further one. It was fortunate that we could make it on time. We had an overnight ride and we reached Mendolo terminal in Wonosobo around 5 AM. I never expected that the weather was cold (around 16 degrees Celsius)!

Jimmy had reached Patak Banteng earlier. We met around 7 AM. Put our stuff at wisatagunung.com's office. Since we had few hours before departure, we Grab-ed and visited the famous spots around the city: Telaga Pengilon and Kawah Sikidang.

Visiting Kawah Sikidang.

We gathered back at office and was briefed. After praying for the smooth trip, the journey began. It was around 11:50 AM. Prau height is 2590 meters above sea level. As it was a guided tour, we only brought certain essentials; backpack, trekking pole, jacket, gloves, headlamp, mattress, sleeping bag, raincoat, etc. The guides were responsible mainly for the tent and the food. Nevertheless, I believe each of us carried around 20-25 KG of weight. 

We had at least 6 breaks before reaching the top. AW looked exhausted during the first hour but managed to get himself back on his feet. Gusti was amazing. He had the most hiking experiences, so seasoned that he started the hike with a cigarette. He was talkative but never ran out of breath. Jimmy played it safe, slow and steady with his umbrella-cum-walking stick.

AW exhausted!

Along the way, we met fellow climbers that headed back and they said the day before was bad, as there was big thunderstorm and some didn't make it to the top. I guess we were lucky that our journey was smooth. There was one part when we thought it was going to be a downpour and we put on the raincoat, but it was just a brief drizzling.

During breaks, we played cards, took photos and chatted with the guides. Cards was fun, the winner was Gusti and Jimmy at the end. About the guides, they could move very fast and were able to carry stuff equal or more than their bodyweight. For photos, they were mostly taken using our phones though some were taken using my DSLR. Talking about phone, the signal was minimal and surprisingly, it felt good taking a break from the device. 

Taking a break.

We reached our base around 3:50 PM. It was a four-hour hike. Once we reached, the fatigue was gone. I had thought earlier that the mountain would be littered with trashes. but it was extremely clean. The tent was ready for us. We put down our stuff and started enjoying the weather and the view. The sky was still clear. We then set up mattresses outside the tent. We had biscuits, Indomie and Jimmy brought Soju, too. The Indomie tasted a lot better when eaten on the mountain. When the sky got darker, we put on some head lamp. It was totally dark at 6 PM and the wind was chilly. We had soto for dinner. After few rounds of cards game, we headed to the tent. It was around 9 PM and getting colder. Jimmy kept us warm by setting up fire powered by ethanol. By the way, there was no rest room, so you got to walk further from your tent to do your business.

The meal is served!

Now, the sleeping part was not easy. It was cold and the thin mattress definitely didn't help. I had backache and I probably  slept less than two hours that night.

It was 4:45 AM when we woke up and prepared for sunrise. The view was superb with a perfect silhouette. We walked from one camp site to another to hunt for a better view. The sky got brighter very fast. by then, we had taken hundreds of photos.

And when the morning came...

As the sun rose, the weather was more bearable. We  headed back to our camp, had our breakfast and packed for departure. We took a different route when we descended the mountain. It was a route less travelled as we did not see many climbers along the way. 

Heading down was faster and not as tiring as climbing up, but it was more challenging for me. Subconsciously, I was worried for my knees and still traumatised (I fell on my butt during the last trekking last year). I slipped three times, but no serious fall this time. The view on the way down was different. We passed through some potatoes farm and we also passed by a spring (the water was in a big bucket, flowing directly from the mountain). It was refreshing. 

We conquered Prau!

It took us around 2.5 hours to head back to the starting point and that was it. If you asked whether I would go for another hiking trip, the answer is yes, but definitely with thicker mattress! 

Our tips for the 1st timers: hiking might or might not be your stuff, so test it by joining the tour. Google the destination, know your stamina and prepare for it. And by joining the tour, you don't need to buy all the things required. Most of them can be rented; gloves, trekking pole, jacket, mattress, headlamp, torch, sleeping bag. You should buy comfortable shoes, though. Get some friends to go with you, it helps a lot. Take your time, you are not racing. Relax and and enjoy the trip!

Straighten It Up

You couldn't be in your 40s without straining a few muscles, spraining an ankle or suffering from back pain. Next to aromatherapy, you must be very familiar with the smell of Counterpain or Tiger Balm by now. The body stiffened as we aged and the problems mentioned above started occurring. In our group chat, the exercise topic would crop up from time to time as it was supposed to be something we could do to overcome this issue.

I started my Strava time since last October and to a certain extent, it helped. But I had this recurring backache that first happened when I helped shifting the heavy Futures dealing desk probably some 10 years ago. I still remember the soft horror sound only I could hear, it was as if something within the lumbar spine area had broken. So painful that I could barely move.

The pain would come and go since then. We'd get back to that. On a separate but not unrelated track, there was this friend of mine, Alvin. He was many things: a teacher, a cook and also a massage expert. He was academically smart, as we could see from his writings. His drunken chicken and noodles were delicious. I tasted those recently. And then there was his massage skills. 

The pictures of him doing that had been circulating from time to time. Some of our friends had testified that he did wonders. I'd seen it live at least once, when we visited Bakmi Alit in 2018. But it was during his visit to Singapore that I got a chance to experience it myself. And it was one helluva experience. Literally, haha.

It was quite interesting. You see, the term "massage" had been loosely used in Indonesia. What Alvin did, I think, was what we referred to as chiropractic in English. There was no equivalent word in Bahasa Indonesia or at least I didn't know if there was any. 

The initial check began with him sitting behind me, poking my back with his fingers and applying some pressure here and there. When he finished doing that, he said some parts of my bone structure had gone wrong for years. Come to think of it, perhaps it also got to do with my style of sitting. You see, just because the sitting position was comfortable, it didn't mean it was right for the body. It was a bad habit slowly creeping in without us realizing it until it was too late.

Then he did his stuff to correct this posture issue. As he twisted and turned my body, there'd be this cracking sound that felt so oddly satisfying. Quite fun, actually, except the neck part. I couldn't help thinking if it ever went wrong, I'd die on the spot, haha. 

Once done, I asked curiously if this would need to be done on a regular basis. Apparently it depended on the severity. If it wasn't that bad, it could be rectified immediately. Otherwise it might take more than one attempt to get it right.

To be frank, I was kind of surprised. I was under the impression this would be a regular treatment because I vaguely remembered that the chiropractic centre often offered such packages. It was certainly good to know that the bone issue could be addressed permanently. 

But it turned out that there was part two. After he settled the bone, he worked on the muscles. I thought shoulder massage was bad, but the calf massage hurt even more! It was like a torture that I almost cried. And he closed it with reflexology, which was quite bearable, though I wasn't sure if I liked it at all. As he did that, he mentioned that I might want to pay attention to the liver. I acknowledged that the issue could have been originated from my casual drinking habit.

When we wrapped it up, I recalled the testimonies from our friends. I wasn't immediately convinced, but a few days later, I could feel that my back was not as stiff as before. It felt... relieved. Now that I really gave it a thought, it was kind of amusing how he learnt all this. Looking back, the weirdest moment was the time he did his initial analysis. How on earth did he figure out the issue simply by poking my back? But it worked. The man knew his stuff and he sure had a talent that could benefit many. Highly recommended!

The professional massage!

Luruskan!

Di usia 40an ini, kemungkinan anda sudah melewati apa yang namanya nyeri otot, kaki terkilir atau sakit punggung. Di samping aromaterapi, bau Counterpain atau balsem pasti tidak lagi asing bagi anda. Semakin umur kita bertambah, tubuh kita menjadi kian kaku. Di grup SMA, topik olah raga pun sering dibahas sebagai solusi untuk mengatasi masalah ini. 

Saya mulai menjajaki Strava sejak bulan Oktober lalu. Sampai batasan tertentu, aktivitas gerak badan ini cukup membantu. Akan tetapi saya juga memiliki masalah sakit punggung yang pertama terjadi sewaktu saya turut membantu mengangkat meja kerja yang berat di departemen Futures kira-kira 10 tahun silam. Saya masih ingat bunyi gemeretak yang hanya terdengar oleh saya sendiri, seakan-akan sesuatu di bagian pinggang telah patah. Sakitnya langsung membuat saya berdiri diam di tempat. 

Rasa sakit di pinggang yang kadang menjalar ke punggung ini muncul dan hilang tak tentu waktu. Kita akan bahas lebih lanjut lagi nanti, tapi mari kita beralih dulu ke teman saya Alvin. Dia ini memiliki profesi guru, koki dan juga tukang urut. Dia pintar secara akademis, seperti yang bisa kita simak dari tulisannya. Ayam arak dan mie masakannya pun lezat nian. Baru-baru ini saya mencicipinya. Kemudian ada pula keahliannya dalam memijat. 

Foto-fotonya dalam menekuni profesi ini sudah sering beredar di grup dari waktu ke waktu. Beberapa teman pun sudah bersaksi tentang kepiawaiannya. Saya juga pernah melihat Alvin beraksi sewaktu kita mampir Bakmi Alit di tahun 2018. Akhirnya saya berkesempatan untuk mencoba sendiri sewaktu dia datang ke Singapura.

Ada satu sudut pandang unik yang saya dapatkan dari pengalaman ini. Istilah pijat itu ternyata agak rancu. Yang Alvin lakukan itu sepertinya disebut chiropractic dalam Bahasa Inggris. Saya tidak tahu apa terjemahan kata tersebut dalam Bahasa Indonesia. 

Pemeriksaan awal dimulai ketika dia duduk di belakang saya dan mulai menotok serta menekan punggung saya dengan jemarinya. Sesudah itu, dia mengatakan bahwa beberapa bagian struktur tulang saya sudah tidak beres selama bertahun-tahun. Kalau dipikirkan lagi, mungkin juga ada hubungannya dengan cara saya duduk dan bersandar. Hanya karena posisinya terasa nyaman, bukan berarti sudah benar. Jadi kebiasaan buruk ini terbentuk tanpa sadar.

Alvin lantas mulai melakukan koreksi postur tubuh. Setiap kali dia menyentak tubuh saya, ada bunyi gemeretak tulang yang memuaskan rasanya. Saya cukup menikmatinya, kecuali pas di bagian leher. Sempat terbersit di benak saya, jika ada gerakan yang salah, hidup saya bisa berakhir pada saat itu juga, haha. 

Setelah selesai, saya bertanya apakah proses serupa harus dilakukan berulang kali. Di luar dugaan, ternyata tidak perlu. Jika tidak terlalu parah, sekali pun sudah cukup. Bila agak kronis, maka perlu diulang beberapa kali. Terus-terang saya agak terkejut. Saya sering melihat promosi klinik chiropractic yang menawarkan paket, misalnya paket 10 sesi. Menarik untuk diketahui bahwa masalah tulang ini bisa dituntaskan secara permanen. 

Namun ternyata masih ada bagian kedua. Setelah tulang, kini dia menguraikan ketegangan otot. Ini baru yang biasanya kita sebut sebagai pijat atau urut. Pijat bahu membuat saya menahan sakit, tapi ternyata pijat betis lebih bikin ampun lagi! Rasanya seperti siksaan fisik yang membuat saya meringis. Terapi pijat pun akhirnya ditutup dengan refleksi. Yang ini lebih enteng, tapi tetap saja sulit untuk dinikmati. Dari tapak kaki, Alvin tahu bahwa liver saya kurang sehat, tapi saya juga tahu itu karena saya kadang memang minum bir, haha.  

Seusai pijat, saya jadi teringat dengan testimoni dari teman-teman. Saya tidak langsung percaya, namun setelah beberapa hari kemudian, pinggang saya terasa lebih lega dari sebelumnya. Saya lantas teringat lagi dengan caranya memeriksa yang tergolong aneh. Bagaimana bisa dia mengetahui apa yang salah hanya dengan menekan punggung saya? Tapi hasilnya nyata. Alvin jelas tahu apa dikerjakannya dan keahliannya ini bisa membantu banyak orang yang membutuhkannya. Memang layak direkomendasikan! 

Get

I was a sucker for the plastics since I got my first one back in 2001. I often said I loved the card design and I collected them after they were cancelled, but perhaps I also subconsciously loved being approved for applying cards. I'd never know for sure. Whatever the reason was, I browsed the relevant websites frequently, just in case there was a new one that I'd like to have. 

On the other hand, the internet was so smart these days that it picked up my search result and displayed the ads based on it. And the plastics had changed so much that they were not only issued by banks, American Express and Diners Club anymore. Any companies that were licensed to do financing such as Grab, Crypto.com, Wise or InstaRem could issue Visa or Master these days. Then one day, I saw an ad from Get on the news feed of my Facebook. 

The Get Card.

The concept was quite unique. I was always a supporter of cashless transactions, but I never heard of anything like this being extended to kids. I fancied the idea and it got more interesting as there was this concept of earning their keep. My Dad did that and I believe the impact on me was positive, therefore I'd like to try it out with my daughter, too. Noticed that Revolut offered the same thing, too, but I finally opted for Get as it looked much simplified.

The account opening was seamless and fast, except for the odd behaviour of repeated details after the app pulled data from Singpass. I was using Google Pixel 6 with Android on its purest form, so it had to be the app's fault, haha. Due to this, my daughter's name was listed twice. But I chose only one and the subsequent process was smooth-sailing.

The setup was pretty straightforward. That included disabling the magnetic stripe, online purchase, ATM and enabling the transaction limits. The physical debit card that carried the Visa was ordered and it arrived much earlier than expected. I also installed the app on my daughter's phone and it linked immediately to my account. 

Transaction details. The payment was scheduled, apparently!

I had to top up the account in order to activate it. At the moment, this could only be done using a credit or debit card. It showed Get Kid Account right after that. Upon seeing this, I clicked it as prompted only to realize that it was a a label called Get Kid Account instead of a button to get a kid's account, haha.

Then came the fun part where I got to assigned chores. The interface was quite confusing, I'd say. There was this rolling date saying when the payment date would be, but it was apparently superseded by the default payment scheduled on Sunday. As a result, when she finished her first chore, I sent the money to her account as automatic payment didn't seem to occur. On Sunday, I learnt that each payment I did before was paid again at 8am. 

Her first transaction. She wanted to swipe!

When she first received the card, I did share with her that the card details shouldn't be revealed to anybody. Now that she had some money to spend, I could teach how to use the card. I asked if she would buy me an ice cream at McDonald's and she was okay to treat me. So off we went and bought a strawberry sundae. She did everything herself on a self-service counter and when it was time to pay, she was taken aback when the point of sales beeped before she did anything. "I thought I had to swipe the card first," she said innocently. And I told her that was how we did it a long time ago. 

When we returned to our seats, she said about stuff she'd like to buy and she started asking her Mum for more chores. As I watched the scene unfolded, I ate my sundae, thinking and hoping that I had taught her the right thing: the same lesson I had, wrapped in present day's technology...

Free ice cream always makes me smile!

Get

Saya senantiasa tergila-gila dengan kartu kredit sejak saya mendapatkan kartu kredit pertama saya di tahun 2001. Saya sering berkata bahwa saya suka disain kartunya, yang kemudian saya koleksi setelah kartunya saya batalkan. Selain itu, mungkin juga ada kepuasan tersendiri yang timbul dari disetujuinya aplikasi kartu kredit yang saya ajukan. Saya tidak tahu pasti, tapi apa pun alasannya, saya sudah sejak lama memiliki kebiasaan melihat situs-situs kartu kredit. Siapa tahu ada yang baru dan menarik perhatian saya. 

Berdasarkan kebiasaan saya ini, internet yang kini kian canggih bisa mendeteksi apa yang sering saya cari, lalu menampilkan iklan yang sama kategorinya. Sekedar info, kartu kredit tidak lagi dimonopoli oleh bank, American Express dan Diners Club. Perusahaan yang juga memiliki ijin finansial seperti Grab, Crypto.com, Wise atau InstaRem pun bisa mengeluarkan Visa atau Master sekarang. Suatu hari, saya melihat iklan Get yang muncul di Facebook. 

Kartu Get.

Konsepnya cukup unik. Saya selalu menyukai transaksi non-tunai, tapi saya tidak pernah mendengar hal serupa diterapkan di kalangan anak-anak. Saya tergelitik oleh ide ini dan semakin tertarik pula dengan konsep yang mengajarkan anak tentang arti dari kerja untuk mendapatkan uang. Ayah saya dulu mengajarkan hal serupa dan saya percaya dampaknya positif. Ketika saya hendak mencoba teknologi ini, sempat saya amati bahwa Revolut juga menawarkan konsep yang sama, namun akhirnya saya coba Get karena terlihat lebih sederhana. 

Pembukaan rekening terbilang praktis dan cepat, meski ada kejanggalan data yang seperti terulang dua kali ketika aplikasi Get menarik data dari Singpass, semacam pusat info terintegrasi di Singapura. Saya menggunakan Google Pixel 6 yang sudah jelas murni Android-nya, jadi kesalahan pasti dari aplikasi Get, haha. Karena duplikasi data, nama putri saya terdaftar dua kali, tapi saya hanya memilih salah satu dan prosesnya pun beres. 

Konfigurasi selanjutnya tidaklah rumit. Saya mematikan fitur transaksi lewat lapisan magnet di kartu, belanja online dan juga penarikan ATM. Saya juga mengatur batas transaksi. Kartu debit berlogo Visa pun saya pesan lewat aplikasi dan tiba lebih awal dari estimasi. Selain itu, saya juga mengunduh aplikasi yang sama di HP putri saya. Setelah registrasi, akunnya pun terhubung dengan yang ada di HP saya. 

Daftar transaksi. Pembayaran upah sudah otomatis terjadwal setiap Minggu!

Saya harus memasukkan uang untuk mengaktifkan akun saya. Untuk saat ini, penambahan saldo hanya bisa dilakukan dengan kartu kredit atau debet. Kemudian muncul tulisan Get Kid Account setelah saldo berhasil diisi. Saya coba klik, tapi ternyata itu hanya label bertulisan Get Kid Account yang artinya akun Get untuk anak, bukan tombol instruksi untuk mendapatkan (get) Kid Account, haha.

Setelah itu, saya bebas memberikan pekerjaan. Tampilannya cukup membingungkan menurut saya. Ada tanggal yang selalu berubah dari hari ke hari dan tanggal ini digunakan sebagai tanggal pembayaran. Akan tetapi pembayaran pekerjaan ternyata berdasarkan jadwal yang sudah tersimpan di bagian menu lain, yakni setiap hari Minggu. Alhasil, saya jadi mengira bahwa saya harus mengirimkan uang setiap kali anak saya berhasil menyelesaikan pekerjaannya. Ketika Minggu tiba, baru saya sadari bahwa apa yang telah saya bayar itu lantas dibayar lagi oleh sistem pada pukul delapan pagi. 

Transaksi pertamanya. Tadinya dia mau gesek!

Sewaktu anak saya menerima kartunya, saya jelaskan padanya detil di kartu yang tidak boleh diberitahukan pada orang lain. Sekarang, setelah dia memiliki uang di saldonya, maka saya bisa ajarkan cara menggunakan kartu. Saya tanyakan padanya apakah dia mau membelikan saya es krim di McDonald's dan dia setuju untuk traktir. Saya amati dari belakang bagaimana dia memesan es kirim di layar sentuh. Ketika tiba di tampilan untuk membayar, dia agak terkejut karena transaksi sudah terjadi saat dia baru memegang kartu di dekat mesin pembayaran. "Saya sangka harus digesek dulu," gumam putri saya. Mendengar ucapannya yang polos, saya jelaskan padanya bahwa memang seperti metodenya bertahun-tahun silam, tapi sekarang cukup didekatkan ke mesin.

Saat kita kembali ke tempat duduk, dia bercerita tentang apa yang hendak dia beli kalau uangnya terkumpul lebih banyak lagi, lalu bertanya pada ibunya, ada tugas apa lagi yang bisa dia kerjakan. Saya menikmati es krim saya dalam hening tatkala menyaksikan semua ini. Di dalam hati saya hanya bisa berharap, semoga saja saya sudah mengajarkan hal yang benar: pelajaran yang sama dengan apa yang saya dapatkan dulu, namun kini dikemas dalam teknologi... 

Es krim gratis selalu membuat saya tersenyum!

Not All Apps Are Created Equal

I kid you not! I had the title lingering in my mind for the past few days, as if it begged to be written! It was so amusing that I couldn't help thinking about it. This story started with an incident that happened few days ago, when a friend that was pretty active in our WhatsApp group chat suddenly contacted me via Messenger. She asked me to top up her prepaid phone. When I mentioned that in our group, another friend said she was asked to provided the SMS OTP. Then a friend in Bali was asked to lend her money. Needless to say, we knew immediately that her Facebook account was hacked. The issue was sorted out quickly. 

But how did we go from the experience above to the idea that not all apps are created equal? In order to understand this, let's go back to the very beginning, to the dawn of the internet. I was old enough to be a young man during this exciting time in Pontianak. Internet cafes were thriving and it was hard to get seats on Saturday night. Every youngster would be there to play mIRC. We'd be logging in to channels such as #khuntien and #bawel, getting to know girls. Though we could be banned if we accidentally said something that was deemed as abusive, we couldn't go wrong with the opening line: "ASL, please." 

For those who were born after the internet, it might sound weird that we found this thrilling. You had to realize that just a year before, we were hanging out at Telkom's public phone booths, holding a stack of coins while conversing with girls we tried to impress. It was unglam and we had to suffer from mosquito bites. Going from analog conversation like that to asking Age, Sex, Location to strangers was beyond wild! The internet was a miracle, mIRC was a godsend and ASL was the universal internet slang that ruled them all! Good times! Got me no girlfriends, though. Only one or two pen pals, haha.

Then there was ICQ. I just had to mention this, even though it wasn't as popular as mIRC. In fact, I knew it only from Jun Fui, a fellow computer lab assistant and a geeky friend of mine. I never used ICQ for chatting purpose, but it did one thing that was quite valuable at that time: it could send SMS to the mobile phone. Yes, SMS. Short Message Service containing only 160 characters. Back when you barely had enough money to top up your prepaid number, free SMS was too good to be true. While it might seem silly by today's standard, being able to send a couple of SMSes for free per day was a luxury back then!

When I went to Jakarta few years later in 2002, the internet had significantly improved in just a short period of time. I was now using Yahoo! Messenger on a desktop computer. I think it was the first chat app that introduced emojis to me. Cool stuff. Now people could know that I was smiling when I replied them. Then I switched to Google Talk when I moved to Singapore because... the girl I loved also used it, haha. One more that was worth mentioning during this period was MSN Messenger. I used it because some Singaporean friends used it, too. 

Then came the time when the three messengers above were made available on mobile phone. There was an app that allowed us to log in to all three. But this coincided with the rise of BBM. With a native app on a phone that was so widely used, especially in Indonesia, third-party messengers seemed redundant. When BlackBerry was riding high, BBM was all I needed. Looking back, I liked the idea of BBM pin. Nobody could add you without your permission, haha.

Skype appeared around the same time. The voice call feature was its main attraction. I remember those days when I always had to buy the prepaid cards for long distance calls to Indonesia. Skype eliminated this costly need. Suddenly it was free to make a call! So there was a period of time when Yani and I used this quite regularly. I remember staying in Eunos, getting ready for a call at 8pm Singapore Time. It was a date!

Then came WhatsApp that changed it all. It started small, as if it was a BBM wannabe that used phone number instead of pin. But then it got better. One-to-one chat, ticked. Group chat, ticked. Voice call ticked. Video call, ticked. Group call, ticked. File sharing ticked. By then, it had become the ultimate communication tool that we must have. BBM's days were numbered and I remember the fateful day when I had to say goodbye to the most beloved app during its heyday.

And that brought us back to Messenger. If you observed the apps that I described above, each of them was quite revolutionary and it served its purpose. But in a world where WhatsApp was the benchmark, Messenger looked like a sad little app with not much use. Both had pretty similar features, but nobody I knew really used Messenger. The recent case got me wondering, perhaps the only time the app became useful was when it inadvertently alerted us that the person's Facebook account had been hacked. How ironic. So it's true that not all apps are created equal...

PS: yes, I know there were still other apps such as Line, WeChat, Telegram, KakaoTalk, Snapchat, Viber, and many more, but I never really used those. I remember reading it somewhere that Chinese had WeChat, Japanese had Line and South Koreans had KakaoTalk, but only Indonesians had the time to use them all to chat with the same people, haha.  

Those logos we saw before...

Tidak Semua Aplikasi Diciptakan Setara

Percaya atau tidak, beberapa hari ini judul di atas selalu muncul di benak saya, seakan-akan meminta untuk diceritakan. Agak mengherankan juga, sebenarnya. Cerita kali ini dimulai dengan sebuah peristiwa yang terjadi beberapa hari yang lalu, ketika seorang teman yang cukup aktif di grup WhatsApp tiba-tiba menghubungi saya lewat Messenger. Dia ingin agar saya mengirimkan pulsa untuknya. Sewaktu saya pos ini di grup, seorang teman lain langsung bercerita bahwa dia juga dimintai SMS OTP. Kemudian seorang teman di Bali juga ternyata diminta untuk meminjamkan uang. Kita langsung tahu bahwa akun Facebook teman yang satu ini telah dibajak. Isu ini pun segera ditindaklanjuti. 

Akan tetapi apa hubungan kejadian di atas dengan ide bahwa tidak semua aplikasi diciptakan setara? Untuk mengerti lebih lanjut, mari kita kembali ke awal munculnya internet di Pontianak. Saat itu saya adalah seorang pemuda di periode yang gegap-gempita. Internet cafe bertaburan di mana-mana dan penuh-sesak di malam Minggu oleh muda-mudi yang ingin bermain mIRC. Kita sibuk di channel #khuntien dan #bawel untuk mencari pacar. Walau kita bisa didepak kalau salah bicara, tapi sudah pasti aman kalau memulai perkenalan dengan, "ASL, please." 

Bagi yang lahir setelah zaman internet, mungkin sulit untuk memahami kenapa hal seperti ini bisa terasa seru. Anda harus menyadari bahwa setahun sebelumnya, angkatan saya masih berkumpul di telepon umum kantor Telkom sambil menggenggam setumpuk koin untuk menelepon gadis yang diincar. Ini jelas kalah pamor, ditambah lagi banyak nyamuk. Peralihan dari pengalaman seperti ini ke internet, lalu bertanya Age, Sex, Location pada orang asing, rasanya seperti dahsyat sekali. Internet adalah sebuah keajaiban, mIRC adalah kiriman Tuhan dan ASL adalah istilah universal yang menjembatani perkenalan! Masa-masa yang menyenangkan. Tapi saya tidak dapat pacar. Hanya dapat satu atau dua sahabat pena, haha. 

Lantas muncul ICQ. Saya wajib sebutkan yang satu ini, meskipun ICQ tidak sepopuler mIRC. Saya sendiri baru tahu aplikasi ini dari Jun Fui, sesama asisten lab komputer dan juga teman saya yang kutu-buku. Saya tidak menggunakan ICQ untuk chatting, tapi untuk satu fitur yang bisa dilakukan oleh aplikasi ini: mengirim SMS ke HP. Ya, SMS. Short Message Service yang hanya berisi 160 karakter. Di zaman tatkala saya sering kekurangan uang untuk membeli pulsa, SMS gratis itu bagaikan berkat. Walau mungkin terlihat konyol sekarang, bisa mengirimkan beberapa SMS gratis per hari adalah suatu kemewahan tersendiri di masa itu!  

Sewaktu saya pindah ke Jakarta di tahun 2002, internet sudah jauh lebih maju. Kini saya menggunakan Yahoo! Messenger di komputer. Seingat saya, dari aplikasi inilah saya menggunakan emoji untuk pertama kalinya. Ini adalah hal kecil yang luar biasa. Sekarang pembaca bisa tahu kalau saya sedang tersenyum saat merespon komentarnya. Kemudian, setelah pindah ke Singapura, saya menggunakan Google Talk karena... wanita yang sukai juga menggunakannya, haha. Satu lagi dari masa ini yang perlu saya sebutkan adalah MSN Messenger. Saya juga pakai ini karena banyak teman-teman Singapura yang menggunakannya.

Lalu tiba era di mana tiga aplikasi di atas bisa digunakan di telepon genggam. Jadi ada satu aplikasi yang bisa sambung ke Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk dan MSN Messenger. Kedengarannya memang praktis, tapi semua ini terjadi ketika BBM mulai populer. Dengan aplikasi yang sudah tersedia di telepon yang digunakan oleh begitu banyak orang, terutama di Indonesia, tiga aplikasi di atas jadi seperti ekstra dan tidak begitu diperlukan. Di era BlackBerry, satu-satunya yang saya perlukan adalah BBM. Jikalau saya lihat kembali lagi sekarang, saya suka dengan konsep pin BBM. Orang lain tidak bisa semena-mena menghubungi anda, apabila tidak ada permisi dari anda, haha. 

Skype juga muncul di saat BBM menyapu bersih aplikasi lainnya. Fitur telepon lewat internet adalah atraksi utamanya. Saya ingat betul hari-hari di mana saya perlu membeli kartu untuk sambungan langsung internasional. Kemunculan Skype mengurangi biaya dari keperluan ini. Tiba-tiba saja kita bisa menelepon secara gratis. Jadi ada periode di mana saya dan Yani cukup rutin menggunakan aplikasi ini. Saya ingat saat itu saya tinggal di Eunos. Jadi kita cukup janjian, misalnya telepon jam 8 malam waktu Singapura, dan kini bisa berbicara langsung! 

Sesudah itu muncul WhatsApp yang mengubah segalanya. Di awal kiprahnya, WhatsApp mirip seperti tiruan BBM yang menggunakan nomor telepon sebagai ganti pin. Kemudian WhatsApp kian berkembang. Chat perorangan, bisa. Chat secara group, bisa. Panggilan suara, bisa. Panggilan video, bisa. Panggilan lebih dari satu orang, bisa. Kirim file, juga bisa! Akhirnya WhatsApp menjadi andalan sehari-hari. BBM pun pudar. Saya ingat betul dengan hari-hari terakhir dari aplikasi yang kalah saing ini. 

Dan cerita di atas membawa kita kembali ke Messenger. Bila anda perhatikan setiap aplikasi yang saya jabarkan di atas, setiap aplikasi ini cukup revolusioner dan memainkan peran penting di zamannya. Tapi di dunia di mana WhatsApp kini jadi patokan, Messenger terlihat mengenaskan. Dua-duanya memiliki fitur yang mirip, tapi dari semua yang saya kenal, tidak ada seorang pun yang benar-benar menggunakan Messenger. Insiden di atas membuat saya membayangkan, sekali-kalinya Messenger terasa berguna adalah saat akun Facebook kena bajak. Sungguh ironis. Jadi benar bahwa tidak semua aplikasi diciptakan setara...

NB: ya, saya tahu masih banyak aplikasi lain seperti Line, WeChat, Telegram, KakaoTalk, Snapchat atau Viber, tapi saya tidak menggunakan semua itu. Satu hal yang saya pernah saya baca dan ingat adalah, orang Cina punya WeChat, orang Jepang punya Line dan orang Korea ada KakaoTalk, tapi hanya orang Indonesia yang punya waktu menggunakan semua aplikasi ini untuk chat dengan orang yang itu-itu juga, haha.  

24 Hours In Jakarta

Unlike my friend Jimmy who could spend three weeks in Singapore as a tourist even though he had come here time and again, I never enjoyed staying too long when visiting familiar places. I just liked being there, having a glimpse of it, tasting the food and meeting friends. After that I'd move on, heading to another destination or going back home. This is why I'm also the type that's fine for a day trip or a short getaway.

This trip to Jakarta was also no exception. On this occasion, I never planned to be there for more than 24 hours. I'd land there at 7:05am and leave the city at 6:40am on the following day. That'd be sufficient. The only twist this round was the place I'd be visiting. Helen suggested that I should come to Gading Serpong instead. I had never been there before, so I took up the offer. It would be fun be see some place new with a bunch of old friends.

Together with Susan, my old buddy Ceng Pang picked me up at the airport. It had been a while since I experienced that. Normally it was always free and easy for me, so it felt odd, as if I was some important person that required such a service, haha. But on the other hand, it was very nice of them to do so. So off we went from airport to Alam Sutera.

Yours truly, with Susan, Helen, Henny, Ceng Pang and Hardy.

You might have recalled the name Alam Sutera from some of my writings, most notably was the one about the salted egg fish ball. Yes, we headed to the eatery owned by Hardy and Henny, a lovely couple. A hot fish ball soup for breakfast would be ideal and I loved it. And our time there only got better after Hardy joined us after his Strava time!

About my friend Hardy, I had to say that I admired his hard work. He had come a long away and made a good progress, from doing things all by himself to developing some sort of system so that he could free himself for another business expansion. He owned a second stall at Sarinah, a shopping centre in Jakarta's CBD area (he used to have four, but he let go the other two during COVID-19) and now he planned to do franchise. From his recent trip to Surabaya, he also thought of making bottled chilli sauce (and it turned out that I was there just in time for the unveiling). A very forward-thinking person!

From left: Ceng Pang, Ajon, Helen, Mariany, Henny, Susan, AW, Anthony, Hardy, BL and family.

So we hung out there while more and more friends coming to join us. There were Helen, Ajon, Mariany, whom I hadn't met for a really long while. Then AW and BL also came. So did Tuty, who just arrived in Jakarta. As we chit-chatted, we also ordered curry rice and kwe kia theng, the Pontianak food that made us. We were at Hardy's for half a day before Helen suggested that we should go singing instead.

It was raining, but it didn't stop us. We left Alam Sutera and for the first time ever, I entered Gading Serpong. To be frank, the whole Serpong thing was kind of confusing for the uninitiated. There was also another town called BSD City, formerly known as Bumi Serpong Damai and it happened to be about 12 KM away from where I was now. Gading Serpong looked rather grand and impressive especially at night, I'd say.

And the fun began at Inul Vizta...

We had so much fun at Inul Vizta. Even though we sang English and Chinese songs, it was mainly the old Indonesian songs that got us up and danced. Sentimental reasons, I guess. We knew how it felt when songs like Chrisye's Anak Sekolah was playing. Both the music and lyrics meant something for us because we went through high school. Also worth mentioning here was Susan, our time keeper, who often pressed the next button after the second chorus of the song, haha.

For dinner, we went to Rumah Kayu, a restaurant with lesehan style. Lesehan is a Javanese word that could be translated as sitting on a floor. Food was all right. For someone who hadn't eaten Indonesian food for so long, anything cooked with MSG would be acceptable. It was here that Alvin and Junaidi came to meet us as well, but not before they lost their way and ended up at another restaurant called Kayu Kayu.

Dinner at Rumah Kayu...

And that day ended with a bang! Since they had been talking about Holywings the whole day, Cicilia made a call that we should visit the one next to KFC. Because Susan and I wore sandals, I told them that if we couldn't enter Holywings, we'd go for chicken wings instead. But, lo and behold, there we were, enjoying our beers. That lasted for a short while, until the band started playing. I was immediately reminded again why I always preferred a pub for drinks. I could barely hear anything because the music was so loud! 

We left around 10:30pm at night, with Ceng Pang driving Cicilia back to Karawang, a town that was roughly about 97 KM away from Hollywings! I followed HRR, another childhood friend, to Yello Hotel in Jakarta. It was midnight when I reached there, but showering was a must! Then I dozed off while watching the Wolf of Wall Street, the movie that was only available on Netflix Indonesia (was watching it half way before I left Bali in early May).  

The last round at Holywings.

The next morning, before sunrise, I checked out and took a cab to Gambir Station to catch the train to Bandung. The train was clean and quite comfortable. It was punctual as well, so true to the original schedule, I was in Jakarta for less than 24 hours! After two years of living in the time of corona, it was fun to hang out with old friends again. A time well-spent! 

24 Jam Di Jakarta 

Berbeda dengan teman saya Jimmy yang bisa berlibur tiga minggu di Singapura meskipun sudah sering ke sini, saya jarang berlama-lama di tempat yang sering saya kunjungi. Saya lebih suka mampir sejenak untuk menikmati suasananya sambil makan dan bertemu teman. Setelah itu saya pun lanjut ke tempat lain atau kembali ke Singapura. Ini alasannya kenapa saya bisa menikmati kunjungan singkat sehari atau akhir pekan di negara tetangga, misalnya ke Johor Bahru atau Batam. 

Liburan ke Jakarta kali ini bisa dikatakan serupa. Pada kesempatan ini, saya akan menghabiskan waktu sekitar 24 jam di Jakarta. Saya mendarat pukul 7:05 pagi dan berangkat ke Bandung pada hari berikutnya jam 6:40 pagi. Itu sudah cukup bagi saya. Akan tetapi kali ini beda tempat tujuannya. Helen menyarankan agar saya mengunjungi Gading Serpong. Berhubung saya tidak pernah mampir sebelumnya, saya pun setuju. Pasti seru rasanya ke tempat baru bersama teman-teman. 

Ceng Pang, teman lama dari sejak SD, datang menjemput bersama Susan. Sudah lama saya tidak dijemput di bandara dan biasanya saya berangkat sendiri ke kota, jadi agak janggal juga rasanya mendapat perlakuan khusus, hehe. Akan tetapi teman-teman memang baik sampai rela bangun pagi untuk menjemput. Dari bandara, mobil pun meluncur ke Alam Sutera.

Bersama Susan, Helen, Henny, Ceng Pang dan Hardy.

Anda mungkin pernah membaca nama Alam Sutera dari tulisan saya yang sebelumnya, terutama yang berkisah tentang bakso ikan telur asin. Ya, kita menuju ke tempat makan Hardy dan Henny, pasangan suami-istri yang juga teman satu SMA. Semangkok sup bakso ikan untuk sarapan pagi memang sedap rasanya. Dan suasana kian semarak saat Hardy bergabung setelah selesai Strava. 

Harus saya katakan bahwa saya mengagumi kerja keras Hardy. Dia sudah maju pesat dibandingkan terakhir kali saya ke sana di tahun 2018. Dia tak lagi mengerjakan semuanya sendiri, tetapi kini memiliki sistem sehingga dia mempunyai waktu untuk mengerjakan hal lain. Dia juga memiliki satu kios di Sarinah (dulu bahkan sampai ada empat, namun tutup ketika COVID-19 melanda). Belajar dari pengalaman, sekarang dia mau fokus di franchise. Dari kunjungannya ke Surabaya, dia pun mulai memproduksi sambal cabe yang dibotolkan. Saya dan teman-teman yang hadir pun mendapat kesempatan pertama untuk menjajal produk ini. Singkat kata, sungguh Hardy adalah seorang yang berpandangan maju!

Dari kiri: Ceng Pang, Ajon, Helen, Mariany, Henny, Susan, AW, Anthony, Hardy, BL dan keluarga.

Kita bersantai di tempat Hardy sambil menanti teman-teman lain yang datang bergabung. Ada Helen, Ajon, Mariany. Sudah lama rasanya saya tidak duduk dan berbincang dengan mereka! Lantas ada pula AW, BL dan bahkan juga Tuty yang baru saja mendarat di Jakarta. Beberapa waktu kemudian, kita kembali memesan makanan, kali ini nasi kari dan kwe kia theng, makanan Pontianak yang kita santap dari sejak kecil. Setengah hari lamanya kita di sana sebelum kita lanjut karaoke. 

Walau hujan cukup deras, kita tetap meluncur ke lokasi. Dari Alam Sutera, saya memasuki Gading Serpong untuk pertama kalinya. Jujur saya katakan bahwa yang namanya Serpong ini agak membingungkan. Selain Gading Serpong, ada lagi yang namanya BSD City alias Bumi Serpong Damai yang berjarak sekitar 12 KM jauhnya. Gading Serpong sendiri merupakan kawasan yang terlihat modern dan bergelimang cahaya di malam hari. 

Dan acara dimulai di Inul Vizta...

Acara di Inul Vizta cukup heboh. Meski kita silih-berganti membawakan lagu Inggris dan Mandarin, yang membuat semua berjingkrak rata-rata adalah lagu Indonesia. Misalnya lagu Chrisye yang berjudul Anak Sekolah. Lirik dan musiknya penuh makna bagi kita yang pernah melewati masa SMA. Dan yang tak kalah pentingnya di sini adalah Susan yang bertindak sebagai operator. Supaya waktu tidak terbuang sia-sia, dia seringkali langsung berpindah ke lagu berikutnya sebelum lagu berakhir, haha. 

Untuk makan malam, kita bersantap di Rumah Kayu yang bergaya lesehan. Makanannya lumayan. Bagi orang yang sudah lama tidak mencicipi makanan Indonesia, segala sesuatu yang dimasak dengan penyedap rasa langsung terasa lezat. Alvin dan Junaidi pun datang menyusul. Setelah tersesat dan muncul di restoran lain yang bernama Kayu Kayu, akhirnya mereka berhasil menemukan Rumah Kayu. 

Makan malam di Rumah Kayu...

Dan hari itu berakhir di Holywings! Jadi nama ini sudah muncul sepanjang hari, sampai akhirnya Cicilia memutuskan bahwa kita harus ke Holywings yang ada di samping KFC. Karena Susan dan saya memakai sandal, saya berkomentar bahwa seandainya kita ditolak di Holywings, kita tunggu yang lain sambil makan chicken wings saja. Akan tetapi kita bisa masuk dan menikmati bir di sana. Kenikmatan sesaat yang segera berakhir begitu grup musik bermain di panggung. Saya jadi langsung teringat kenapa saya cenderung memilih pub sebagai tempat minum. Musiknya begitu keras di Holywings, sampai-sampai sulit untuk menyimak obrolan!

Acara akhirnya bubar jam 10:30 malam. Ceng Pang mengantar Cicilia kembali ke Karawang, kota yang berjarak 97 KM jauhnya dari Holywings! Saya sendiri menumpang di mobil HRR yang menuju ke Jakarta Kota. Kita tiba di Yello Hotel menjelang tengah malam. Selesai mandi, saya lanjut menonton the Wolf of Wall Street, film yang hanya ada di Netflix Indonesia dan telah saya tonton separuh sebelum saya bertolak dari Bali di awal Mei. 

Ronde terakhir di Holywings.

Keesokan paginya, sebelum matahari terbit, saya sudah berada di dalam taksi menuju Gambir. Beberapa saat kemudian, saya pun duduk di dalam kereta yang bersih, lumayan nyaman dan tepat waktu pula. Semuanya berlangsung sesuai jadwal. Setelah dua tahun hidup terisolasi di masa pandemi, senang rasanya bisa berkumpul bersama teman-teman lagi!

Happy Birthday, Sir Paul

I never thought of writing this, but the birthday greetings were just everywhere on the news and the social media. They were coming from his fellow ex-Beatle Ringo Starr, whoever that managed the Beatles' account on Facebook and many others, including those fans around world that admired him so much. It was so awe-inspiring that it got me reminiscing about how this 80-year-old man came and changed my life, too. 

I knew his songs long before I knew the man. Stuff like Yesterday, Hey Jude and Let It Be were the obvious choices that were played constantly when karaoke was first introduced in Pontianak. Even as a kid, I could tell that those cover versions were good music. I just didn't know how good yet.

Then finally came those days when I saw the Beatles for the first time ever. It was during the pre-internet era, so there was no way you could just search it on YouTube. It didn't even exist at that time! I just happened to catch the Beatles at the right time and I was hooked instantly. They were four of them and one stood out, obviously a left-handed like me. It was a revelation! So left-handed people could be someone cool, too!

I soon discovered that he was the man responsible for songs I heard during my childhood. How brilliant. When I was upset, he comforted me by singing, "take a sad song and make it better." When I was broken-hearted, he said, "there will be an answer. Let it be." All those wise words from someone you idolized so much, plus listening to them for years, became a maturity process that molded my personality. 

His life story was something that I could relate, too. I liked the fact that he was just a kid from Liverpool inspired by Elvis, the same way that I was just a kid from Pontianak inspired by the Beatles. The similarity we had just made things... possible. We pursued our dreams and made them come true along the way. Yet we were worlds apart, until it dawned on me that I could actually see him in Japan by attending his concert. The rest was history. While I knew this all along, I walked out from the stadium that night, wholeheartedly believing that things would definitely happen if you were passionate enough to make them come true.

It didn't end there, of course. The thing with Sir Paul was, he was so funny, confident, positive, humble and easy-going that he inspired me to be more like him. It was easy for the naysayers to criticise that he could behave that way because he had all the riches in the world, but we all knew he had paid his dues before, during and after the Beatles. He did what he liked and he surely had some fun doing that. The way I looked at it, that was one great way to live your life. Do what you like and have some fun doing it because why not?

I remember those days, back in high school, it was kinda frowned upon that a teenager could be so in awe of old men in their 50s. It was so uncool. In the world of Bon Jovi and Guns N' Roses, why on earth would I idolize the Beatles? But 30 years down the road, I could tell that I was lucky to know them. Otherwise my life would had been so different that it was unimaginable. So for the man who had been so inspiring and relatable, happy 80th birthday, Sir Paul. 

A photo by Yani, taken at the Beatles Story museum in Liverpool, 2016.

Selamat Ulang Tahun, Sir Paul

Awalnya saya tidak pernah berpikir untuk menulis artikel berikut ini, namun dua hari ini selalu saya temukan ucapan selamat ulang tahun baik di berita maupun media sosial. Ada yang datang dari Ringo Starr, teman satu grupnya dulu, ada pula yang dipos oleh admin akun grup the Beatles di Facebook dan masih banyak lagi berasal dari para penggemarnya. Semua ini begitu menggugah sehingga saya jadi terkenang dengan "perkenalan" saya dengan pria yang kini berumur 80 tahun ini. 

Saya tahu lagu-lagu jauhnya sebelum saya tahu siapa penciptanya. Lagu seperti Yesterday, Hey Jude dan Let It Be bagaikan pilihan wajib saat karaoke pertama kali muncul di Pontianak. Bahkan seorang bocah seperti saya pun bisa merasakan bahwa lagu-lagu ini enak musiknya. 

Beberapa tahun kemudian tibalah hari di mana saya melihat the Beatles untuk pertama kalinya. Semua ini terjadi sebelum internet muncul, jadi waktu itu masih belum ada YouTube. Saya kebetulan berada di depan TV saat dokumenternya diputar di RCTI dan saya langsung terpikat. Ada empat anggotanya dan yang satu jelas terlihat kidal seperti saya. Rasanya seperti melihat sebuah kesaksian! Ternyata orang kidal pun bisa populer! 

Tidak lama setelah itu, saya lantas menyadari bahwa pria kidal ini adalah orang yang menulis lagu-lagu yang sering saya dengar dulu. Betapa jenius karyanya. Ketika saya sedang gundah, dia menenangkan saya lewat nyanyian, "take a sad song and make it better." Ketika saya patah hati, dia berkata, "there will be an answer. Let it be." Semua kata-kata bijak dari orang yang saya kagumi itu berkumandang selama bertahun-tahun, menjadi proses pendewasaan yang membentuk kepribadian saya yang anda kenal sekarang. 

Kisah hidupnya pun merupakan sesuatu yang ada kemiripannya dengan apa yang saya lewati. Saya senang dengan fakta bahwa dia hanyalah seorang remaja dari kota kecil Liverpool yang terinspirasi oleh Elvis, sama halnya dengan saya yang berasal dari kota kecil Pontianak dan terinspirasi oleh the Beatles. Kemiripan ini membuat banyak hal terasa mungkin sehingga saya pun mengejar impian saya dan mewujudkannya. Saya dan Paul adalah dua orang dari kota kecil yang begitu berjauhan, sampai akhirnya saya sadari bahwa saya bisa melihatnya secara langsung dengan menghadiri konsernya di Jepang. Di malam setelah konser usai, selagi saya berjalan menjauh dari stadion, saya jadi percaya sepenuh hati bahwa jika anda bersungguh-sungguh dan telaten dalam menggapai apa yang anda mau, sesuatu yang baik niscaya akan terjadi. 

Namun cerita kita tentu tidak berhenti begitu saja. Satu hal yang selalu mengagumkan dari Sir Paul adalah karakternya yang lucu, percaya diri, positif, rendah hati dan riang. Saya senantiasa tergerak untuk bersikap serupa. Mudah bagi orang yang tidak percaya untuk mencibir bahwa dia bisa begitu karena kaya, tapi kita sama-sama tahu bahwa dia sudah membayar semua itu dengan kerja kerasnya sebelum, sewaktu dan setelah the Beatles bubar. Dia mengerjakan apa yang dia suka dan dia gembira karena apa yang dikerjakannya. Kalau saya lihat, ini adalah cara yang baik dalam menjalani hidup ini. Kerjakan apa yang anda suka dan bergembira karenanya, sebab kenapa tidak? 

Saya jadi teringat pula dengan masa SMA. Agak tidak lazim bagi remaja saat itu untuk mengagumi pria-pria yang sudah berumur 50an. Di dunia yang dikuasai oleh Bon Jovi dan Guns N' Roses, kenapa bisa-bisanya saya menyukai the Beatles? Akan tetapi, setelah 30 tahun berlalu, saya bisa katakan dengan yakin bahwa saya beruntung telah mengenal mereka. Kalau tidak, hidup saya pasti begitu berbeda dan sulit dibayangkan seperti apa. Jadi, untuk pria yang telah begitu menginspirasi selama ini, selamat ulang tahun ke-80, Sir Paul! 

Nowhere Man

The Beatles had a song called Nowhere Man, one that I could really relate with, because I always thought I was a nowhere man, sitting in his nowhere land, making all his nowhere plans for nobody. You know, with the all the dreams and the plans I had, I could easily fit into the very definition of nowhere man. 

But the recent talkshow got me rethinking this again. So we had this friend, a very smart man, presenting his idea about living happily like those villagers he saw around him. Then the idea was segued with a proposal that talked about metaverse as part of his futuristic solution to world's problem. It was so out of this world, not to mention disjointed, that a confused friend even asked, "how on earth do we go from village to metaverse?"

To make it more surreal, the data was only provided because Eday requested it before. When we pressed for more, we were asked to search for it ourselves on the internet. On top of that, as a proposal, it seemed to be pretty arguable, mostly because the person who proposed it didn't even bother to defend his ideas. It was like, "I tell you this much, you take it or leave it. Don't question me."

Upon hearing the same presentation, two people actually came to my mind. The first was Leonardo da Vinci. I remember reading about the man. His stuff was mostly observational. They were concluded without experiments and therefore offered no explanation. 

Then there was this uncle of mine. He was a Chinese-literate man who always sat behind his desk in Pontianak. From there, he would offer his rather negative view of the world to anybody. He did this since I was in high school and probably is still doing it now. 

Back in the days, when I was young and the internet was non-existent, my uncle sounded like the single source of truth. But now, even though he still liked to dominate the conversation, what he said felt outdated and irrelevant. 

It felt the same with my friend here. Regardless how smart a person was, you couldn't be staying in a rather secluded small town, imagining how the world worked, and then proposed something so futuristic to make it better. What one heard, read or saw online was different than experiencing it directly. The way I looked at it, he was out of his depth. You had to be a genius on par with Stephen Hawking to come up with a proposal that was so mind-boggling without leaving your seat. Otherwise it would be just another fanfiction.

That's when it struck me, "oh my, he's a real nowhere man, sitting in nowhere land, making all his nowhere plans for nobody."

Back to the presentation, there were many questions from us, of course. The presenter should have expected this from the audience like us, who were his peers and old friends. We couldn't care less how noble his profession was, because it had nothing to do with it. In hindsight, I did think that he probably got away from the questioning due to the wow factor. I mean, he was a respectable professional in the town he lived in, hence he was unlikely to be questioned by people around him, haha.

Eventually it was Jimmy who suggested our friend to apply for a passport and see the world first. I seconded the opinion. If it was just a wishful thinking, one could just stay where they were and continued daydreaming. But if one was serious about what he was saying, a credible experience would certainly help, wouldn't it?

The Thinker. Happened to pass by this statue few days ago...

Nowhere Man

The Beatles memiliki lagu berjudul Nowhere Man, sebuah tembang yang berarti bagi saya pribadi karena saya sering berpikir bahwa saya adalah nowhere man yang duduk di tempat yang tidak jelas keberadaannya dan merancang rencana yang tidak jelas juntrungannya dan tidak untuk siapapun. Dengan berbagai impian dan rencana yang saya miliki, saya berasumsi bahwa saya ini seperti nowhere man. 

Akan tetap acara obrolan santai tempo hari membuat saya berpikir lagi tentang hal ini. Saat itu seorang teman yang pintar diberi panggung untuk menyajikan topik tentang hidup bahagia seperti layaknya orang desa yang ia jumpai. Kemudian ide tersebut disambung dengan sebuah proposal yang berbicara tentang metaverse sebagai bagian dari solusi canggih masa depan yang ia tawarkan untuk masalah yang dihadapi dunia. Betul-betul mencengangkan sehingga seorang teman bahkan sampai bertanya, "kenapa dari desa bisa langsung ke metaverse?" 

Seakan-akan ini belum cukup heboh, data pun ditampilkan hanya karena Eday sebelumnya pernah meminta. Ketika diuji lebih lanjut, pemirsa lantas disuruh mencari sendiri di internet. Selain itu, sebagai sebuah proposal, isinya cenderung mengundang bantahan yang anehnya tidak diladeni oleh yang melakukan presentasi. Apa yang terjadi malah seperti ini, "saya sudah ceritakan, terserah anda mau terima atau tidak." 

Saat mendengar pemaparan seperti itu, saya jadi teringat dengan dua orang. Yang pertama adalah Leonardo da Vinci. Saya terkenang dengan apa yang saya baca tentang orang ini. Apa yang dikategorikan sebagai karya-karya ilmiahnya bersifat pengamatan belaka. Dia jarang bereksperimen dan tidak pula memiliki penjelasan kenapa idenya seperti ini.

Kemudian ada pula seorang paman saya yang bisa baca-tulis Mandarin dan senantiasa duduk di belakang meja kerjanya di Pontianak. Dari situ, dia akan menceritakan pandangannya yang agak negatif tentang dunia kepada semua orang yang datang bertamu. Dia melakukan ini sepanjang hari, mulai dari sejak saya duduk di bangku SMA dan mungkin berlanjut hingga hari. 

Dulu, ketika saya masih remaja dan internet pun belum dikenal, paman saya ini terasa bagaikan maha tahu dan sumber kebenaran yang hakiki. Sekarang, meski dia masih senang mendominasi percakapan, apa yang ia sampaikan kini terasa seperti ketinggalan jaman dan tidak relevan. 

Saya merasakan hal yang sama saat mendengarkan presentasi teman saya ini. Tidak peduli seberapa pintar seseorang, anda tidak bisa hanya tinggal di kota kecil yang terpencil, kemudian membayangkan bagaimana dunia ini bekerja dan menawarkan teknologi yang tidak pernah anda lihat sebagai solusi dari masalah. Yang terasa justru sepertinya orang ini sedang mengkhayal. Beda ceritanya kalau solusi yang mutakhir seperti ini dicetuskan oleh orang sekaliber Stephen Hawking yang selalu duduk di kursi rodanya. Kalau reputasinya kurang dari itu, yang terdengar cuma seperti cerita fiksi.

Dan saya mendadak terpikir lagi, "oh, dia sungguh seorang nowhere man, yang duduk di tempat yang tidak jelas keberadaannya dan merancang rencana yang tidak jelas juntrungannya dan tidak untuk siapapun."

Kembali lagi ke presentasi, tentu saja ada banyak pertanyaan dari kami. Ini sudah pasti akan terjadi dari pemirsa seperti kami yang merupakan teman-teman lamanya. Kami tidak peduli seberapa mulia profesinya, sebab hal ini tidak ada hubungannya dengan apa yang dipresentasikan. Kendati begitu, kalau dilihat kembali, mungkin penjelasannya akan terdengar cemerlang dan tidak mengundang pertanyaan di kota di mana ia tinggal, sebab dia adalah pria yang dihormati masyarakat di sana. 

Pada akhirnya Jimmy menyarankan teman yang satu ini untuk membuat paspor dan melihat dunia dulu. Saya setuju dengan sarannya. Jika ide itu hanya sekedar khayalan, sah-sah saja untuk senantiasa duduk melamun di satu tempat. Namun jika seseorang serius dengan idenya, pengalaman yang kredibel sudah jelas akan sangat membantu, bukan?