Kos Lily, 18 September 2008

Dulu, waktu kerja di daerah Setiabudi.
Mba A : "Mon, lu tinggal di mana?"
Saya : "Oh, gw ngekos di Depok, Mba."
Mba A : "Depok? Kos? Jauh amat. Kenapa ga pindah kos dekat-dekat sini aja?'
Saya : "Cuman naek kereta sama naek 66, kok, Mba. Lagian itu udah kos dari zaman kuliah. Udah nyaman banget, Mba."


Sekarang, di tempat kerja saya di daerah Juanda.
Ibu B : "Mona, kamu tinggal sama orangtua?"
Saya : "Gak, Bu. Saya kos di Depok."
Ibu B : "Apa gak kejauhan, tuh? Kalau memang kos, kamu cari aja kos di Kingkit situ."
Saya : "Heheheheee ... Gak jauh, kok, Bu. Saya hanya perlu naik kereta, kok, Bu."


Semenjak kos di lantai dua pondokan itu pada 11 Mei 2005, saya sudah melihat penghuninya datang dan pergi. Dari berstatus sebagai yang paling muda hingga menjadi salah satu yang dituakan. Kini saya adalah penghuni terlama di tempat itu.

Pagi ini, pukul 00 lewat sekian, teman-teman sekos saya memberi kejutan ulang tahun. Mereka mendatangi saya ketika saya berada di dapur kos. Masing-masing membawa sebuah lilin yang menyala dan selembar kertas yang terlipat. Bukannya menyanyikan lagu Happy Birthday, mereka malah mempaduansuarakan lagu dari Kerispatih. Hahahaa ... mereka tahu saya punya sentimen negatif kalau berhubungan dengan lagu-lagu Kerispatih. Di mana lagi seorang yang berulang tahun dinyanyikan "Khianati ... Sebisa dirimu mengkhianati ..." kalau bukan di Kos Lily kami itu. :D

Saya terbahak-bahak. Lalu mereka meminta saya meniup lilin yang mereka pegang satu-persatu. Dan, lagi-lagi mereka menguji kesabaran saya. Mereka tahu pasti sensitivitas saya terhadap adegan cium-pipi-kanan-cium-pipi-kiri, tetapi mereka memaksa melakukan cipika-cipiki beramai-ramai. Alhasil saya terjebak di tengah-tengah para perempuan "ganas" itu, hehehehee ....

Saya kira akan berhenti di situ. Ternyata mereka telah mempersiapkan surat untuk saya, tetapi setiap orang memegang surat yang ditulis oleh teman yang lain. Seperti yang mereka minta, saya pun menunjuk nama pemegang suratnya. Jujur, saya terharu dengan doa dan harapan yang tertulis di setiap surat. Kalau saya tidak sensitif pada skinship, mungkin saya akan memeluk mereka satu-persatu.

Sebagai penutup acara kejutan itu, mereka menjajah kamar saya dan menempelkan surat-surat mereka sesukanya di dinding kamar saya. Bahkan, mereka menutupi semua poster Steven Gerrard dan Fernando Torres dengan surat-surat itu. Ckckckck ... mereka memang benar-benar menguji kesabaran saya kali ini, heheheheee ....

Ini sudah kali keempat saya mendapatkan kejutan ulang tahun di kos itu. Setiap tahun selalu punya metode berbeda karena beberapa penghuninya pun sudah berganti. Tetapi kesannya selalu sama: BAHAGIA. HAPPY. SHIAWASE. HAENGBOK.

Sebagai seorang perantau, adalah mudah bagi saya untuk pindah kos ke sana ke sini untuk memudahkan aktivitas saya. Konteks saat ini: supaya lebih dekat ke kantor saya. Tetapi, sebagai seorang perantau yang tinggal jauh dari keluarga, saya butuh untuk feels like home. Saya butuh keluarga psikologis. Dan itu tidak akan saya dapatkan kalau saya hanya berada di satu tempat dalam waktu singkat.

Pagi ini, saat yang lain sedang sahur dan saya sudah bersiap-siap untuk tidur, saya melakukan hal yang sudah lama tidak saya lakukan. Berdoa. Bersyukur. Menangis.

Seandainya bisa, saya ingin menceritakan hal ini kepada mereka yang tetap bertanya kenapa saya bisa sebegitu betahnya tinggal di kos itu.

Forbidden Love

What will be considered as a forbidden love? A man loves another man? A woman loves another woman? A love with a huge age gap, usually when the woman is much older? A not-brotherhood-kind-of-love between a brother and his sister? Or, in my tradition, a love between a man and a woman who share the same family name?

Here, I just want to recall my memory about a movie I watched few months ago. Of course the theme is a forbidden love.

It’s titled “My Sister, My Love”, a Japanese movie whose origin title is “Boku wa Imôto ni Koi wo Suru”. The story is about a love and incest between twins: Yori (the brother) and Iku (the sister). It was premiered at 2007.

It’s a denial from Yori’s side at first. But, then, Yori was the one who asked Iku to choose. “Me or the other guys?” That’s the subtitle version. Iku, the one who fell in love with Yori since the day he proposed her in their childhood time, of course chose Yori among others. That night, they made love for the first time. In the room they shared together.

The saddest part, for me, is the moment their mother tidied up their room. She had this indefinable expression when she saw Iku’s bed was a mess, while Yori’s was not.

Back to Yori and Iku. Of course they had their happy moments. But in the end, they had to face the reality.

Then, they made their journey to the place where Yori gave his childhood proposal long time before. The love relationship ended up precisely in the place where it begun.

What so great about this movie is the sympathy created in me. When the credit title came up, I was no longer in judgment about their taboo love anymore, but moved on to sympathizing them.

Do I sound like saying that we may be allowed to judge the love, but not the lover? Am I thinking that a lover can never really choose whom he/she falls in love with?

May be.

Jason Mraz and The Street Musicians

"Every Bataknese can sing well, except one person, and that's because he is dumb. Oh, and another one. Mona."

That was my friend's joke describing my singing capability. Unfortunately, she is right. I don't have any sense of music. I never value a song from its musical quality. So, I am sorry if I don't have any interest toward classical or instrumental music.

For me, a good song is the one that be able to make me think about something. It could be a "soundtrack" which brings back memory about some people or some moments. Or, it could be a motivation for me. And that will bring us to Jason Mraz.

Mraz always hypnotizes me with his genuineness in playing words. He had me with Remedy, exactly with this line: "You can turn off the sun but I'm still gonna shine and I'll tell you why".

Then, he had me more with Geek in The Pink: "Don't judge it by the color, confuse it for another. You might regret what you let slip away."

Listening to that kind of lyric makes me quite averse to local songs that never care about meaningful words. Do I sound like denying my country's identity? I don't think so.

I never consider dangdut with cheesy words as my country's identity. The music is, the lyric isn't. Bring me dangdut songs with genuine and intellect words, and I'll absolutely compliment them.

How's about local band? If that's the case, can somebody bring the old Sheila on 7 from the days they sang "Kita" and "Kisah Klasik"?

Hmm ...Ok. I thought I would always think that way in any given situation. But, honestly, there's a time when I really enjoy listening to dangdut with cheesy lyrics. Like few days ago.

Usually, it only takes approximately an hour by train to get home from my office. But, last Friday was a hell. From my departure to the third station, it took two and a half hours. My arrival point is the twelfth station. And at the moment, I got into the crowd one, with no AC inside. Yeah, that was a hell.

At the third station, my train got emptier. It gave space to street musicians along with their instruments. Then they sang some cheesy songs. For those who know how cheesy a dangdut could be, they will definitely know the level of cheesiness I implied.

But, instead of rejecting them, I enjoyed their music. It was such a relief. It was entertaining.

It just came at the right moment.