Now, everything else is just stupid background noise.

Truly Madly Deeply

Truly, madly, deeply...

Me and My Gorillas

Have you ever seen 'Mighty Joe Young'? It was a movie about  a girl who had a special connection with a gorilla. Both of them lost their mother when they were so young and then they're becoming friends.

Actually the story of the movie is sad for me, but I have never forget that it was the first time in my life that I realized, I love gorillas.

All of my friends will ask, are you crazy? How could it be possible to like animals like that, and I will say, well, gorillas are strong, smart, looked like us in some ways, and even though their appearances are not pretty for most of people (because they are black, big, etc), but they looked so gentle when they treat their families.

Maybe it will be so hard to notice, if you just see gorillas in the zoo, because you can only see them for maybe 10-15 minutes, and you will see them just lying around or eating fruits, and then you will say, they are all lazy and also ugly. But if you spend time to watch the documentary, you would be able to see their activities for whole time, which for me, it proves that gorillas are so complex and in some ways, they are moving gracefully. They protect each other in the family. If a baby gorilla lost its mother, another female gorilla in the troop (a group of gorilla) will take care the baby with pleasure. And even though, everyone will assume (and yeah it's true) that male gorillas looked very fierce, tense, and also furious, but if there is something happens to his troop, he will fight until dead. I will not mention the way a gorilla mother protects its child,  you can guess by yourself.

And I think the stigma that gorilla is fierce and furious, it cannot be completely true. We said that because their size which of course so big (male gorilla's weight could be 400 lb or around 200 kg), and also they have a lot of muscles without have to go the gym at all, but I think actually it's just our assumption. They are herbivore, so basically they do not have any intention to prey us, or to attack us. Some expedition showed that actually they are shy. If we met them, they will hide from us. So the only reason they attack us is because they felt threaten in the first place. That's the reason. They worried about their safety, so they attack human. It's true that male gorillas will fight each other to become a leader in the troop. But I think that's just one thing that they should do in the nature to survive. So, all of the assumption that gorilla is fierce and furious, could not be completely true.

And the perception which said that they are ugly and lazy, it's not true at all. Regarding the ugly thing, I think it depends on your personal taste. Personally, I will say that they are a beautiful creature. They looked strong, they have very good posture, their fur look amazing, and their face looked so serious every time, but I found that actually their face are so funny. Their nose are big and make me want to laugh. And if people said that they are lazy, that's because like I said before we saw them at the zoo, which they do not have to work at all to get food. But in the forest, of course they should find their foods at their own. So they are not lazy. Human makes them lazy.

I will spend days, if I want to write everything about gorillas. But for me, they are amazing creatures, they are unique. I will not fall in love with something that just usual or ordinary. I will fall in love with something that I could say, well this thing is extraordinary, different. And that is gorillas.

Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit. Moliere well said. 

Well, I think it works for me. 

After so many times waiting, so many things happened, my patience was worth waiting. 

He is the best thing that ever happened to me. 

My first star at night. My first in everything. 

Old but not Obsolete

Many people described something old as not interesting anymore, not fun anymore. But what I found yesterday in my little visit to Museum Sejarah Jakarta, is that being old could be really beautiful.

The building started to build at 1707, so the age of the building is more than 300 years. But the architecture, the interior are so beautiful. They didn't make the building like that anymore. 

This neoclassic building showed me that being old doesn't alwasy mean boring, ugly, or not interesting anymore. Sometimes, being old could show the tranquil beauty which only could be made by the changing of time. We called it classic. And that, you can't buy things like that with money. 

Old classic beautiful things. 

Living in Jakarta Has Never Been So Easy - random thought

Here in Jakarta..

I have seen a woman becoming a busway driver. They are called paramudis, and the fact is 30% of busway driver are women. 

Seen a woman becoming a 'kenek' for Kopaja in so many times. They looked tough and could yelled so hard. 

Seen a woman in orange jumpsuit took a broom and started cleaning city garden.

Don't ask how many women are wandering in the street, singing around asking money. And also please don't ask about how many women sell themselves, their own pride and dignity for living. 

Jakarta is never being easy. For some people, it could be really hard. Not only for women actually, for men too. I just love to make an observation about women's live, so I talked a lot about it. 

I'm not saying that their works are bad. Any kind of jobs, as long as we do it with dignity and integrity, it could be an honor to do. 

But as a woman, who agree to some perspectives in feminism and humanism, I have some thought.

First, I think it is really great for women to take some jobs which in the past, only men dare to take. It is good that now women also can do the living, take any jobs, no matter how hard or how rough it is. Women can do something for herself and her family, which is wonderful. 

But, also in the other hand, I could stop thinking. Not every women in Jakarta have a proper job for living. As I mentioned earlier, there are so many women have rough jobs. Do they feel happy with their jobs now? Or they take it because they have to? Because they didn't have many options. 

Honestly, I do not know until now what should I do or how come all of these shits should be happen in this world and existed in my head. 

Why? How come? there is no sufficient answer for me. 

For now, I should accept the fact that Jakarta is never being easy to us, and even of course generally, life is never being easy for some people. Some people are lucky enough to get good education and have sufficient and proper job, some are so damn lucky to inherit a lot of money from their family, but there are some who maybe for now, should tried so hard only to buy food three times a day.

For now, I called it life while singing a song from John Lennon called 'Imagine'

Yes, I still have that kind of dream. 

Jakarta : The sadness behind her glamorous

I was so happy when I got to know that I will work here. Everyone knows that Jakarta is like center of everything in Indonesia. Jakarta is the biggest city in Indonesia with 10 millions citizen and center for business and entertainment. 

One day, my boss asked me to do some research for CSR project that he wants to be involved. He wants something creative. Something that really matter for people in Indonesia. 

I do not have any idea actually, so I just meandering, take a walk around my office and then, bam! I found something that really interesting. 

My office is located in Kuningan. An elite area for business. Everyone knows that. But I found that behind my office building, there is a small village where people live in waste disposal. 

I walked through the street and the smell was overwhelming (because of the disposal). I saw children playing around with the disposal. I came to that village at 9 a.m. and seemed that there's a lot of children who was playing. I was wondering, don't they should be in the school this morning? 

Their house was miserable. I do not know that they can live like that. Dirty, really small, and definitely unhealthy. 

So, I took some pictures of them and in the morning I made a presentation for my boss. 

He seemed pretty shocked. He asked me, Really? I just nodded. He was in silent for a minute. 

In the lunch time, both of us went to that village. My boss decided to give them some money. 

I do not know. Really do not know. There's no reason that people should live like that. But that's the fact. 

I was wondering, how much money did we spend for shopping in a month. I do believe that in Jakarta, shopping centre is a business worth billion rupiah each months. 

And then, how much did we spend for the lifestyle? I knew that some restaurant in Jakarta sell steak for more than 250 thousands rupiah each plate. And a glass of wine, the cheapest can be worth 150 thousands rupiah each glass. So how much money do you spend only for weekend. 

You bought your clothes in famous boutique. You ate your steak and drink your wine in the fancy restaurant but you did close your eyes to the reality that happens in Jakarta.

I know that we all have rights to spend the money that we work hard for. We spend more than 8 hours sometimes each days in working so we have any right to have some pleasure.

My point is do not ever forget that behind all of the good things that this city offers to us, there're a lot of problem that we need to solve together.

You might said that, that's all happen all around Jakarta. Not something big to think. But really? The fact that there are more people in Jakarta live like that should make us even sadder. How come? Ignorance. An ugly thing. Martin Luther King Jr said that nothing in all the world more dangerous than sincere ignorance. 

I believe that love is the biggest thing in this world. One thing that make this world still worth for living. 

So let's take a baby step and be an agent of change. Help others to have a better path of life. And it can start with our neighbour. The ones who live nearest from us. 

Temptation..
Always seems delightfull and sweet. But be carefull. After you did it, the consequences, well you'll never know.

We tried in so many ways to be devoted. To can live as clean as we can. But after that, after so many works and so many efforts, we found that it's never enough.

We almost did it, defeat the temptation. But as you know, almost is never enough.

Human is full with weakness. God, help us!