Dots. Lines. Scratches. Sketches. Perspectives. Pieces. Thoughts. Stories. Julitra. Anaada.
Ask first for the name of person you want to find out, and you will save a lot of questions afterwards. By asking a person’s name, they say, you will get much more information. Can you really tell a person’s gender, religion and nationality just from their names?
I determined to prove this suggestion. “What’s your child’s name?” I asked my friend’s, who recently became a proud father, instead of the standard inquiry, “Is it a boy or a girl?”. [More...]
Stories in 140 characters
“Just do, whatever,” Lyla tells him, “makes me happy.”
He gives her a stare, and imagining himself a psychic attempting to decipher someone’s minds.
“Everything I do will please you?” Now his voice is ringing with sound of doubts.
He sees her chin moves up and down. “Just do whatever makes me happy.” He hears her repeating the sentence again.
“Just do whatever things that bring joy…..”
“Joy into my life!” Lyla cuts him midsentence.
He catches her eyes again, locking them with his gaze, “Say that sentence to yourself instead; because you are the maker of your own happiness, and the sole master of your own destiny, not me, not even the world, Lyla.”
“This shall be my mantra until the next twelve months expire on July 30, 2010.”
“I know, today, you are thirty-two!”
“And where is the ‘happy birthday‘?” Asks Lyla, her voice softened and spoiled; but when she looks at his cheeks, she wonders why they become pink like the colour on her fingernails.
Thirty seconds pass without any response from him. Finally, he opens the door behind her; leaves her, but not before giving Lyla his best smile and telling her, “Joyeux anniversaire, Lyla.”
(Jakarta, July 31, 2009)
When Bayu heard, or more precisely saw, for the first time about the hospital, he thought it was like any other hospital. Squeezed among buildings in one of main streets in the capital, it stands unnoticed. Even the plaque bearing its name is half-way obstructed by plants growing in front of it.
One night, while driving with a friend, he felt pain in his chest followed by shortness of breath. Luckily, his friend knew about the area and since they were close to the hospital, the first logical answer to his immediate problem was to seek relief there. [More...]
“You can actually read people from their handwriting,” a female voice says, so sudden, which Bayu doesn’t expect as he’s concentrating. Writing.
Bayu tries to locate where exactly the voice comes from. And she’s there, looking down from her oval light-skinned face. Very close standing at his back; he has to make extra efforts just to turn his back.
“Excuse me?” [More...]
