Words and I

Everytime I passed that cross-road near the railway, on the pavement under the traffic lights, I always saw that fat boy, about 9 years old, carrying a baby, possibly his brother, in his arms.

When the light turned red, he would go to some cars which stopped, knock on their windows, and ask for some money, with his brother in his arms. Sometimes his brother was sleeping; it seemed so heavy to carry him, I could see it in the fat boy’s face.

When the light turned green, he would sit on the pavement, looking sad. Despite of his big body, the boy seemed to have that sad look in his eyes. I always wondered if he had been growing up on the street, just like his baby brother.

One day, I passed that cross-road by motorcycle with a friend. Once again, I saw that fat boy. It had been a while since I passed that road. I noticed that his baby brother was growing up. He could walk around now while his brother watching. But the boy’s face was fainter than before, and his stomach was rounder. And the eyes…. they seemed to have seen so much in life in such a young age.

But as so many times before, I just passed them when the light turned green. Once or twice I gave them a little money but I know that it never helped at all.  

This is really a very very wonderful and refreshing news! I just found out that a not so famous big town somewhere in Central Java Province has pioneered in building a one stop service for all public services there.

It has been a public secret that bureaucracy in Indonesia is so unbelievable that there’s a saying, "If it can be made difficult, why make it easy?" Not making a head nor tail about it? Well, there are zillions of cases, actually, which show how annoying bureaucracy is most of the times. We don’t just spend so much time and money for something so easy, such as renewing our Identity Card, but also our patience and anger. No wonder Indonesia is in rank 89 out of 119 countries in public service.

With one stop service this town has, all the citizens do just prepare all the documents needed, show up there, choose which service we’d like to arrange, and the officer will tell how many days the needed ID Card and everything will be finished. It won’t take long and the faster is the better, it really is their motto! I heard that a few big town and cities are following this great example. Still a few but who knows?  

So, who says I am a dreamer?

I read in Time years ago that if you want to know about what the people of a nation is like, just travel by their trains. Trains tell a character of a nation, so it’s written. Well, what an interesting view. I am so intrigued by this because I travel by trains quite a lot. I can’t say that this argument about train and character is too subjective or too generalized. But then I started to notice the passengers more when I took a train from home to work.

There are two types of trains I usually take, the economy and the express one. The ticket price for economy trains is actually about one fifth the express’. The economy trains rarely leave on schedule, they are usually full (read my other post, May Day…May Day…), you can always find about… ehm, 10, 20, 50, or maybe more passengers without a ticket, you can also see a few passengers hanging on the door and sitting on the rooftop (with a smile on their faces).

What else? Let’s see… you can find big baskets full of various fruits (smell strongly, too), small baskets filled with chicken or ducks (if it’s your lucky day ), a few beggars, a few buskers (some with a full army: a vocalist, a drummer, two guitarists), and many sellers (they sale various things which are handy, such as….many things!)

The trains are mostly dirty, I guess the Train Management is only flushing the whole train with water every week (?) and let it dry. You can find no garbage bins around; no wonder garbage is everywhere on the train’s floor (as if there is a rule: no garbage bins, please throw away your garbage anywhere you like, thank you for your cooperation). Most of the automatic doors do not work nor the fans, the windows, or even the conductors who check the ticket. No offense, I am just trying to be objective here If the conductor is doing his job well, then you won’t find passengers with no ticket anymore, right?

Now, the passengers. The passengers of economy train are varied, just like the people of Indonesia. From beggars to the rich, from little babies to the elderly, from the uneducated to the professors, from pickpockets to hajj (a title in Islam, given after a person making a pilgrimage to Mecca, considered to be a religious person), from smokers to passive smokers, etc.

Now, let’s go inside the express trains. They are more expensive because they at least try to be on schedule but often miss. They have an air conditioning, windows, and doors which are working. They are clean because they have garbage bins…haha. The passengers can come from different background but at least they are quieter (I guess they are not quieter but sleepy because it’s cool inside, a great place to snooze), mostly dress quite neatly (I guess again, they have a good job so they can spend quite much money to take the train daily), and it seems, correct me if I am wrong, they are aware not to ruin their image as a good and civilized citizen. So you rarely find such occasions as passengers with no ticket; the conductor being given the money instead of the ticket; or passengers littering. I say rarely because those things happen, too, mind you. I saw it with my own eyes (because I didn’t know if other passengers using their eyes at the moment ) a female passenger who stood in front of me just gave some money (less than the ticket’s price, surely!) to the conductor while whispering something on his ear and the conductor took the money quietly and left as if nothing happened. Wow, what a drama!

Another drama I experienced on an express train one day was a well dressed man (looked educated, too, if looks really can tell who you are…) drank a glass of water on his seat, crushed the glass which is made from plastic then calmly throw away the glass under his seat. I couldn’t find a guilty look on his face, embarrassed or something. Nothing. He’s SO impassive.

Other drama was when the express train stopped in a station. I heard a loud voice of the head of the station through a speaker, asking people not to smoke inside the train. Whoa, amazing! So they think they can smoke when the train stops with the door open? Really amazing!

Back to the opinion about train and character of the people… can you tell or not?

I have no idea what has been going on to the imported book business here. But I found book sales at two or three famous bookstores in Jakarta, the ones which sell mostly English books, in the last two months.

With the price of a book is Rp 100.000 or about US $9 on average, or even more, I am not sure if it is a ‘popular’ price for most Indonesians. Besides, they are in English language. Even when the books are in Indonesian language, it’s still considered expensive. Is it?

I think it’s more about priority. For some people, going out on expensive restaurants twice or once a month is a must. Just look at cozy restaurants spreading out in Jakarta, often full if not crowded. Especially at the beginning of a month when most workers just accept their salaries. I bet each person has to pay at least Rp 50.000.

For some people, other priority might be clothes. Not convinced? Just go to big malls here in Jakarta and find out where the crowd gathers. Yes, at clothing stores which manage to have a sale each month, I notice.

Then, for less people, the priority is book. From these less people, first priority to most is Indonesian books. So now I guess I have the answer to my question. Or not?

I went to a First Friday Mass last Friday and I couldn’t hide my tears. I supposed it was so stupid to cry. There on the left side of the altar, sat a choir with an organ. The first time I heard them singing, I choked back my tears. They were singing beautifully. What a wonderful voice they had. Yet, they were all blind. That’s why I thought it was so stupid of me to cry.

What was I crying for? Because they have beautiful voice and I don’t? Because they are blind and I’m not? Because they looked so happy serving God and I… I have been so busy complaining to Him?

Anyway, I am learning to feel so blessed each day now… and love Him more.

I heard on the radio this morning, the first of May, that there would be a huge demonstration in Jakarta today. There would be over a hundred thousands workers flocking from all over the cities to Jakarta. Today was International Labor Day.

Great! I was already late for my last express train to Tanah Abang Station. There had to be heavy heavy traffic jams all over the city and it would be such a foolish thing to do to take a bus from my home, Depok. I had to take a train somehow. Not an express train with its air conditioning, clean, and unpacked car, but trains without those I mention. Sigh.

So there I was, waiting patiently at the station, hoping the next train arriving would be empty. I think I have to redefine what the meaning of ‘empty’ is here. Empty means you have enough space just to stand among other passengers, and if you’re lucky, you can read a paper or a book quietly. Well, yes, I was ‘lucky’ that day.

I could barely enter the train’s door because passengers were already ‘hanging’ at the door. But I pushed myself through, thinking there would be empty space inside. With my heavy rucksack I carried on the front, I could easily push through and the result was… a mother scolded me for trying to push her aside with my rucksack. Oh, okay, I moved to another side. Ha, it was empty all right.

But then I stumbled into a sack on the floor. It was a big sack, lying there hopelessly. I couldn’t get any further inside, so I stood there with other passengers only inches away from me. The sack turned out to be my lucky escape. I stood facing the sack, that’s why there was still a space in front of me because there’s no way you could stepped in the sack, right? Unless you wanted the sack’s owner to punch you, of course.

I can’t tell you how hot and stuffy in there but I could read nicely! I brought The Alchemist and read it undisturbed while I tried to keep my balance. Everyone is fighting each day… for their family, their faith, their country, even their life! How could I not fight also for reading the novel all the way, I tried to philosophize.

After fighting for…er…my life, I finally made myself get out of the train at my destination, just in time! There were cases when some passengers could not get off at their destination because it’s difficult for them to reach for the train’s door and when they actually reached it, the train has already moved. Still hard to imagine? Just think of a tin of sardines and you are one of the sardines. There you go.

In sweat and thirst, I sat on the Cawang station’s bench. I had to wait for another train to Tanah Abang because the train I just took was heading to Kota. When the train arrived, it was really empty. Really empty means really empty. You get a seat!

The train was dirty… I have been thinking why the economy trains to Tanah Abang are mostly so dirty, compared with the same trains to Gambir and Kota. I haven’t come up with a good answer yet. Anyway, this train was full of entertainment. First, a young child and her elder sister were singing endlessly with a karaoke set carried on the elder’s shoulder. Then came a group of band consisted of two guitarists and a drummer, all of them being the vocalists.

The last one was a topeng monyet family; they were a little boy, his brothers, and a hopeless monkey. Topeng monyet is the show of the monkey in chain and the monkey tries some acts with the beat of a drum in the background so that people can laugh. Unfortunately this time, the monkey didn’t make the passengers laugh, instead some elderly women screamed as the monkey tried to grab their handbags and bracelets. The little boy, I guess, was not that strong to handle that little but strong monkey. What a commotion!

It was almost 11 am when I get off at Tanah Abang station. It’s already late for work so I tried to find a taxi. There’s no taxi after a while and I had to walk quite a long way in the hot sunshine. It was almost 11.30 when I got to office. According to the taxi driver, the streets had been rather empty than usual because of the demonstration. Oh, great!