Selembar Daun dan Titik Hujan

Selembar daun itu
Mencuri pandang pada awan
Tatapannya semakin tajam
Hingga ia kembali terkenang

Selembar daun itu
Bergoyang-goyang diterpa angin
Iramanya semakin cepat
Hingga ia kembali rindu

Pada awan dan angin
Ia memohon untuk petir
Datang menyambar semesta
Memberitahukan sang hujan
Agar kembali tiba

Hujan
Titik-titik hujan
Titik-titik itu
Dengan disaksikan awan, angin, dan petir
Telah mencuri jiwanya
Dari ranting dan batang pohon
Yang selama ini disetiainya

Ia,
Selembar daun itu
Tak mampu, bahkan tiada daya untuk tidak jatuh hati
Ketika titik-titik itu
Menyentuhnya, lalu menyiramnya
Dan dengan lembut membisikinya
“sepenuh hatiku padamu”
sebelum pada akhirnya ia,
hilang
ditelan tanah merah ujung jalan

I think God can explain...

Oh God, I think I have a perfect life, You blessed me such this much,...
so that I am so afraid, Am I deserved to got it all...
oh...Alhamdulillah...Thanks God for everything...

I'm in love with you all...

I think only God can explain...

What was Love?

What was Love?
what was it?
was it round?
was it square?

was it long?
was it short?

yet, i don't know where it ends...

still looks like a lecturer's blog?...:(

Rethinking Urban Image

It was just last two night I have a chat with a friend. We’re talking about my master thesis. He specifically asks about my “intentions” on that study. Well, all I can say is, it is all about URBAN IMAGE. As far as I know from all literature written in urban design, or city planning, there are 2 poles in talking about this issue. First is Lynchian supporter. As we know that Kevin Lynch sometimes in 60s had an idea to ask American people about memorable features they first notice in their city. Lynch experiment has deliver 5 most memorable features people first notice, first is PATH, or channel of movement, second is NODE or junction, third is LANDMARK or city monument, forth is DISTRICT, and the last is EDGE, could be river, or city wall. Those five elements have grown very popular amongst urban planner and they started to consider Lynch finding as an urban theory.

The other pole is Rapoportian. Amos Rapoport in the 70s as he also points out about Lynch finding, try to add some other memorable features in city, which have contribution in building urban image. He mentioned about human activities in the city. Rapoport believes that the life of city streets has giving the city “spirit”. He further in late 80s specifically mentioned about Indian cities, which he stated, as I quote:

“India is a fine example of the effects of culture on the streets use. There, the streets provide a setting for what seems to be a bewildering variety of activities and correspondingly diverse sounds, smells and sights. A confusing mixture of animals, people, bicycles, rickshaws, trucks and buses moves continuously. Activities are intermingled at an extraordinarily fine grain and in close juxtaposition. The streets are full of a great variety of people in all sorts of costumes, not only walking and riding but standing, sitting, squatting and lying down; sleeping, cooking, eating, getting their hair cut or getting shaved; doing laundry, fixing bicycles or tires, manufacturing things, sewing, playing, chanting, arguing, bargaining and - even praying.”

According to Rapoport, urban public life is very important to a city, as also another urbanist Jane Jacobs (1961) amazingly states:

“Think of a city and what comes to mind? It is the streets. If a city’s streets look interesting the city looks interesting; if they look dull, the city looks dull.”

At least, those two poles, as far as I concern for at least from my undergrad to my postgrad about Urban Image, it is always Lynchian or Rapoportian. Well, I will not attack those two poles, but, just now, by accident, I saw a foreign movie. A Turkish movie, called A Touch of Spice, at Metro TV. I will not talking about the movie story, but there is something about this movie, which struck me the most.

It is about how a person thinks about a city, specifically Istanbul or Constantinople (during Roman Empire). Well, as we know Istanbul is rich of architectural legacy, which grown into city Landmarks, namely Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, and those monumental minarets scattered all over the city air. Those landmarks, labyrinth paths, and other physical features of historic Istanbul are become meaningless in this movie without MEMORY ABOUT A PERSON.

The memory, which taken place in an old shop house about his childhood friend and a grandpa, has haunted him desperately. After decades, which finally this man successfully comeback to that place has liven up all his memory about this city. It is only about a small Spice shop house, but for this man, it is all about his life. The memory never run away from him, but at the other side, it is strongly influence his life path forever. And more than that, he remembers Istanbul by his memories and moments that he had with his loved one, even it only happened during his short childhood before he had to be deported to Greece.

So, now I have another opinion about what sort of features that build an urban image. This is more than about those physical features. Those tangible features can be nothing, without our own feelings or emotional touch that we have about a place. It is all about meaning, a sense of place. www.wikipedia.com, printed out, sense of place refers to:

“Cultural geographers, anthropologists, sociologists and urban planners study why certain places hold special meaning to particular people or peoples. Places said to have a strong "sense of place" have a strong identity and character that is deeply felt by local inhabitants and by many visitors. Sense of place is a social phenomenon that exists independently of any one individual's perceptions or experiences, yet is dependent on human engagement for its existence. Such a feeling may be derived from the natural environment, but is more often made up of a mix of natural and cultural features in the landscape, and generally includes the people who occupy the place. The sense of place may be strongly enhanced by the place being written about by poets and novelists, or portrayed in art or music, and more recently, through modes of codification in ordinances aimed at protecting, preserving and enhancing places felt to be of value (such as the "World Heritage Site" designations used around the world, the English "Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty" controls and the like). “

Well, this is not the end of my article, but at least for now, this is it and if you find this movie, please watch it and share your opinion with me…have a pleasant ans safe week

Life Doesn’t Always Turns Out The Way You Planned

At first, I am thinking of this weekend is going to be one of my best. My mother will come, I have an appointment with a friend, and I will have a conference room with my IFSAH family.

Suddenly,..

Only a few hours after I posted my first article in my new blog, so-called The Miracle Goes On…I found the other side of the miracle, the dark one…

All of my appointments are cancelled. My friend is out of town; my mother has a gathering with her friends, and one of my IFSAH dear friend, suddenly SMS and cancel our chat appointment…

At one moment I feel like I am in the highest place of my carousel, and a moment later, I found my self at the lowest level…C’est La Vie…

That is fine, I am sure, well, a little bit disappointed, yes, of course…but, this is the point that I want to talk about…Life doesn’t always turns out the way you planned. I got this statement from an old movie called While You Were Sleeping (Sandra Bullock, Peter Gallagher, and Bill Pullman). I felt in love with this movie, not only this is a comedy romantic movie, but also because of the message.

There is a girl called Lucy. Lucy is an ordinary person, but simply beautiful. She is working as a tollbooth girl in a train station in Chicago. Being alone for quite sometimes after her parents past away, she is staying with a cat, a solo possession of a remote control, in her own apartment. Since she was a child, Lucy has a dream of meet her prince charming and life as a normal family. And, there was Peter, a regular passenger of Chicago train, which she often daydreaming that this man is her perfect prince charming.

The story goes, and finally Lucy is engaged with Peter and they will marry soon. But, surprisingly, when the wedding day comes, Lucy suddenly realised that instead of loving Peter, she loves Jack. Peter’s brother. She met Jack, when Peter is in a coma for a week. Just a week, they found each other and you see…Life doesn’t always turns out the way you planned…

The Miracle Goes On...

Deb Ji, my Indian teacher once told me, meeting someone or be in a place is a part of our life destiny. when I heard what he said before, I just take it for granted, but then these days, I start to believe in it, much more than before...

Basically, I think everybody has experience this, sometimes when we want to meet someone, suddenly that person appear in front of us, or sometimes when we curious about certain things suddenly we read that in a book or in a newspaper which someone gave to us accidently...

ok, sorry...do I have told you a kind of phylosophical things? Not at all, I think...it is happen in our normal life...like what I've experience these days...

Joining another IFSAH (International Field School on Asian Heritage) has lead me to miracle experiences...out of my plan, I started to enjoy all the activities and feels like meet my big family...my lost IFSAH family...its complete me...I am alive...much more than before...

When the program has to finish, It lead me to another and continuous miracle...as I feel binded to all member of the family...may I tell you a little secret?

One night I really want to sms Zoolfi, and suddenly his sms coming to my handphone...It is like a "telepati" (I don't know how to call it in english)...and just last night, he sms me again that he is online with izul too, and you know what, at that time, I am approaching an internet cafe nearby my place, which I never been there, It is just...I don't know what lead me to that place...

Dear friends...I am waiting for another miracle...and I believe you too...share it with me...

Yogya, March 3 2007

Denpasar Blues

dogs are wandering in these empty street
fullmoon shines amongst clouds
i wonder where are you now
in those saddest sites of my country...
yet, no words from you again...
cremation in Kuta beach today
fire work in the afternoon
couples say condolences by their blue eyes
lady priest leads the ceremony
ooh...dead body...may you purify by the sea..
i still wonder... of your silence
rice terraces breathtakingly lie in Bali hinterland
some houses compound and village temples are situated just around the corner
i do walking between courtyard walls
though in this last paradise my eyes blinded of your presence
i cannot escape
to those most silent place on earth
not a moment...but your silence shadow
i still wonder...of your silence
denpasar, dec 27, 2005