Georgetterox

Maybe you just love the outer side.

But when you’re asked to get into the inner side, you’re not interested of it.

I fought with my parents last week.

I wanted them to go with me to a mall, coz I read in the newspaper that there was a bamboo traditional art festival on the mall.

But my dad wanted to go to an electronic shop, coz he wanted to buy a TV.

I told him to wait for another day if he wanted a TV, coz the festival weren’t always held annually (or probably I wouldn’t notice if there was, coz the event organizer looked stupid enough, didn’t know how to make promotion).

My dad asked why I wanted to see the bamboo festival.

My dad said that if I just wanted to see angklung, he would take me anytime to Saung Mang Udjo on the eastern town. I felt I wanted to throw him a chopstick coz he said that.

Didn’t he know that all I wanted wasn’t seeing people play angklung, but I wanted to see crowd in parties?

Briefly, that day I accompanied my parents to a tv shop.

We went home by bringing a pretty good enough TV, but I wasn’t really enthusiastic coz I’d got my mind in the festival.

I really wanted my dad to accompany me to the festival after we returned from the damn TV shop, but it was already midday and my dad had already been exhausted.

Finally I asked him to be dropped on the mall and I didn’t look at him anymore.

It wasn’t just an angklung show.

I saw people played Sundanese gamelan and Balinese gamelan, mixed with techno and ska, and even jazz.

People came into the crowd ahead the shows, and I must struggle to find a strategic position so I could snapshoot, but it was really a joyful day.

I returned to home for an hour (my house was just 20 minutes driving from the mall) to charge my cellphone’s battery, coz the cell was the only instrument that I got and accidentally the battery was low. I sweated and I smiled, but my face was shining of cheers.

I told my mom that I just came home a minute, then I’d be back to the mall.

My mom asked what kinda show that I was gonna see there. I saw a lazy expression on her face, and I realized that she wasn’t really asking.

So I just answered, “I’m gonna see a bunch of people playing music full of noise.”

I wasn’t kidding, the sound system in the festival was so loud and the techno ethnical music was really enormous.

I returned to the festival with much more ammunition: a stomach with full of homemade food, a cellphone which has been recharged a third, and a pocket camera which guaranteed of battery-saving.

The day had already been late, the music got out louder, the artist performed all out crazier.

I was more confused coz it was getting harder forme to prefer, whether I should join the shaking into that goddamn cool gamelan ska music or I should concentrate in snapshooting.

I came home from the festival late at night, very extremely exhausted, but it was really fun absolutely.

Yesterday, I evaluated the pictures that I got and showed them to my mom.

My mom got astonished coz actually the bamboo festival wasn’t just a people’s parade to play angklung on the stage as she thought before, but it showed a lotta people played angklung on the center plaza of the mall. People played Sundanese ethnical instruments in rock nuance in a pub.

A woman danced jaipong with Samba rhythm arrangements on the background.

Including a band played rap with Balinese rhythm.

My mom said, if only she knew that the show was gonna be like this, she would have joined me into the festival two days ago. I just shat up my mouth coz I didn’t believe her.

I’d asked my dad and my mom yesterday, I’d told them that it was an ethnical music festival.

But they refused to join me and preferred the damn TV. I knew that ethnical music was their favorite.

Then I realized that my parents might just like it coz they loved heard them slightly, but if they’re asked to watch the real show, they wouldn’t always accept it.

It’s like as if you like something coz it looks good, but if the thing comes up to you, you just say no.

As if you love the look of a cheese cake, but if someone offers you to taste it, you refuse it coz you’re afraid the extra-topped cheese will make you sick.

As if you like someone, but if the person wanna get close to you more intimately, you just run far away with no reasons.

Indonesian proverb says that it’s called hangat-hangat tahi ayam. Warm like a chicken sh*t.

Tags: family, festival, music, parents

Unintended, I look at the plate of my colleague’s name as I accompanied my dad working this week.

I just could feel pity and asked, “Don’t you have any wives to hook up with at Sunday?”

My heart mocked, “No, he doesn’t sleep with his wife at 10 AM, but he does it at 10 PM.”

If he minds to rest himself at Sunday, then when does he have time for his own kids and his grandchildren?

I remember a family, friend of my parents.

(As usual, I’ll put the name and the place undercover.)

There’s a very honored family, a couple lives in Banjarmasin, Kalimantan Selatan.

They sent their son to a school at Salatiga, Jawa Tengah.

Years had gone and once, their son still hadn’t told them when he’d get finished the college, though the time had come for graduation.

When the mom investigated it, she was so shocked to find out that the son was gonna be dropped out coz the GPA was knocked out.

She found out then, that her son often skipped from school.

The mom decided to sign her son out from Salatiga, then she bribed a campus in Jogja to accept the son unscreened. And finally, the son got his diploma.

A year later, the son came home to Banjarmasin by bringing a girl on his motorbike.

The mom got furious, coz the girl was in huge pregnancy, and the girl admitted that the son had made her into.

And then the mom found out, her son often skipped from his school at Salatiga, coz he often crept for flying around to Banjarmasin, to see his mistress.

We found out the problem of this family was very clear.

The son didn’t tell the mom that he unintended to make his girlfriend pregnant.

Then it had screwed up his school.

Though his condition hadn’t made him able to feed himself, even for feeding someone else’s daughter.

The question now, why didn’t he tell his parents from the beginning that he wanna marry that girl?

I tried to get close to the family, and observed it from inside.

Then I found the problem base.

The family probably lives in same house, but their hearts don’t live together in same home.

The dad’s condition who’s gotta work at Amuntai, makes him only could see the mom and the son in weekend.

Mom never eats with her son at home, either breakfast, lunch, and dinner, coz each persons has their own activities that makes them don’t see each other’s face everyday.

The kid has been used to it, so he thought that he must solves each problem of his own by himself.

And finally it’s obvious that the mom never knew that her son wasn’t allright.

Each time the mom asked the son, “Do you have any problem?” then the son would always answer, “No, I’m allright.”

The son didn’t lie. It was true, he felt that he was allright.

He thought that sleeping with a girl was allright.

Right when the rubber got leaked, then he and his girlfriend couldn’t bear the baby alone, that was when he felt that he wasn’t allright.

And that moment, it was late for the mom to prevent the occasion.

Economical pressure sometimes made dad must work everyday, anytime, so he couldn’t see the mom and kid often.

Finally it was difficult for dad to communicate well with mom.

It’s true that sometimes we can’t prefer working in a more comfy duration and a more reachable place.

That’s why we can understand how precious each Sundays that we get, so we can hang out longer with spouses and kids.

So, if we’ve been working six days a week from nine to five, why should we work at Sunday, too?

Indonesian government has even been generous, some of its offices has made Saturday for holiday, so the civil employees can have more time with the family.

That’s why I feel pity to my colleague whom I capture his name plate above.

I know him, he works in some other places the whole week, so I wonder that he must work in Sunday, too.

His wife’s supposed to miss him.

His kids and his grandchildren are supposed to miss him, too.

If someone schedules himself working in Sunday, he’s gotta be alcoholic.

Very workaholic to give up his holiday for work.

“Working is supposed to make family happier, not for selling yourself.”

Tags: family, lies, secret, work