Thursday, August 5, 2010

shall we start?


let's put the anger behind.
let's see each other clearly.
what made you and me to be 'us'.

he said 'nothing'

years ago, when i was one of the students in universitas indonesia, my lecturer gave me an assignment.
the task was: find one person in the vicinity, do some kind of interview and then do a presentation 'what so special about this person'.
when i was in UI, i always spent my time w/ my friends in a canteen, we used to call it 'kancut', it stands for kantin kerucut.
many people make some money there, by selling some food,drinks,etc.
days before i got the assignment, as usual..i was wandering in kancut, finding something to eat, i ended up eating 'roti bakar'.
i forgot how much the price was, but i remember one thing.
i told the old man who sells the roti bakar to keep the change, but he refused it.
then i insisted, 'ngga usah pak, kan cuma kembali 1000, ambil aja'
he said 'ngga mba, ini kembaliannya mba, uangnya mba'
then i said thank u.
the day when i got the assignment, i came to that old man and asked him to help me w/ the interview thing. he said ok.
i have a paper w/ some list of questions on my hand. i started w/ some general questions, what's ur name..where do you live..how many children do u have, bla bla bla.
then i put this silly question at the end of my list.
i asked him "pak, misalnya bapak bisa minta 3 permintaan dan pasti dikabulkan, bapak mau minta apa?" then i was ready to write his answer on my paper.
he said "ngga ada".
hmm.. i thought maybe he didn't get what the question is about, so i repeat it.
"masa ngga ada, misalnya bapak bisa dikasih 3 hal yang bapak mau, bisa apa aja terserah"
and i was wrong, because he gave me the same answer "ngga ada"
i looked at him. silent for a while.
then i asked "bapak udah senang sama hidup bapak skrg?"
he answered "iya"
"bapak udah merasa cukup sama apa yg bapak punya?"
again, he said.. "iya"

when i was driving alone that day, something was bugging me.
i feel embarrassed to myself.

well, maybe i didn't get the answer for my last question, but i got something from that interview.

how to be grateful.