Book: for one more day

Mitch Albom’s for one more day.

*** spoiler warning ***

As usual, Mitch can write in a sensitive manner. A man meeting his late mom.

I am not sure whether it is the story line or the fact that I kept picturing myself in the character’s position and I kept picturing my late dad, or even my mom and the small taken-for-granted miracles she has done for her children.

I can feel what the character is going through. How there are so much we don’t know about what our parents have done to put meal on the table or put us through schools. How proud they are about all those so-called achievements in our life. How we let it all pass without noticing or saying thank you to them. And how we just run to them everytime we fall, no matter how old we are now.

I think it is more on the topic of the book that is so close to my heart, which has turned on my restrospect mode. From story telling point of view, I still like Tuesdays with Morrie better though.

I love you mom. I love you dad. And I am so sorry. So sorry.

A year with Rumi

I received my Rumi book today, along with other books, from Amazon.

HAPPY 😀

Must promise myself not to by more books in the coming six months, with all the reading backlog I have. Yeah right.

Forced move

Am I using the correct term? How do you say when somebody was forced to move out of his/her own home or had their posession taken away from them?

I was watching a film in TV5Monde Asie. The character of the film worked as an officer whose task was to forcefully take away people’s possesions. Probably people who cannot pay their mortgage and thus the collateral was taken away from them. In the film, that ‘people’ was a middle age lady who looked decent, like she had nothing to hide, or rather, who look like she had nothing, period.

The lady gave in. She packed her stuff and gave it away to the officers. It was sad. I was sad.

And I pray to God that I would never be in any of those people’s position–neither the lady nor the officer. To forcefully take away possessions of people who practically has very little with them left–even in the name of law, even if I have the legal power to do so. God forbid.

What would you do if you were the officer?

Get well soon. Stay strong

My friends and I visited a friend whose daughter is in a high-care unit of a hospital.

The daughter is 12 years old. She was not feeling very well but she insisted to go for an overnight trip with friends to the countryside. She went home feeling worse. It got worse and she fell into coma. She has lost so much weight. She has regained her consciousness now. But she is still unable to speak. Her body looked stiff, weak and so skinny.

We stayed for a while at the hospital, trying to bring some comfort to my friend and his wife. Then we went home. Speechless.

This afternoon, he sent a message to us. I deleted the mention of my company–though not sure for what purpose:

“Ibu, please send our greatest gratitude to the management and staff members of the company in all Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang and Surabaya for their considerable attention and contribution to my family. We didn’t expect and were deeply touched by the symphathies shown in the form of money donation.

This truly helps relieves some of our difficulties, and the prayers from all of you, I believe, can help speed the recovery of our daughter. We are really proud of the visit of Ibu Nelly, Rosanah, Novi, Eva and Ayu. We hope that all team members will not forget us, as we won’t. I hope we always keep in touch.”

You don’t know him. You cannot imagine the condition of his daughter. But I am sure you can feel his sincerity, sadness and gratefulness. Sadness and gratefulness –two words that are seldom placed side-by-side in one sentence.

Please pray for him, the daughter and his family. God bless.

A small chat

This morning I woke up not feeling up to it for work.

On my way to the office, I closed my eyes and did my invocations, dzikr. I opened my eyes as I was approaching the office. I felt refreshed.

What a difference a small chat can make. Thanks.

Aksa Mahmud

I was listening to Trijaya FM on Friday. They were interviewing Aksa Mahmud. He sounded like idealistic, simple and humble.

I met him several years ago. I was making a company profile for his Group. During my conversation with him, he too sounded like idealistic, simple and humble.

One statement I remembered during our conversation was when we were talking about the social activities of his companies. He said, “Let’s just focus on business activities and not talk about the social activities. I don’t feel right ‘bragging’ about our social activities.” I went home feeling impressed.

I hope he stayed like that and live that each day of his life, including during his political career. And I hope more and more people will become like that.

FEMALOGRAPHY, 23 Feb-11 Mar, Jakarta

FEMALOGRAPHY: An international photo exhibition by Jerry Aurum, Feb 23 – Mar 11 at Senayan City Ground Floor.

Featuring conceptual pictures of cool females: Rachel Maryam, Dian Sastro, Dinna Olivia, Aline, Endhita, Adella Aletta, Sausan, Sarah Sechan, VJ Cathy, Indah Kalalo and many others.

Come!

-Some things are worth recommending-

We make a living by what we get,

But we make a life by what we give.

Winston Churchill

Forgotten already

The sun and blue sky in Jakarta the last couple of days have made me forget that there are still flood victims; that somewhere in Jakarta there are people with no home, no clothes, no nothing; that we still need to do something to make sure that the recent flood will not happen again.

It’s already business as usual in some parts of Jakarta. Not sure whether to say fortunately, or unfortunately.

"Seuluran Tangan" revitalized

I have decided to reactivate my Indonesian blog: “Seuluran Tangan“. Just because a friend reminded me about it. Thanks.