Hallo Telkom Indonesia
27 Jan 2009 4 Comments
in street information Tags: hallo, kerusakan, street, telkom
Take a look at the picture on the left. Don’t you think it is a common kind of sight in Jakarta? I’ve seen this scene since January 22, 2009 when I passed by this place. And today, January 27, 2009, there haven’t been considerable changes made. I appreciate the people in the neighborhood that have done something to reduce the risk of accident that may occur. As you can see in the picture, a door frame and some thin flanks hold the post. That’s the best they can do. But it is a shame that Telkom has done “zero” to it. How long do they need to know this and do something? Or do they wait for an accident to happen before they think of what step to do?
“Committed to you”. It seems that the motto is not an alien. We often hear it in TV and the radio, and see it at strategic places in small and big cities. Don’t mention at Telkom offices national wide. Does the slogan mean that we have to wait until we don’t know when to make sure that a potential cause of danger, which is caused by Telkom property, is swept away from our neighborhood? Maybe Telkom will reason, “Well, what can I say? We are human. We are not perfect”. Stop…stop…stop. We are very familiar with that apologetic expression that is not really our favorite one. By the way, if you haven’t been informed, I gladly tell you the location of the collapsed Telkom Post. It is located in Jalan Kamboja Kelurahan Cijantung Jakarta Timur. The rest is up to you, but it seems that a quick action needs to be taken.
E-Mail: miftah_di2n@yahoo.co.id
Enjoy the Travel to work in Jakarta
27 Jan 2009 Leave a Comment
in street information Tags: jembatan, pasar rebo, travel, work
A man is enjoying morning view from the flyover
What do you feel when you are on the way driving or riding to the office? Are annoyed with the undisciplined angkot (read: small bus transports) drivers who ngetem (wait for passengers to get on their angkots) at any places they want although forbidden? or your hearts are often made beat much faster than normal when an ojek (read: motorcycle transport) or a bajaj exceeds you fro your left completely unexpectedly and very quickly. Or when your way is blocked by a Metro Mini that runs very slowly but unsteadily, it makes you feel irritated. Or bla bla bla, or bla bla bla. Don’t worry there are still a lot more nightmares there.
If all above is what usually happens to you, the travel to work is a complete hell then. But isn’t there heaven in the streets? Thank God the answer to it is “yes”! As a modern city–some people may disagree–Jakarta has a lot of flyovers, and, believe it or not, they are often used by passers by, mostly those going to and from work, to spend some time staying there and enjoying the view down there. You can catch the sight of it every morning and afternoon before dark. But what kind of pleasure are they enjoying there? You won’t know if you don’t try. But take a look at the man in the picture. Don’t you agree he is having a very excellent time?
You don’t necessarily know the delicious taste of durian because you are very familiar with the smell of it. And you won’t know how it feel like to be broken hearted before you are there. If you want just to prove how good it feels to spend some time at the flyover, you just can try it.
But of course you have to be exceptionally careful because you will do something which is not at the right place. If you are not at the right time as well, will experience an absolute misery! Those who do that seem to ignore their own safety. So, I don’t recommend it, especially to those driving. Whatever the enjoyment, it isn’t worth the risk. You must try to seek another heaven in the street. Or may be you should try to enjoy the hell you already have had everyday. I don’t know…
Accidental Winner
22 Jan 2009 1 Comment
in Catatan Anak Manusia, My Stories Tags: foto, lomba, winner
Passion at the Wrong Place
I was on the way to work on my motorcycle.I had to be there by 9 a.m. As a teacher or I prefer to call myself an instructor, I mustn’t be late to the class. It’s not the same if it is the students who are late. A teacher mustn’t do anything wrong, must he? Never mind. I’m not going to talk about a profession of a teacher, anyway.
I usually took mouse ways (read: short cuts) to avoid jams. It usually worked until then. In front of me was a local people’s wedding party. As usual, you maybe don’t include in this generalization, the wedding party took the entire street and blocked it, and made it reception area where invited guests had drinks and meals. It might be not the best place to have drinks and meals but they didn’t seem to have another choice, did they? I didn’t think they didn’t realize that the motorists and motorcycle riders, and also the passengers in the angkots were unhappy with the situation. They might be late to work.
Grumbling inaudibly, I took another way directed by Hansips—or should I call them Defense of Civilians? Of course it took longer time to reach my work place. It was about 8.15 and I should arrive as soon as possible for I had to have some coffee to refresh my body and browse the internet in the office to warm my head before the class. No, the browsing was not for the class preparation but to fill my hungry head with the latest news. And you know, I wasn’t and still am not connected with the internet at home yet.
Damn! I took a wrong turn so I had to turn around again. To make it worse, now I was at Pal Merah traditional market. The smell gave my head a heavy headache.
Thank Gods; I could get out of the smelly hell. But Man! It was a completely terrible jam. Cars and other vehicles moved very slowly, and sometimes couldn’t even move for some time. The sharply shining dry season sun made it worse. The fake leather jacket I wore burned and bathed my body at the same time. Soaking wet!
I was getting closer to the T-junction and when there I turned left. The jam got worse. Getting further, I saw a lot of motorcycles parked beside the street touching the pavement. Other vehicles move very slowly to make the drivers, riders, and passengers able to witness an “attractive” car accident. I believe all car accidents attract people to spend some time to watch but I usually don’t bother to stop by. But this time it was really unique, a real art work, or an engineer-made-formation. You don’t believe it? Take a look at the picture I captured. What do you say?
A lot of people took the pictures, and I thought it was too bad if I let this unusual happening go just like that. I took the pictures and took a look at the accident for several more seconds. Then I went on to the office. I couldn’t wait to show my colleagues the pictures I just had taken.
In the office I tried to astonish my colleagues with my pictures. But it wasn’t a complete success. Yes, some colleagues thought that I just had witnessed a history of the world, an event that only happened once in life time and the pictures I took were worth keeping in the museum. Do you think it was an exaggeration? Ups, I agree with you.
Some others didn’t think it was something special.
Hell. It doesn’t matter what people think about it. In fact, I don’t need them to agree with me. Whatever they think wouldn’t change anything.
One evening after a class I opened my e-mail and some e-mails were in my inbox. What attracted me was an email informing a photo competition, LOMBA FOTO KOTAKU, held by Warta Kota. After I read I found out that my pictures met the qualification to compete in the event. I promptly sent one picture to the committee by e-mail since it was three days before the closing was due.
Several days after my sending my picture I got a call from the committee telling that my picture with other 99 pictures would be displayed in a “Pameran Foto” (read: photograph exhibit) in Margo City Depok. I couldn’t believe it; my picture was in best 100 of 1042 pictures received by the committee, and would be seen by a lot of people in the mall. The committee also invited me to the exhibit and Photograph workshop they were going to hold on 13 December 2008. My God! It was probably nothing for others, but for me it was a miracle. I was so excited that I told about the news to my colleagues and family. My wife even told the news to her colleagues in her office too.
On the D-day of the exhibit and work shop I arrived there late because I had to work in the office in the morning. Firstly, I walked around in the Photo exhibit and try to find out about people’s reaction to my picture. Well, most people seeing my picture always took a close look at it to make sure that it was real, and they didn’t want to miss the details of it. Almost all of them were amazed at it. Do you think it is another exaggeration? Probably! Probably not!
Ok! Now I went to the work shop. It was close to an end actually, but the committee allowed me to join the workshop. And…it was the time for the committee to announce the winners of the competition. There would be five winners. I was sure that my picture was unique but I don’t know anything about photography. My picture might be photographically poor. In that case, I wouldn’t be too unhappy if I didn’t win. I had been in the best 100. It was possibly the best that I could expect.
The host started to announce the winners. He started with the fifth winner. A name and his picture were announced as the fifth winner. Actually I was rather disappointed because the fifth place could have been my best chance. I couldn’t have hoped better. But who knows probably the fourth winner was mine. Now I tried to focus on the host, in case my name and my picture’s title were mentioned. Well, it wasn’t my name. It’s ok. It’s not the end of the world. I had proved that my picture was among other 99 pictures as best 100 and I could share my picture with other people. That had been more that I expected. I didn’t hope any more. The first, second, and third place were unlikely mine. And I began to relax. No burden, expectation, nothing.
But…something bothered my ears when the host said that the second winner’s picture’s title was in English. I have seen all the displayed pictures. And there were only two pictures entitled in English, mine and the other one. And then, he mentioned the title which was…my picture’s and followed by…my name. Gods, I got the second winner. I didn’t believe it. I was full of happiness and excitement but I didn’t show people. I keep the feelings with myself. I was too excited that I didn’t pay attention to who won third and first. Man! Finally I became a winner, a winner by accident. But I feel like I have won the entire world!
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