How I Found this Book: I Decided to Live as Me

I strolled along T3 at CGK airport a few weeks ago and stopped at the Periplus Corner. Usually, I spend less than 15 minutes scanning all the titles and checking the trend in book publishing. I skipped fiction, mostly because I used to be disappointed after reading the first pages. You shouldn't buy a book based on the cover illustration, as it can sometimes be misleading. 

After browsing different types of book genres for a while, I started comparing prices. The book price is soaring, and I couldn't believe the new book is in the 400K-600K range! Something I must consider carefully: I don't want to end up with a book that doesn't make me happy or confused, with a beautifully crafted cover and some highlight saying 'best-selling author,' etc. With a price like that, I have to be very selective with the genre and make sure that what I read really contributes to my personal and professional development. A win-win situation. 

After thinking what I feel want to improve, I decided that I need to get a book about zen, peacefulness, mindfulness, etc. I do have many books with such a title, but getting a new perspective from a different author should do no harm. So, I found a book by a Buddhist monk about that topic. But when I tried to look at a different copy from the shelf, I saw another book with a cute and catchy cover and title that were so me!

The book has an illustration of someone in the front, a lady, looking very relaxed, with her hands bent and one leg lifted. The book looks interesting! I examined the book and started reading the summary. The title itself is very intriguing, not to mention the tips on it. Later, I spent more than 10 minutes, conflicted between the peaceful and flower-covered Zen monk book and this cheeky lady on the cover with a strong exclamation: "I Decided to Live as Me!"

Over a decade ago, such a title would have raised concerns that people were becoming selfish, individualistic, and antisocial. But hey, with Gen Alpha on the way and being much more exclusive and isolated, I don't think the title is very concerning. While I was moving around in my career as a generalist, I was also getting tired of the hustle-and-bustle workplace culture. I suddenly want to be somebody who lives as myself and still delivers high-quality pieces of work. 

So yeah, goodbye, book about Zen culture; I will revisit it sometime if my budget permits. But now, to wisely spend my money, I have to read this book about living with my choices, which is published by a highly reputable publisher worldwide, Penguin Books. 

Anyway, I'm still discovering the essence of this book and will continue my review about it in the next post. 

Pekanbaru,

Bertemu NH Dhini

Seri kenangan dari penulis NH Dhini sudah kuikuti sejak tahun 1998. 

'Sebuah Lorong di Kotaku' dan 'Padang Ilalang di Belakang Rumah' adalah buku-buku dari seri tersebut yang kumiliki pada awalnya. Kesengsem dengan cerita-cerita tentang masa kecil, alam, dan perjalanan beliau, aku mulai membeli judul-judul lain yakni 'Langit dan Buku Sahabat Kami', 'Sekayu', dan 'Kuncup Berseri'. 

Pada tahun 1999-2000, aku studi di UK sehingga tidak bisa membaca buku-buku beliau. 

Tetapi, sebelum berangkat ke UK, aku diberi buku 'Djalan Bandungan' oleh seorang teman. Buku itu kubawa ke Manchester sebagai salah satu bacaan penting karena sang tokoh utama melakukan kursus singkat ke Belanda. Cerita sang tokoh sangat cocok dengan spiritku yang baru pertama kali ke Eropa untuk studi. Beberapa poin penting sempat kutulis dalam post berikut. 

Sepulangnya dari Eropa pada tahun 2000, buku 'Kemayoran' telah menantiku. Secara berturut-turut, buku-buku lain berjudul 'Jepun Negerinya Hiroko, 2001', 'Dari Parangakik ke Kampuchea, 2003', dan 'Dari Fontenay ke Magallianes, 2005' diterbitkan. Meski harus menunggu dua tahun sekali (mirip film Trilogi 'Lords of the Ring), cerita perjalanan hidup bu Dhini semakin seru. Aku semakin menikmati tips-tips praktis dan cara pandang bu Dhini. Saat itu beliau sudah pernah tinggal di Jepang, Kamboja, Filipina dan Perancis. Rasanya ingin sekali menetap dan berpindah-pindah negara untuk mengalami sendiri hidup di lingkungan asing dan belajar banyak hal. Kisah-kisah perjalanan beliau ke Vietnam, Hong Kong dan Perancis Selatan juga memicu untuk melakukan perjalanan suatu hari nanti ke negara-negara tersebut.

Saat studi di Australia tahun 2007-2011, aku tidak lupa mengikuti kelanjutan seri kenangan bu Dhini. Keluarga membawakan buku 'La Grande Bourne, 2007', dan 'Argentuil, 2008' yang mulai banyak menyinggung riak dan gelombang dalam pernikahannya, meski cerita-cerita perjalanannya di Perancis dan USA serta pengamatan lapangan tetap menyenangkan untuk diikuti.

Setelah studiku berakhir dan aku pulang ke tanah air pada tahun 2011, buku 'Pondok Baca: Kembali ke Semarang' sudah ada di toko buku. Selama menunggu kelanjutan buku, tahun 2008-2011 aku bisa berpuas hati membaca koleksi tulisan bu Dhini di perpustakaan Curtin University. Tahun berikutnya, bu Dhini melengkapi cerita kepulangannya ke tanah air melalui buku 'Dari Rue Saint Simon ke Jalan Lembang, 2012'. Banyak hal menarik yang beliau alami pada masa reverse culture shock tersebut sempat kualami saat pulang ke Indonesia.

Lama-lama ingin sekali bertemu beliau di Yogyakarta. Aku sudah membuat rencana untuk suatu hari nanti. Tetapi aku tidak pernah perlu datang ke sana. Alhamdulillah, pada akhir Desember 2014, setelah menghadiri Australia Awards Alumni Annual Dinner di Jakarta, aku bertemu bu Dhini sendiri di Bandara Soekarno Hatta. 

Aku tengah melewati kafe di dekat pintu masuk ke terminal keberangkatan. Tiba-tiba mataku menangkap seseorang dengan wajah familiar duduk tenang sendirian di sana. Batinku sempat bertanya, siapakah ibu yang wajahnya seperti sangat kukenal ini? Mendadak aku ingat wajahnya yang ada di cover buku-buku. Lalu aku tersenyum pada beliau dan beliau membalas. 

Tanpa basa-basi aku bertanya, "Maaf, ibu Dhini ya?" 

Ibu cantik itu mengangguk dan tersenyum lebih lebar. Sebenarnya aku malu, barangkali cara bertanyaku kurang sopan. Tetapi aku jauh lebih malu saat beliau mengiyakan aku jadi ingin menangis karena mataku langsung berkaca-kaca begitu melihat bu Dhini. Oh, beginikah rasanya ya ketemu seseorang yang sudah lama ingin kita temui! (Jadi ingat kata Ustadz Kazim, "bagaimana lagi ceritanya kalau kita bertemu dengan Rasulullah SAW di akhirat kelak, pasti lebih tidak tahan untuk menangis keras-keras karena selama ini hanya mendengar tentang beliau, mengenali dan mengikuti ajarannya saja...")

Bu Dhini ingin tahu mengapa aku mengenalinya padahal belum pernah bertemu. Aku cuma bisa tersenyum dan mengatakan bahwa aku ingat foto beliau di buku-bukunya.

Syukurlah bu Dhini tetap tenang dan bercerita bahwa ia baru pulang dari sebuah pertemuan. Aku menerangkan diriku, pekerjaan dan pulang dari kegiatan di Jakarta. Kami berbicara tentang buku terbaru beliau, kemungkinan mengundang beliau ke Pekanbaru (lagi) dan hal-hal kecil lain yang tidak bisa kuingat. 

Kukatakan pada beliau apa yang ingin kukatakan kepadanya sejak aku mengikuti seri kenangan:

a) Tentang diriku yang belajar soal moral, disiplin, keahlian berteman, habit menulis, pandangan tentang kehidupan, dan aneka tips menarik mengenai adaptasi dengan orang asing. 

b) Tentang buku-bukunya yang menginspirasiku untuk bepergian ke luar negeri sembari berlibur, bekerja atau sekolah. Aku berusaha merentangkan kemampuanku dan semangat untuk bisa ikut merasakan dan menikmati pandangan-pandangannya di berbagai negara. Baru-baru ini aku mengunjungi Jerman, Belanda, Dubai, sedangkan sebelumnya pernah ke Saudi Arabia, Tiongkok, Vietnam, Jepang, USA, Kanada, Selandia Baru, serta menetap sebentar di Inggris dan Australia. 

Bu Dhini merasa senang mendengar hal itu. Beliau bersyukur kalau tulisan beliau bermanfaat dan menginspirasi pengembangan diriku.

Sebenarnya beliau sudah mengajarkan banyak hal tentang menjadi 'international citizen' lewat tulisannya. Kemampuan adaptasi di lingkungan asing, kemampuan membuka jejaring, disiplin, produktif, berpikiran terbuka terhadap perubahan dan mampu bertahan dalam situasi apapun (resilience and endurance), tatakrama, kemandirian, dan banyak hal lain. Aku sudah mempertimbangkan dan melakukan mana yang baik untuk kuikuti dan hal mana yang tidak kusetujui. Toh aku sudah dewasa. 

Bu Dhini bilang bahwa buku terbarunya (Dari Ngalian ke Sendowo) akan terbit pada tahun depan (2015). Buku itu baru kudapatkan beberapa hari lalu di Gramedia.

Banyak pertanyaan lain yang ingin kuungkapkan, tetapi aku sudah banyak mengetahui tentang kehidupan beliau dari buku-bukunya. Aku lalu berpamitan, dan membiarkan bu Dhini bersiap-siap untuk berangkat ke gate keberangkatan pesawat ke Semarang. Jika aku bisa memberikan sesuatu yang lebih berarti untuk beliau, pasti akan kuberikan saat itu juga, batinku berkata.

Setelah bertemu langsung, aku merasa lebih mengenal beliau. Beliau seperti seorang budhe dan teman lama yang bijak, dan (mudah-mudahan) akan selalu menemani dengan buku-buku berikutnya dari seri kenangan. 

Pekanbaru,

Book: Legacy

 
 Just finished this one, from Danielle Steel.

I have liked Danielle Steel since many years ago. 

There is always a fairy tale between male-female, prince-princess, commoner-royal people, etc. It is always difficult relationship at the beginning, but has a happy ending at the end. It's just so simple, but still, intriguing, due to her richness of knowledge about love and relationship between different gender. 

I do love her books with a history behind it, like Jewels, Zoya, No Greater Love, The Ring. A love story with a history background is always meaningful. 

Recently, I read this 'Legacy'. 

I really didn't mean to throw myself at any love story again, because I'm more Paulo Coelho fans at the moment (who's trying to be wise and honorable). However, once I read the first paragraph, it becomes the whole book in three days. How special this story was!

Legacy is about a journey of a young woman (Briggite) in finding her ancestor. It started with she was dumped by her long term boyfriend, and lost her job in the same week. Then, to overcome her difficult time, she helped her mother to track down their ancestor. It was interesting to find out that her ancestor was not only a marquis from Paris, France, but there was a Sioux lady appeared to be her great-great-great grandmother. She traced the history in some cities in the US, and made a great progress until she had to come to Paris to find information about her and their life in Brittany, France. 

Wachiwi, the Sioux lady has an interesting background also. She has endured many painful events and finally got married to a royal/marquis in France. Her presence in Paris at the time when Louis XIV and Maria Antoinette were king and queen, was also quite an addition of the story.

Somehow, this book is inspiring not only because of Brigitte determination to find the family tree and root, but also to learn from her interesting spirit and life history. 

I appreciated Danielle Steel skill of binding a relationship between male-female, husband-wife, and lovers within the story, and make it very meaningful. It is more deep on my side, since I need to recharge my knowledge again about it. It is true, everything is not a fairy tale, but it happens in life, too, and we could learn something from it.

This is just a nice love story for some people, I guess. 

Pekanbaru,

Book: The Signature of All Things

When you are a heiress of a big fortune wealth, a pioneer scientist of a small world like moss, an adventurer of your own life, and an inventor of goodness in your family, then you must be very lucky. But life was certainly not a linear thing for Alma Whittaker despite all positive qualities she might have. She had a lonely life, a loveless marriage and a problem with her appearance. She had tried to move out from her comfort zone, only to find the 'real life' and 'truth' for herself. 

This is what I call a process of balancing and reinventing a wheel. I experienced my own journey many years ago with geopolymer issue on hand. However, this erratic and antic material has given me many opportunities to improve myself and find my own strength. I, eventually has a courage to tell myself that I have grown as a person and become a strong minded person, but resilient in the same time. Have I found my own positive qualities through the hard process? I hope, so!

So, a book of The Signature of All Things, is another magnificent story about Alma's adventure to find herself. In my opinion, this book is more engaging than Eat, Love, and Pray by the same author, Elizabeth Gilbert. Perhaps, because I like to be a botanist myself, or perhaps Alma's thirst for knowledge is more admirable. 

I recommend this 700 hundred pages book for anyone who loves adventure, science and and history in a fiction genre.

Pekanbaru,

Prof Muhaya Mohamad: Celik Mata Reset Minda

I got this book accidentally at KLIA. 

Got a feeling that this book was as beautiful as the lady on the cover. 

When I read the first page, I never regret to buy the book.

In this book, Prof Muhaya tries to encourage us to read between the lines and look upon all good reasons behind every situation (celik mata). 

We also need to reset our mind, change our view from negative to positive. 

A positive mind creates positive emotion and eventually results on positive actions (reset minda). 

What a beautiful inspiration.

To get more inspirational things from Prof Muhaya in various topics, 

just visit her recorded programs at Youtube (key word: Prof Muhaya IKIM FM). 

Soothing. 

Pekanbaru,