Quote of the Day

Life is a challenge, meet it
Life is a song, sing it
Life is a dream, realize it
Life is a game, play it
Life is love, enjoy it

("Daun Berserakan: Sebuah Renungan Hati" by Palgunadi T. Setyawan)

Intermezzo

Last night before we went to bed, as usual I asked Najla (5 yrs old) to pray. She did it religiously, then took her milk bottle and went to sleep. Good girl!

Continued with Nayzea (3 yrs old), when I asked her to pray as done by her big sister, she responded differently:

me : Jangan lupa berdoa, Zea
Nayzea : Sudah, Mama
me : Kapan???
Nayzea : Dulu

My Name is Khan

My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist

That's what Khan said when he finally gets the opportunity to meet US President, Mr. Barack Obama.

I am not a fan of Bollywood movie. But reading a lot of positive comments about My Name is Khan really makes me curious. I watched it the other day and got to admit that I love it wholeheartedly.

"This movie is not about terrorism or 9/11. It's about a relationship between two people, between an individual and the state, and between an individual and the country. In short, there are 3 important components: love story, Islam and a mild form of autism," said Shahrukh Khan in an August 2009 interview.

Moreover, he said, "The film focuses on the relationship between the Western world and Islam, and how it changes because of 9/11. It's about Islam and the way the world looks at Islam, but we are not taking any sides. We are only trying to say that there are only good people and bad people. Either you are a good person or a bad person. Religion is not the criterion, humanity is."

I definitely agree with Khan's opinion. This movie is just so touching. So rich. I am speechless. I just want to recommend all of you to watch it. A must see movie.

Omiyage

Mungkin inilah ciri khas negara maju, semua orang punya urusan masing-masing. Sementara di negara yang 'masih berharap untuk maju' kebanyakan isinya adalah orang-orang yang tidak punya urusan tapi ingin tahu urusan orang lain.

Omiyage is a memoir of Silvia Iskandar. It's her story when she happened to spend her time in Japan for almost 10 years. Omiyage in Japanese means souvenir. Yes, Silvia wrote down her experiences related to science, art, culture, history and many interesting items that could only be known after you'd lived for such a long period in Japan. Some stories are serious, while others are simple and funny.

Silvia was a very lucky girl. After graduated from high school in Indonesia, she got scholarship from Monbusho to continue her bachelor degree in University of Tokyo and a master degree in Waseda University. After working in Japan for 2 years, she finally returned back to Indonesia in 2006.

This memoir is written down in a simple, honest and friendly way, perhaps that's the reason I could finish this book in a short time and felt just like reading my best friend's letter. Enjoyable.

Julie & Julia

This movie is based on 2 (two) bestselling memoirs of Julia Child and Julie Powell. Both lives in 2 (two) different countries and times, 1 (one) in France during 1950s, the other one in USA in 2002, but they share certain things in common, such as: they have dear husbands, unpleasant jobs, love food and cooking. While Julia took cooking class and finally succeeded with her cooking books, on the other hand Julie decided to have her own blog and wrote about her project to try 524 recipes stated in Julia's cooking book within 1 (one) year.

This movie's really inspiring. It brings the message that with the combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible. From this movie, we also could see the power of blog. Julie had her first blog back in 2002, at that time perhaps having a blog was not too popular, therefore her mom and boss kept asking her to close her blog. But, eventually Julie could prove that people loved her food blog. She got many opportunities to transform her blog into books, TV programs and finally a movie.

One thing that make me wondering is Julie wrote her blog in 2002, while Julia was dead in 2004, but they both had never met, in fact Julie was informed that Julia didn't like her blog, how come?

Still, I'll consider this movie as a must see movie and curious about these 2 (two) great memoirs. Get to find them soonest.

What I Tak About When I Talk About Running

Pain is inevitable
Suffering is optional

This is a memoir of Haruki Murakami. Talking about his life and how sport influences his life and writing. In 1982, Murakami sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing and he also started to run to keep fit.

Certain facts about Murakami:

1. He is a shy person.
2. He always feels uncomfortable to deal with competitive aspect. Beating somebody else is just not his things. He's much more interested in whether he reaches the goals that he sets for himself. Therefore marathon running is the best sport for him since he doesn't need to care whether he beats any other particular runner.
3. At the age of 30, out of the blue he got the idea to write a novel and sold his jazz bar, although his friends regretted his decision, in their opinion why not let someone else run the bar for a time while Murakami write his novel? But Murakami couldn't follow their advice since he always does everything wholeheartedly. He sold the bar after all and concentrated to write his first novel Hear the Wind Sing (1973), already translated by Gramedia on October 2008.
   
4. He's a very enthusiastic records collector. He started this hobby at the age of 15. When he has time, he always checks out record stores, 70% of his collection records are jazz, the rest classical, plus a few rock records.
5. Last but not least, he loves being alone. He's just the kind of person who likes to be by himself. He doesn't find it painful to be alone. Since he's young, he preferred reading books on his own or concentrating on listening to music over being with someone else (well....sort of mine). Therefore he hearts running, the perfect time for him not to talk to anybody and doesn't have to listen to anybody.

Only 180 pages, but this charming little book as praised by Independent on Sunday is a winner from start to finish. I couldn't agree more.

SOE HOK-GIE...Sekali Lagi

I first read Catatan Seorang Demonstran (1983), Soe Hok-gie's diary back in my college time in 1995. At that time I was so curious about this guy. Why's he so famous? What makes him so special?

When finally I finished the diary, I instantly felt in love with this guy. Loved his character, his thoughts, his ideas, his dreams and everything connected to him.

SOE HOK-GIE...Sekali Lagi is published by his best friends, Rudy Badil, Luki Sutrisno Bekti and Nessy Luntungan R., to commemorate the 40th years of Hok-gie's death. The book tells about Hok-gie's last moment at Semeru Mount, a place where he was found dead on December 16, 1969, one day before his 27th birthday. So tragic. He's just too young to die.

This thick book (512 pages) also a compilation of many personal stories about Hok-gie written by his best friends (mostly his colllege friends at FSUI and Mapala UI), his admirers (among others: N. Riantiarno, Riri Riza, Mira Lesmana, Nikholas Saputra) and many more.

It's a rich book especially for young generation. If only young men can be influenced by Hok-gie's spirit, I am sure we can build a better Indonesia. Yes, this book successfully turns my mood to become a more patriotic person.

This book also fulls of Hok-gie's beautiful poems and his articles that already published in many newspapers. From a lot of writings in here, my favorite is a letter made by Kartini Sjahrir, a very close friend of Hok-gie, her letter is so personal, so honest, touching, but at some parts are very funny.

Little Miss Sunshine

Watched the DVD of Little Miss Sunshine, a 2006 movie, the other day and successfully kept me laughing a lot. It's a story about a weird family, almost all members of the family are eccentric. No wonder that they do crazy things and talk witty things.

All in all, it is a heartwarming movie and funny at every turn. Very entertaining. Love it from the beginning until the end.

Quote of the Day

I over read this inspiring tagline in front of HSBC outlet on my way to my office this morning:

Today, working for my boss
Tomorrow, being my own boss