Remember the Vows?

In the Name of God, I take you, to be my wife/husband,
To have and to hold from this day forward,
For better for worse,
For richer for poorer,
In sickness and in health,
To love and to cherish,
Until we are parted by death.
This is my solemn vow.

Saya berjanji setia kepadamu dalam suka dan duka, di waktu sehat maupun sakit, dalam untung dan malang. Saya mau mencintai dan menghormati engkau seumur hidup saya sampai maut memisahkan kita.

This afternoon in the office, a colleague's act reminded me of that vows. He was searching information about dengue fever's medication. Today is his wife’s second day of dengue fever. Angkak. Able to boost the amount of thrombocytes rapidly.
"HERO supermarket has it!" And off he goes. The vows live within him...


Picture is taken from kamusdapurku.blogspot.com/2008/04/angkak.html

Living The Dream

Today I lived my dreams for 20 minutes. A fascinating 20 minutes at Bulungan's busy street in South Jakarta. Yes, I was a news reporter!! With medium striking heat of 10.15 – 10.35 am; continuous pollution from motorbikes, cars and buses; but with the 'top note flavor' of bliss… *yay*

We made a news report about Indonesia as a confident Middle Income Country (MIC) and also about the new Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) of the World Bank Indonesia. Ha3x… those terms may not make sense to most of you, that’s because the reporting was meant to be showcased during Human Development Sector annual event in World Bank Headquarter (Washington DC.) in early November.

"Thanks Edwin, you've made someone's dream came true today" that was my goodbye line as Edwin Pierolie, Managing Director of 'klirkom' communication agency, dropped me back to reality (office) with his motorbike.




Wednesday couldn't have been better! Back in the office, I found out that Berly Martawardaya, a-can-do-wannabe, is also re-living his dream. He has successfully brought life (again) to his simple but substantial dream: carving his name in the newspaper. His article on the current financial crisis made an entry to the Jakarta Post. "Way the go Berly!! Looking forward to seeing more carving of your names both at the bottom/top of the article and within the article"



So, are you living your dream(s)?

Hapus

Suatu sore mendung di salah satu gedung pencakar langit kebanggan kota Jakarta… Kuning itu menyala...

X: gima na sih cara ny
X: ngapus
X: friend
X: kay lo apus gw

Y: ?

Cukup mengejutkan dan 4 baris itu cukup membuatku membalik-balik halaman novel misteri hidupku untuk mencari 2 halaman berbeda saat kisah itu dituliskan...


-thanks to X di sore itu, siapapun engkau dan bagaimanapun kita saling mengenal-

Sharing Paulo Coelho: Story of the Pencil

This lovely piece is taken from "Like the Flowing River" by Paulo Coelho (author of the Alchemist). It is shared because I highly believe in its relevance!



I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up. It has five qualities which, if you manage to hang on to them, will make you a person who is always at peace with the world.



First quality: you are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call that hand God, and He always guides us according to His will.

Second quality: now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharpener. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, he’s much sharper. So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrow, because they will make you a better person.

Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road to justice.

Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.

Finally, the pencil's fifth quality: it always leaves a mark. In just the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action.


Thanks to http://www.eikongraphia.com/wordpress/wp-content/Pencil%20on%20pad%20of%20paper.jpg for the pencil picture.

Knowledge®-branded Eyeglasses

My eyes are fine. Unfortunately, fine is not enough to value the above scene. A colleague, Indra Irnawan, was the one who wears the knowledge®-branded eyeglasses.

It was at the foot of Salak Mountain, Sukabumi-West Java. I went there with a group of 'very-fun-to-be-with' people. They are my 'we-fight-poverty-with-passion-and-professionalism' colleagues, the 'love-of-my-life' of my colleagues and a team of ‘trip consultant-assistant-cook’ from Sunburst Adventurindo. (www.sunburstadventure.com).

I took the above scene during my early-morning walk. At that time, my eyes were merely interested to capture the morning sunlight and the huge stone. My eyes weren’t wearing a pair of knowledge®-branded eyeglasses. I wasn't aware that the huge stone, the tall tree at its right side and the small stone under the tree altogether are a symbol… Yes, Scout! (in Bahasa Indonesia: Pramuka).

Smart People

I spent a quarter of October 2 (2nd day of Idul Fitri) by watching movies.

There's an interesting line in the cover page of Smart People DVD: 'Sometimes the smartest people have the most to learn.'

The movie elaborates on people who are smart in hard skills (academic), but not getting good grades in soft skills (interpersonal relationship). Ellen Page smoothly played a friendless-overachiever high school student… Brilliant! No wonder she was titled Best Actress in MTV Movie Awards 2008 for her 'fresh' act in Juno.


In real life, we are all smart people. Smart in certain things and less smart in something else. Since we are smart we would like to learn about that something else wouldn't we?

In these pictures you can see some of (young) Smart People in my workplace, the 'we-fight-poverty-with-passion-and-professionalism' office. Each one of them helps me to learn my something else in various ways; through conversation, a helping hand or simply by being there in the office and sending the message that… it's possible!








People in the pics: Ari Perdana, Daniel Suryadarma, Rima Prama Artha, Berly Martawardaya, Siwage Dharma Negara ... thank you all!!

Setelah 6 Tahun

Berbeda dengan jam di monumen Big Ben di Inggris (kiri), Jam Gadang (kanan) di Sumatera Barat-Indonesia menggunakan IIII untuk menyatakan angka 4-nya.


Masih sering mendengar ucapan-ucapan seperti ini? "Kalian duluan deh, nanti tungguin di lobi ya, aku beresin tas dulu…" "Jangan terburu-buru, pacarmu pasti mau menunggu…" "Bentar ya Ma, masih ditelepon nih…" Jika Kalian, Pacarmu, dan Ma digantikan oleh Sang WAKTU, jawabannya adalah tidak.

Tidak, sang waktu tidak menunggu. Dia akan terus maju, meskipun kita memohonnya untuk diam menunggu ataupun mundur kembali ke masa lalu. Dia akan terus maju, tidak peduli kita sedang malas atau rajin, gagal atau berhasil, sedih ataupun bahagia.

Dia sudah maju sebanyak 6 tahun. Enam tahun sejak kami lulus dari SMA Regina Pacis Bogor. Waktu yang cukup panjang. Cukup bagi anak kelas 1 SD untuk pindah ke jenjang sekolah menengah. Lalu, apakah kami sudah berpindah jenjang? Sudah dimanakah kami sekarang?

Sabtu pagi 13 September itu tiba dan setelah 6 tahun kami kembali bermain basket di GOR Pajajaran Bogor. Waktu memang tidak menunggu, hanya maju, tidak mundur, dan 6 tahun waktu yang cukup panjang. Namun, di Sabtu pagi itu, saat kami mengoper bola, berusaha memasukkan bola ke dalam ring, bercanda tawa, dan saling menatap… 6 tahun terasa seperti 6 hari yang lalu…




























"untuk Yanto (high flying '83), untuk janji mengabadikan Kisah Perbasketan I kita, dan untuk basket"