Monday, January 25, 2016

Bicara Teritip dan Batu

Kata Teritip pada Batu tempatnya bersandar hidup;

Alangkah bahagianya menjadi dikau, Sang Batu. Megah berdiri di bahunya Samudera. Direnjis-renjis dengan kemuliaan Sang Biru Tak Berpenghujung. Disapu-sapu cahaya panasnya Suria. Betapa, oh betapa tingginya martabat! Betapa hebat! Betapa rahmat!

Menjadi aku, Teritip Hina di kakimu, Batu, aku sering mengira-ngira apakah untungku diletak begini, ditumbuh begini. Tak ketahuan aku oleh kata-katanya Insan, untung batu dibilangnya tak semenggah. Apa mereka tak tahu, tanpa segaris kakimu cuma, Batu, tiadanya barang secalit diriku ini. Di mana pula tempatku berpaut nanti? Jejariku yang keras mencalar kulit manusia yang serupa kertas, tampak teguh tapi sekali diseret ke dahiku, melolong-lolong menangis tak berhentian.Oh di mana celamu? Di mana jelekmu? Tiada, malah tiada, Batu! Tahukah kau, sesungguhnya aku amat sangat bersyukur dengan keberadaanmu?

Kata Batu yang meminjam kakinya pada jejari tajam sang Teritip;

Duhai Teritp, usahlah kau rendah-rendahkan dirimu. Memang tempatmu di kakiku cuma, di bawah lindungan bayang redup. Tapi tahukah engkau, Teritip, tentang sengatnya bahang Sang Suria? Amarahnya pada Insan tahun ini tak seperti sebelum-sebelum. Termuntah habis panasnya. Almaklumlah bola bersifat api; lain pusing, tinggi ia melenting. Habis kering segala flora. Habis cair kutub utara. Habis, Teritip, habis! Silap haribulan, aku pula yang tertelan oleh Samudera. Percik-percik cintanya bila-bila masa boleh bertukar hawa.

Katamu, aku orang-orang bahunya Sang Biru Tak Berpenghujung. Bahkan tiada makna, itu semua! Malahan aku, semakin hari semakin lekuk, dihabisi puput-puput bayu dan hakis-hakis garamnya. Apa kau bilang, tempatmu di sipi kakiku cuma? Ingin sekali aku bertukar tempat denganmu, Teritipku. Menjadi orang di bawah- kadang-kadang ada senangnya. Tak kalut kau fikirkan nasibmu yang saban hari makin tenggelam. Makin hari kian hitam. Dibakar-bakar, dihenyak-henyak. Tak ribut. Cukup sekadar memikir perlumu sehari-hari. Tambah lagi, tanpamu Teritip, siapa yang kan menghiasi kakiku ini? Jika engkau tiada bertumbuh lagi, aku, cuma sebuah Batu bulat licin tak beristimewa. Tak ada kesan, tak ada hubung. Padaku, kau kebanggaanku. Jangan pernah-pernah lagi kau jatuh-jatuhkan dirimu sendiri. Jangan, sesekali jangan.

Kata Teritip, kini terbuka segala jiwa;

Betapa aku tak tahu harga diriku, Batu. Sangkaku aku di bawah malahan engkau terlepas pandang. Siapa menyangka, engkau pula mahu menjadi aku, sedang aku mengimpi-impi singgahsanamu. Sungguh aku malu, sungguh aku kedu. Terima kasih Batu, kerana menyedarkan aku dari belenggu hitam fikir yang salah-salah.

Batu, kini tersenyum merangkul Teritip erat; memandang ke Purnama, dadanya menahan ombak Samudera;

Sekurang-kurangnya, Teritip, kita punya kita.

Kita tetap punyai kita.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

The idunnowhattonamedis

It was a short meeting. (Short, compared to my usual hangouts. LOL.) But I'm writing this down cz I never, went out with strangers. Ever. From Twitter. Or anywhere else. Tho we are basically friends. On Twitter.

There they were, Naja and Syed, waiting for me, 'exerting dominance' like the Nyan cat pooping rainbows everywhere. I was grinning automatically. My usual nervous-product-kinda-grin, cz I was late. My fast walking wasn't, tho. That's one habit I had since entering the boarding school, and not planning to break it anytime soon cz it's super useful during ward rounds, haha. The one that my group of friends utilize to book our place in line at the DS, only to be cut down by obnoxious seniors. But that's a different story.

The cafe we planned to go to wasn't open till another one hour or so. I haven't had my breakfast yet, so I suggested that we go and have our breakie at the foodcourt. As usual, the boring me picked coffee and toast while these two...something heavier I don't remember. I ate extra clumsily. Heck I hate meeting new people...but really the tension isn't that much as I expected. I really don't know what to say, really. I ate. Said some stuff. I can't quite heard Syed's voice which is a bit high pitched, at first I wanna ask whether he had a sore throat or something, but didn't, cz it might come out as rude. And Naja didn't even say anything about it too, so I concluded it has to be his natural pitch. By the end of the day I got used to it tho. Lol Syed I know you'll read this and I am absolutely sorry for asking you the same things again and again but sometimes I gave up like the fact that I couldn't catch the name of ur workplace till now (confession! Haha omg) but I feel like it was rude of me to ask again so there...

Naja was exactly how I expect he would be. Awkward in person, hyper on the net. Lol. But he looked calm alright. Done eating, we went inside Kino and roam for a bit. Naja's bag caused the sensors to beep like crazy at the door till we were stopped by the guard. Crazy sensors! So much for our first meet up. Lol. This should be in your cerpen, man. Like seriously.

We then went to the Little Penang Cafe as planned. Ais kacang, ais kacang, ais kacang, I chanted in my head. We introverts went and picked the very crook at the end of the cafe. Syed took out his laptop and his writer's aura (I totally imagined him wearing the figurative crown lol); me and Naja, our notebooks. Then I didn't know what to do, really, so I just ordered my much anticipated abc and my curry mee. And I do what Keon do best: eating. Eating and talking and more eating. Actually we went out to discuss ideas, commenting on Syed's ongoing novel and do a collab (I know like what does this even mean) but yeah. At the cafe, only then Syed emailed me his work and he expected me to read it in 30 secs I guess lol hahaha so not gonna happen dude. So I ate and wrote one poem okay la huh at least something must come out of this.

After that we roamed around for something la I totally forgot what, then again, we go and eat (yasss) at Wendy's. Gotta get me em fries, guys. This girl over here runs on potatoes. Lol. So much for my mom's nickname for me: Si Muka Kentang. And Syed's typing away on his laptop and we talked some more. Then we went for prayers, then we went back by the LRT, took some we-fies before that of course and trolled on this petronas guy wearing his name tag on the train while exchanging sniggers. Gosh. At this point I feel like, this is crazy! How could I become so cozy with these two and trolling other people on whatsapp, /together/?! Then I know, that sometimes it's good to get out of my comfort zone (cz before I did say I'd rather continue becoming friends with these guys on the net rather than really meeting them.)

Syed boarded off at the Masjid Jamek station, and Naja and me separated ways at the line between the ladies coach and the general coach at KL Sentral lol.

So there! My awkward meeting with the idunnowhattonamedis before we named ourselves Golongan Pelik Saling Mengampu (taken from the expression in one of Shin Chan's episodes)

On my side, I'm very, very happy to have friends with the same passion (that, being writing, despite me being so lazy to do some real ones,) friends who wouldn't mind me asking for words translation in the middle of the day and night or being honest that their ideas should be improved, or that their blog 6 years back were totally hilarious. I am glad I have the chance to know and meet the two of you, Najahul Akhyar and Syed Badruzzaman. And me being one of the members of the Golongan Pelik Saling Mengampu, do visit http://ashoulderon.blogspot.com (Naja's) and http://bedaduz2.blogspot.com (Syed's) for awesome writings and come back to my blog cz I'm totally kidding-     not. ;)

I meant to write all this in my Austin Kleon's journal but I couldn't find the page that sparked this meet up- the page that said grab a coffee and write about it. But anyway,  what's the use of my blog aite hehehe

There you go! My total afternoon nap, spent writing this piece of something mhahha okay bye gotta go wake the kids up :)

Assalamualaykum.

Tanglung Pemula

Dialek-dialek beradu tenaga
Dalam satu rencah merah-
Panas dan bahang
Mata bertentang
Kau, dan kau
Boleh saja menjadi kata dua
Aku, dan aku
Boleh saja bikin cerita
Berbelah-belah dalam ruang rasa memecah
Terasa darah naik ke muka pintu.

17-1-2016
Little Penang Kafe, Suria KLCC