A personal essay about how reading and writing in many languages have shaped the person and writer I am today.
Tag: jakarta
Higher
An honest look into a hidden Jakarta youth culture: a group of friends go to great lengths to hide their hedonistic lifestyle from their parents and respectable girlfriends.
Incorrigibles
A story about a group of punks in an Islamic school in Jakarta, who stood up against an abusive teacher. Published in the Griffith Review’s New Asia Now edition, featuring 49 authors from Asia Pacific under 45 years of age.
Someplace Between Respect and Desire
My confusion and alarm soon turned to fear. I felt with every cell on my skin my disadvantaged situation: I was the woman and he was the man, I was Asian and he was white, I was just another local girl and he was the dashing coveted foreigner, I was younger, less experienced, less beautiful, and I probably liked him much more than he liked me.
Firdaus dari Kardus
Aku tak habis pikir mengapa orangtuaku ingin memasukkanku ke sekolah Islam. Kami salat dan pergi ke masjid untuk mengaji, tapi Islam hanyalah salah satu dari banyak sendi kehidupan keluarga kami. Aku curiga keputusan Mama itu lebih berkaitan dengan keprihatinannya akan tindak “kenakalan remaja” yang makin lama makin sering diberitakan di televisi dan koran.
From Now on Everything will be Different (excerpt)
How was it possible that these people, after three decades of silence and obedience and fear, now found the courage to protest? These people were so used to submitting to fate. How had they decided that they could break the course of History? The protests impressed him profoundly as the first confirmation that one could indeed bring about change. He would never forget how, along with the sound of thousands of students marching, he had heard God lovingly whisper in his ear, ‘You too can change your life’s course.’
Di Antara Bahasa-bahasa dan Dunia-dunia
Aku ingin karyaku turut memajukan kisah inovasi lintas benua dan lintas zaman, aku ingin menciptakan diriku dari apa pun yang kuyakini dapat mendekatkanku ke sebaik-baik Eliza Vitri Handayani.
Puncak
Banyak orang menjelang Ramadan dengan memperbanyak salat dan doa. Lain dengan Ferdian, Risa, dkk. Mereka mempersiapkan diri dengan melampiaskan nafsu berpesta, mabuk, dan teler habis-habisan supaya kuat puasa hura-hura selama sebulan. Keseruan pesta mereka terusik ketika Lani – pacar Patar yang merupakan ‘cewek baik-baik’ dan memiliki ayah soerang polisi – memaksa ingin bergabung.
Us + Them (bahasa Indonesia)
Sesekali sebutir nasi atau seiris bawang goreng tersisa di pinggir bibir mereka, bagai seorang minoritas atau kambing hitam, yang kemudian mereka enyahkan dengan sapuan tangan.
Us + Them
She eyed the sweaty strangers around them, tearing off pieces of flesh, crunching into crackers, red sauce dripping from their fingers. Every now and then a lone grain of rice or shred of onion would cling to the corner of their lips, like a lonely outcast or scapegoat, only to be obliterated with a swipe of their greasy hands.
Eliza Vitri Handayani 