Mbulil's Weblog

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mbulil — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 03:52:32 +0000

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Coffee cups

mbulil — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 10:31:00 +0000

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups… And then you began eyeing each other’s cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee.Savour the coffee, not the cups! The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

Taken from: http://www.izzonline.co.za/2007/07/coffee-cups-and-life.html

Power of love

mbulil — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 08:29:00 +0000

As a medical physicist, I and my other colleagues are often get called by doctors when they are examining patients or evaluating patients’ treatment to be asked advices in physics point of view. One day I got a call from my chief oncologist to see her in her practicing room downstair. So I went to her room and saw her evaluating her patient’s CT images on a lightbox. I saw a little girl sitting on her mother’s lap and her dad sitting beside them, in front of doctor’s desk. The doctor let me look at the images and pointed out to me the location of the tumor that has been removed. It was located at the left orbital, and it seems that the left eye has been removed as well. I asked her to be sure, “has her left eye been removed?” “Yes, look at her!” And I saw her left eye area was covered by a bandage.

I just couldn’t imagine how a cute little girl like her has lost one of her eyes in such her young age. Long-black haired, chubby and beautiful girl like her is supposed to have fun with her friends, go to school, learn new things. But now she has just lost half of her sight and her life must be affected terribly by this. Not to mention the threat of tumour recurrence or metastasis.

The doctor asked me whether is it possible to create the treatment plan based on the old CT-scan. Then she answered quickly to herself that we need the patient to have CT-planning for accuracy, and I agreed that. So she asked the parents reluctantly, “I’m afraid that she has to undergo a CT-planning, and it will cost more” “No problem doc, anything best for her!” said the dad.

I’m not sure whether the parents are from wealthy family or not, but their answer indicates how much they love her daughter, more than everything in heaven and earth. Suddenly I cried in heart, wondering if I were that poor little girl, my parents would definitely answer the same thing. And if I had a child suffering great illness, I might also try the best that I could to keep my child healthy. It doesn’t matter if money, job, position have to be sacrificed, neck-choking loan has to be taken, they are all nothing compared to the loved ones.

Working in a hospital realizes you that love… is everywhere, is powerful.

how’s it going on?

mbulil — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 06:49:00 +0000

Fuh… it’s been pretty long time not hanging out here. Some things change, other things don’t. I’ve been working as a medical physicist for 8 months, nearly a year. I earn money for living…*which is not enough to ‘wisata kuliner’ every single day, haha…who does that anyway…* it’s been a month since I got registered as a legitimate hospital employee, after around 6 months being an ‘illegal worker’. I stayed for 3 weeks in Mumbai, India…it was quite memorable…and healthy weeks, I must say. A large number of people in India are vegetarians, therefore it makes the cafeteria in the hospital that I was trained in, serves vegetarian food. So, 6 days a week, 3 times a day, I never touch meat at all. There were all plants, grains, beans, curries, bread and curd which all tasted ‘unexpected’. But I gotta say, those food effectively cleaned up my digestive system which had been exhausted digesting junk food. Hey, I had detox!

Well, things don’t change. I’m still single…and available, by the way. Still take the commuter train to get me to work and bus to get me home. Still fat. It’s really hard to lose weight now, especially when you have money in your hand. Once I looked at my brother’s graduation pictures at 2003 and saw how thin I was in the pictures…I really miss that. Still trying to marry the girl that I love…and no comment for this.

And for sure, still trying for the best in all aspects of my life. See you!

In Harmonia Progressio*

mbulil — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 01:38:00 +0000

Yesterday IA-ITB (ITB’s alumni association) just held their conference to elect their new president. According to its official website, Hatta Rajasa won the election by collecting 4510 votes, followed by Triharyo Soesilo (2090) in the 2nd place and Betti Alisjahbana (1806) in the 3rd place.

Hatta Rajasa is already known as a bureaucrat since becaming a minister in SBY‘s cabinet. He was an oil drilling businessman and a politician affiliated to National Mandate Party (PAN), member of coalition supporting SBY’s government. Hatta graduated from petroleum engineering, class of 73. Triharyo Soesilo is a son of late Soesilo Soedarman, one of the ministers during Soeharto’s era. Graduated from chemical engineering, class of 77. Now he is the CEO of PT Rekayasa Industri, a national industrial corporation that encourages innovations of local-made industries and reducing country’s dependency to imported goods. Betti Alisjahbana graduated from Architecture, class of 79. Currently she is the CEO of IBM Indonesia. She is claimed to be the first woman to lead a regional IBM representative.

I myself didn’t give my vote because I had to come to work yesterday, for the whole day, assisting BATAN‘s officers (turned out that one of the officers is my senior, physics class’79, and she didn’t vote either) doing their bi-yearly calibration of our linear accelerator. Even if I had a chance to go to the voting venue, I still had not decided on whom to vote. My ‘community’ strongly recommended to vote Hatta Rajasa, however, til now, I’m still in big doubt of his commitment leading IA, knowing that he is now already a bureaucrat, who has to put public issues in the first place. His predecessors was also bureaucrats (Laksamana Sukardi and Cacuk Sudarijanto) and they brought nothing significant for the sake of IA-ITB. I still have no idea why ‘they’ support Hatta Rajasa for president, and don’t have time to find out.

But he is our leader now, and we’ll just see what he will bring for us.

*) “to progress in harmony”: the evergreen ITB’s slogan.

bertengkar dengan indah

mbulil — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 12:39:00 +0000

Tulisan seorang kawan sekelasku waktu SMA, bagus…

Assalaamu’alaikum Wr. Wb.

BISMILLAHIRRAHMAANIRRAHIIM
Buat Yang Udah Nikah, Mau Nikah, Punya Niat Untuk Nikah
Sebarkan kepada orang2 yang anda kenal……..mudah2an bermanfaat.
Bertengkar adalah phenomena yang sulit dihindari dalam kehidupan berumah tangga, kalau ada seseorang berkata: “Saya tidak pernah
bertengkar dengan isteri saya !” Kemungkinannya dua, boleh jadi dia belum beristeri, atau ia tengah berdusta.

Yang jelas kita perlu menikmati saat-saat bertengkar itu, sebagaimana lebih menikmati lagi saat saat tidak bertengkar. Bertengkar itu sebenarnya sebuah keadaan diskusi, hanya sajadihantarkan dalam muatan emosi tingkat tinggi.

Kalau tahu etikanya, dalam bertengkarpun kita bisa mereguk hikmah,betapa tidak, justru dalam pertengkaran, setiap kata yang
terucap mengandung muatan perasaan yang sangat dalam, yang mencuat
dengan desakan energi yang tinggi, pesan pesannya terasa kental,
lebih mudah dicerna ketimbang basa basi tanpa emosi.

Tulisan ini murni non politik, jadi tolong jangan tergesa-gesa
membacanya.

Bacalah dengan sabar, lalu renungi dengan baik, setelah
itu…terapkan dalam keseharian kita…….setuju ??

…..Suatu ketika seseorang berbincang dengan orang yang akan menjadi
teman hidupnya, dan salah satunya bertanya; apakah ia bersedia
berbagi masa depan dengannya,dan jawabannya tepat seperti yang
diharap.Mereka mulai membicarakan : seperti apa suasana rumah tangga
ke depan.Salah satu diantaranya adalah tentang apa yang harus
dilakukan kala mereka bertengkar. Dari beberapa perbincangan hingga
waktu yang mematangkannya, tibalah mereka pada sebuah Memorandum of
Understanding,bahwa kalaupun harus bertengkar, maka :

1. Kalau bertengkar tidak boleh berjama’ah
Cukup seorang saja yang marah-marah, yang terlambat mengirim
sinyal nada tinggi harus menunggu sampai yang satu reda. Untuk urusan marah pantang berjama’ah, seorangpun sudah cukup membuat rumah jadi meriah. Ketika ia marah dan saya mau menyela, segera ia berkata “STOP” ini giliran saya ! Saya harus diam sambil istighfar. Sambil menahan senyum saya berkata dalam hati : “kamu makin cantik kalau marah,makin
energik …”

Dan dengan diam itupun saya merasa telah beramal sholeh, telah
menjadi jalan bagi tersalurkannya luapan perasaan hati yang
dikasihi… “duh kekasih .. bicaralah terus, kalau dengan itu hatimu
menjadi lega, maka dipadang kelegaan perasaanmu itu aku menunggu ….”
Demikian juga kalau pas kena giliran saya “yang olah raga otot muka”, saya menganggap bahwa distorsi hati, nanah dari jiwa yang tersinggung adalah sampah, ia harus segera dibuang agar tak menebar kuman, dan saya tidak berani marah sama siapa siapa kecuali pada isteri saya

Maka kini giliran dia yang harus bersedia jadi keranjang sampah.
pokoknya khusus untuk marah, memang tidak harus berjama’ah, sebab ada
sesuatu yang lebih baik untuk dilakukan secara berjama’ah selain
marah

2. Marahlah untuk persoalan itu saja, jangan ungkit yang telah terlipat masa (maksudnya masa lalu kita)

Siapapun kalau diungkit kesalahan masa lalunya, pasti terpojok, sebab
masa silam adalah bagian dari sejarah dirinya yang tidak bisa ia ubah.

Siapapun tidak akan suka dinilai dengan masa lalunya. Sebab harapan
terbentang mulai hari ini hingga ke depan. Dalam bertengkar pun kita
perlu menjaga harapan dan bukan menghancurkannya. Sebab pertengkaran di antara orang yang masih mempunyai harapan, hanyalah sebuah foreplay, sedang pertengkaran dua hati yang patah asa, menghancurkan peradaban cinta yang telah sedemikian mahal dibangunnya.

Kalau saya terlambat pulang dan ia marah,maka kemarahan atas keterlambatan itu sekeras apapun kecamannya, adalah “ungkapan rindu yang keras”. Tapi bila itu dikaitkan dgn seluruh keterlambatan saya, minggu lalu,awal bulan kemarin dan dua bulan lalu, maka itu membuat saya terpuruk jatuh.

Bila teh yang disajinya tidak manis (saya termasuk penimbun gula),
sepedas apapun saya marah,maka itu adalah “harapan ingin disayangi
lebih tinggi”. Tapi kalau itu dihubungkan dgn kesalahannya kemarin
dan tiga hari lewat,plus tuduhan “Sudah tidak suka lagi ya dengan saya”, maka saya telah menjepitnya dengan hari yang telah pergi, saya menguburnya di masa lalu, ups saya telah membunuhnya, membunuh cintanya.

Padahal kalau cintanya mati, saya juga yang susah … OK, marahlah
tapi untuk kesalahan semasa, saya tidak hidup di minggu lalu, dan ia pun milik hari ini …..

3. Kalau marah jangan bawa-bawa keluarga
Saya dengan isteri saya terikat baru beberapa masa, tapi saya dengan
ibu dan bapak saya hampir berkali lipat lebih panjang dari itu, demikian juga ia dan kakak serta pamannya. Dan konsep Quran, seseorang itu tidak menanggung kesalahan fihak lain (QS.53:38-40).

Saya tidak akan terpantik marah bila cuma saya yang dimarahi, tapi
kalau ibu saya diajak serta, jangan coba coba. Begitupun dia,
semenjak saya menikahinya, saya telah belajar mengabaikan siapapun di dunia ini selain dia, karenanya mengapa harus bawa bawa barang lain ke
kancah “awal cinta yang panas ini”.

Kata ayah saya : “Teman seribu masih kurang, musuh satu terlalu
banyak”.

Memarahi orang yang mencintai saya, lebih mudah dicari ma’afnya dari
pada ngambek pada yang tidak mengenal hati dan diri saya..”. Dunia
sudah diambang pertempuran, tidak usyah ditambah tambah dengan memusuhi mertua!

4.Kalau marah jangan di depan anak-anak

Anak kita adalah buah cinta kasih, bukan buah kemarahan dan
kebencian.

Dia tidak lahir lewat pertengkaran kita, karena itu, mengapa mereka
harus menonton komedi liar rumah kita. Anak yang melihat orang tua
nya bertengkar, bingung harus memihak siapa. Membela ayah, bagaimana
ibunya. Membela ibu, tapi itu ‘kan bapak saya.

Ketika anak mendengar ayah ibunya bertengkar :
* Ibu : “Saya ini cape, saya bersihkan rumah, saya masak,
dan kamu datang main suruh begitu, emang saya ini babu ?!!!”
* Bapak : “Saya juga cape, kerja seharian, kamu minta ini dan itu dan aku harus mencari lebih banyak untuk itu, saya datang hormatmu tak ada, emang saya ini kuda ????!!!!
* Anak : “…… Yaaa …ibu saya babu, bapak saya kuda …. terus
saya ini apa ?”

Kita harus berani berkata : “Hentikan pertengkaran !” ketika anak
datang, lihat mata mereka, dalam binarannya ada rindu dan kebersamaan.
Pada tawanya ada jejak kerjasama kita yang romantis, haruskah ia mendengar kata bahasa hati kita ???

5. Kalau marah jangan lebih dari satu waktu shalat

Pada setiap tahiyyat dalam shalat kita berkata : “Assalaa-
mu ‘alaynaa wa ‘alaa’ibaadilahissholiihiin” Ya Allah damai atas kami, demikian juga atas hamba hambamu yg sholeh ….
Nah andai setelah salam kita cemberut lagi, setelah salam kita tatap
isteri kita dengan amarah, maka kita telah mendustai Nya, padahal
nyawamu ditangan Nya.

OK, marahlah sepuasnya kala senja, tapi habis maghrib harus terbukti
lho itu janji dengan Ilahi …. Marahlah habis shubuh, tapi jangan
lewat waktu dzuhur, Atau maghrib sebatas isya … Atau habis isya sebatas….??? Nnngg .. Ah kayaknya kita sepakat kalau habis isya sebaiknya memang tidak bertengkar …

6. Kalau kita saling mencinta, kita harus saling mema’afkan

Tapi yang jelas memang begitu, selama ada cinta, bertengkar hanyalah
“proses belajar untuk mencintai lebih intens” Ternyata ada yang masih
setia dengan kita walau telah kita maki-maki.

Ini saja, semoga bermanfa’at,”Dengan ucapan syahadat itu berarti
kita menyatakan diri untuk bersedia dibatasi”.

*Selamat tinggal kebebasan tak terbatas yang dipongahkan manusia
pintar tapi bodoh*

Salam,.

Irwan Hermansyah

1-1, 2-1, 3 Ipa 5

love hurts

mbulil — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 10:14:00 +0000

just wanna be alone
sit at the corner of an empty room
and cry…….

Food hunting

mbulil — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 15:00:00 +0000

One of many things that I miss the most after leaving Malaysia is mamak food. Probably not many Indonesians know what mamak food is. ‘mamak’ itself is a term that describes muslim indian and/or mixed malay-indian community in Malaysia. Therefore, mamak food is one of many varieties of Malaysian cuisine of mamak community that originated from southern india, as most or probably all of mamak people came from this region, mostly from Tamil-Nadu and Kerala. Mamak food is highly popular among malaysians and eating at mamak stall or restaurant has become a common habit for malaysians. Some people label mamak food as junk food considering its high cholesterol food and yet so many people like eating the food, including me.

Almost everyday, sometimes twice a day, morning before class and afternoon after class, I dropped by at mamak stall to have some treats. Usually in the morning I ordered roti chanai with curry soup or roti boom with curry soup. For those who don’t know roti chanai, just imagine martabak without its filling, only its wrap. Roti boom is a modified roti chanai, added with sugar and extra margarine which make it more tastier, greasier. And in the afternoon I ordered plain rice or sometimes briyani rice with honey chicken. Briyani rice is basmati rice (long grains, not sticky, unlike indonesian rice that has very short grains and stickier) cooked in lamb stock. I heard that it is also cooked with yoghurt.

Curry, greasy and oily are common knowledge of so many Indonesian people for indian cuisine. Although indian food is not as familiar in Indonesia as it is in Malaysia, but it highly affected local cuisine such as minang and acehnese food that use high proportion of coconut milk and curry. Unfortunately, there is no mamak food in Indonesia, especially in Jakarta. There are quit number of indian restaurants, but they are usually exclusive and quite expensive, unlike mamak food which can be found at every corner of KL town and very affordable to most people.

There is a very very nice lady who is my next door neighbor. She is an arab descent who loves to cook. Almost every weekend she delivers her extra food to our house. Sometimes regular local food, sometimes her ancestor food, yes, arab food. I also like arab food and it reminds me of times when having mamak food in KL, since they are very similar in cooking style. There were several times she sent kebuli rice (similar like briyani, only greasier) with lamb chop in a quite large portion. This just gave me the idea to hunt arab cuisine in Jakarta. Yup, pretending to be Bondan Winarno, a culinary expert, I already have a target restaurant to visit, so just wait for my next posting.

Picture: dailymuscle

Moving on!

mbulil — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 11:47:00 +0000

Just participated on my graduation, second graduation to be exact, last Wednesday. The ceremony didn’t go as ‘fun’ as my bachelor’s graduation though. No beautiful angklung sound, no student choir singing ‘Gaudeamus’, no Indonesia Raya being sung (since it was in oversea), and the most important of all, no parents! But at least it made me realized that I now have a higher qualification of education and not many people earn it. However it also bear consequences that I have to show better performance than other people who have lower degree, and I must admit, this is the hardest part for me.

From this moment, my life is officially entering the new phase. This is the time to show my capability, everything that I am good at, and to contribute all of my competency for the good of society.

I’m moving on!

Thanks to Dani for sharp pictures. Wish I could have DSLR too!

modest mendicant (repost)

mbulil — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 14:52:00 +0000

What comes from your willing hands I take. I beg for nothing more.     Yes, yes, I know you, modest mendicant,     you ask for all that one has.

If there be a stray flower for me I will wear it in my heart.      But if there be thorns?I will endure them.      Yes, yes, I know you, modest mendicant,       you ask for all that one has.

If but once you should raise your loving eyes to my face it would make my life sweet beyond death.      But if there be only cruel glances?I will keep them piercing my heart.      Yes, yes, I know you, modest mendicant,       you ask for all that one has.

Rabindranath Tagore
The Gardener, No. 26

English version of last 2 years posting.