Talking Frames

About to Sleep

2012-01-12T21:04:00.003+07:00

My family has a pet cat named Temi. His name is an anagram for 'item' which means 'black' in Bahasa Indonesia. Though he isn't all black (not like Sailor Moon's Luna), the name makes him easily distinguished once compared to the other pet cat of mine, Belek, whose fur is almost all-white.

Temi is not really a sleepyhead like common pet cats. He is more like one who often pull an all-nighter and one who loves to make moves, like jumping to the upmost part of a dresser, sniffing foods as if he really knows that they were freshly fried, following people (mostly my mother), approaching the family members when they were eating (though he's already eaten his foods), and doing other things which sometimes make you feel he's annoying, or simply cute and clueless. Everything Temi does makes me and my family realize that he behaves more like a stray cat than a pet one. This makes him totally different from his sibling, Belek, who's more shy, silent, and able to behave as a cat who is raised and kept well.

One night, Temi came to my room. I knew from the beginning that he wanted to sleep on the floor because he had been moving all around, as if he was searching something, then stopped in front of a framed painting that I haven't hunged on the wall. I learned from the past observations that it was my pet cats' usual behaviour when they were about to sleep. They tend to wander themselves around, then stopped at one place to rest. Somehow I was inspired to capture some pictures of him as memories.

These are some photos when he was still wide-awake, doe-eyed.

You can see that in some photos below, Temi's eyes was about to close. He was getting sleepy, I think.

Though both of his eyes were already closed, his head was still moving.

A few minutes later, his feet began to draw closer to each other...

... and Temi positioned his head on his feet...

... as if he was telling me that he started sleeping.

To me, it is always somehow spiritually comforting to see a cat sleeping. It feels like I'm relaxed and all of bad things happened to me has gone by the time I saw the calm and shameless face of him. Keeping pets indeed makes you feel better and more optimist. I'm grateful of having both Belek and Temi in my life.

More Than Just An Animal Sacrifice

2011-12-21T19:55:00.001+07:00

When Moslems are talking about Eid Al-Adha, they are not really talking about the special food such as opor ayam (chicken in coconut milk and spices) or sambal ati (fried chicken livers with potato, later mixed with some chilis). Instead, they are making the animal sacrifice (qurban) as the trending topic for about a week. They talk about the process of qurban, people (mostly the poor ones) who receive the meats of the sacrificed animal, and the place where the qurban occurs. It is a responsibility for Moslems who are materially, physically, and spiritually capable (in this case, we're talking about the money to buy animals to be sacrificed later) to attend and to observe the qurban vent, then to do a follow-up to make sure that the meats distributed fairy and properly to poor people. The meat of each sacrificed animal is shared in seven ways. From your 1/7 part, 2/3 is given to the mosque for distribution to the poor, while you can take home 1/3 of the meat. With your 1/3 you can consume all of it or you can share with your relatives and neighbors.

The qurban event occurs after the Eid Al-Adha prayer (shalat) which Moslems do about 6 AM in the morning. As for the date, the qurban event can be lasted for three days, on the tenth, eleventh and twelfth days of Dhu al-Hijjah month of the Islamic calendar. The Moslem families usually send some members to observe the process of qurban, which mostly are men. Some men are sent to help the process of qurban (packaging, meat cutting, and distribution), while some others bring children to the place where qurban occurs. As you can see in some photos above, children are among people who are excited to see the qurban event. Children usually stand near animals who are going to be sacrificed and play with them. The animals themselves, which in Indonesia mostly are cows and goats, remain very calm that they don't scare the children at all.

The essence of qurban ritual is material sacrifice that brings us closer to Allah SWT and obedience to Allah SWT’s order. Qurban also teaches us to share the goodness with the poor people around us.

*Photos above were taken during qurban event in the Eid Al-Adha day (November 6th, 2011), 1432 Hijriah (Islamic year).

To Cirebon

2011-12-21T12:01:00.000+07:00

It is always Dad who drives the car. Though I have a brother whose age 15 years old, he's never sit behind the steering wheel when Dad is present. I don't know whether it is always my brother's decision to not drive or not. It's sort of a matter between him and Dad. Boys thing, I guess.

Every year me and my family have this two hundred and fifty kilometers trip to Cirebon, a city where travelers spend some hour or a day to rest, to eat tahu gejrot (fried tofu with chili or sour sauce), Jamblang rice, empal gentong (Cirebon's specialty; a spicy curry-like beef soup) or other Sundanese cuisines, or to buy local snacks such as pickles (or 'acar' in Bahasa), sweetmeat (or 'manisan' in Bahasa), 'melarat' cracker (or 'kerupuk melarat/kerupuk pasir' in Bahasa), or sredded shrimp (or 'abon udang/ebi' in Bahasa). We are not like most travelers because we really stay for days there. It is Mom's hometown, so we indeed go there to meet the grandparents (I call them Mbahkung and Mbahti).

*All of photos above were taken when our car was passing a city called Sumedang.

The Grandparents' House

2011-12-21T11:33:00.000+07:00

My grandparents’ house in Cirebon, West Java, Indonesia, is one of the places I would love to go to in every short-term holiday, like weekends and Muslim holidays, such as Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha. Honestly, I don’t go there to find game consoles or to get good signal for my modem. Instead, I go there to give my brain a rest and to free my mind from things related to academic.

The house posseses tranquility I can’t find in the other place and I think it is that pulls me in. The state of peace apparently comes from the layout of the living room and the evidences of life of six children, one of them is my mother. I’m sort of an old-school person when talking about art and design that I’m pretty much thankful for my grandfather’s decision to keep the old furnitures in the same place for more than 30 years.