A Tiny Cat Statue

Sharing Horizons that are New to Us (by Carpenters)

It is a new modern architechtural building, Fachhochschule Erfurt (FHE). I looked around at those entire building with excited feeling when I stepped on it for the first time. So those day, around March 2006, was my first time visited FHE. Ines had arranged schedules for me at those day; to wind up administration stuffs, to get library user card, and to get studentenausweiss (a student card plus semester ticket). As a bonus, Ines took me to a corridor. Many rooms at this corridor which has been used as for student community and there is a room for Tandem club. There, I met Yudha. Those room was his room, actually. It wasn’t our first time encounter coz I’ve met him in Indonesia when Herr Tilly gave me the flight ticket in an event at UNPAD. Not much conversation between us, do not ask me why. Then suddenly came a guy with a hat was waiting for Yudha’s free time to talk something about. No doubt, he is Ivo coz I recognized his face, a guy whom I met in Indonesia at the end of 2005.

The end of 2005, an collegue introduced me to Ivo coz I’m the one who understand english very well (according to my friends testimonial) and supposedly can lend a hand to find Ivo’s dictionary. We, me and my collegues pleasurely lending him a hand to find his lost dictionary. And yes, we found it somewhere (I forgot where it was). So this was it, our first encounter. Separated by the distance and time, me and Ivo didn’t keep contact until my arrival in Erfurt Deutschland on March 2006. The only fact about Ivo since our last meeting on 2005 was he lived at somewhere around Germany (Deutschland). Therefore, the unplumbed encounter with Ivo at Tandem club room was surprised me a lot, really, and thus we start to build our friendship.

Ivo lived in a wohnheim (a unit includes a few of flats) near by FHE campus in leipzigerstrasse, Erfurt. Sometimes we did “afternoon tea” in his wohnung (unit), a small comfy memorable wohnung. There, he teach me about a typically deutschland’s card game called “schwimmen” and gambling. It wasn’t a real money gambling we played, however we choose pieces of matches as for bet. At the end of winter seasons as it my first time of Ivo’s wohnung visiting, I saw snows covered house roofs while we did our “afternoon tea” together. It was memorable for me coz I am come from tropical country and haven’t seen any of this “snows covered house roofs” scenery in my entire life before. No, we didn’t do much conversations. Rest in mind and enjoyed our relaxation times together was more than enough for me. It’s true, we are “pieces”. Therefore, at least we have much in common speaking of behaviour and character.

One day, I knocked on his door. It was about 11 AM. He opened the door with poppied eyes, messy hair and only wear boxer (short pants). Looks like so sleepy but had been forced by me to wake up. He did confused, why I came to his wohnung all of sudden. As a matter of fact, he sent me a sms last day just to ask me whether I could come to summer campus festival with him or not and I decided to come. He didn’t set the appointment time, so I impulsively came to his wohnung at 11 AM coz I thought that these event supposedly has begun before noon and there he was, still confused of what just happened. Hahaha…sorry Ivo (If you read this post), I didn’t mean to disturb your beautiful noon. Then, ignoranced the cause of his bad mood at those day he pleased me to come in and to take a comfy seat meanwhile he wear clothes and gussy up. We finally set the appointment, and then we had lunch together in a Vietnam resto near by Anger coz it offered us “low price, best menu”. After had our lunch, we separated and will meet again after 3 PM. I came to the festival with my close friends; Mitra, Raikhan, and Christian. A little bit late from the settled time, and I found Ivo nowhere. He left me, in fact we agreed to meet in his wohnung. What a “freaky Ivo”, I finally found Ivo with his glass of beer and he was talking with his friends. He emphasized my delays and smoothly explained why he left me behind. No excuses for the delays, he said with a victory smile. Okay Ivo, at least I realized that the Germans won’t accept any delays. So we enjoyed the festival. Me and my close friends continued our free time together till midnight, and Ivo took his own time with his friends. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of me and Ivo at those event. So sad till I cried over spilt milk. I wish I could turn back time…

It was Wednesday August 16th 2006 as I remembered. Ivo sent me a sms, asked me to come to his wohnung right after I come back from Schmalkalden. August 17th 2006 was the day I’ve to come back to my country. There were something from FHE he should gave to me. I did come to him in the afternoon. He gave me some souvenirs rewarded by FHE and surprisely told me that he has something to give too. I wonder to know what it was. Then he showed me a small nice wrapped present. “Please open it” Ivo said. With embitterred feeling, heartbeat go faster, I open the wrap carefully and…breathless, speechless, made me wanna scream as loud as I can, made me wanna cry eyes out coz he gave me the sweetest thing I’ve never expected from anybody in my entire life, a thing after my heart. This tiny cat statue he gave, was the sweetest present. I can’t say how exactly my feeling at those time, but truthly I cried eyes out in front of him. He was no say a word, he’s just smile. He knows me well as his friend, much well than I can ever wish. He knows well that I am a cat lover. I am so grateful to have a bestfriend like “freaky Ivo”.

It’s 2009 today, separated by the distance an time but we still in harmony. I have this dream; there will be a time, a place for us to reconvene. When it comes, I’ve got my family and Ivo has got his family too. Then we gather around and together with our families strengthen friendship. Hahaha…so naive. But it’s okay, I am on reconciliation of my own fantasy.

This post is the testimonial of Ivo, I could say. If you ask me why, for me especially, to write down about Ivo in this post is the best way to express a kind of my appreciation of our friendship in order to keep these friendship memories in our mind. People is getting older and older,right? I think, I should write it down nevertheless I will loss all memories about my best friend “freaky Ivo”.

Kucing Dirantai, Apa Gunanya Dia Hidup?

Tanggal 02 September 2009, aku mengunjungi salah satu klinik dokter yang cukup terkenal di kota Bandung. Waktu itu sudah menjelang maghrib, sedikit lagi waktunya berbuka puasa. Aku tidak membawa bekal apa-apa untuk berbuka, jadi aku pergi keluar sebentar untuk membeli sebotol air mineral. Akhirnya waktu berbuka pun tiba. Setelah berbuka dengan air mineral, aku pergi ke mushola yang terletak di lantai dua klinik tersebut. Di tangga, aku menemukan dua ekor kucing; seekor jantan dan seekor betina. Kucing jantan berwarna hitam legam dan Anggora! sementara yang betina hanyalah seekor kucing kampung (domestik). Aku tergiur untuk menghampiri kedua kucing itu, tapi aku tahan dulu hasrat ini karena aku harus ke mushola dulu.

Aku pun menghampiri mereka, mengelus-ngelus punggung dan kepala mereka. Si betina asik makan malam, memakan makanan milik si Anggora hitam. Namun, si Anggora hanya duduk santai di tangga itu. Aku tertarik dengan kucing jantan Anggora ini, kemudian aku kembali mengelus-elus kepala dan punggungnya. Ia mengeong, pertanda senang dan relax. Dia ingin bergerak menghampiri, ingin bergerak menuju aku agar ia bisa dengan leluasa duduk di atas pangkuanku. Kucing jantan Anggora itu memerlukan perhatianku! tapi sayang, dia dirantai! Tidak, rantainya tidak panjang. Hanya kira-kira 60 cm panjangnya. Dia tidak bisa pergi kemana-mana!!!

Kucing itu hanya bisa duduk di situ, di anak tangga itu. Memang, di sebelah tangga itu terdapat taman kecil, super kecil. Di taman super kecil itulah, tempat di mana dia harus turun satu anak tangga agar dia bisa ”buang air besar” (BAB) di atas tanah lembab penuh lumut. Hanya di taman super kecil itu, wilayah teritorialnya. Sangat sedikit bukan? apalagi dia dalam kondisi dirantai! Sampai sejauh mana dia mampu bermanuver, bila dihitung panjang rantainya. Belum lagi jika rantai kelilit pagar tangga, I can’t imagine it. Aku terus menatapnya, mengelus-elus punggung dan kepalanya, dan berbisik padanya. Aku bilang, “sabar ya Kucing…bersabarlah, dan minta ke Tuhan agar kau segera dilepas dan bebas seperti kucing betina itu.”

Ya, kucing betina itu tidak dirantai maka dia bebas berlari kesana- kemari. Bebas bermain dan bertarung layaknya seekor kucing. Sementara si Aggora hitam hanya bisa duduk sambil mengeong nyaring, meratapi nasibnya yang dibelenggu, dirantai!!!

Aku bertanya kepada salah satu pegawai di klinik itu, “apakah kucing ini milik si dokter?” dan si pegawai itu menjawab “iya.” Aku tanyakan lagi lebih detil tentang kebebasan hidup si Anggora dan akhirnya setelah aku mendapat penjelasan dari si pegawai, aku hanya bisa menatap kucing jantan Anggora itu sekali lagi. Air mataku menumpuk di pelipis, ingin kutumpahkan saja air mata ini rasanya. Malang, malang lah nasib kucing itu sebagai seekor makhluk hidup dengan segala kebutuhan dan hasrat yang dimilikinya. Aku pergi ke ruang tunggu dan mencoba berdamai dengan kondisi si kucing di dalam hati, berdamai dengan prilaku si dokter yang membelenggu binatang “seenak udelnya”. Apa sebab? kucing itu selalu dalam keadaan dirantai, tidak pernah dilepas, bahkan tidak pernah mendapatkan kehangatan dan kenyamanan apapun layaknya kebutuhan seekor kucing. Tidurnya, duduknya, berdirinya, buang air besar-nya, semuanya dilakukan di satu tempat yaitu di anak tangga yang berkeramik itu dan di sebagian kecil area taman super kecil itu.

Dari ruang tunggu di mana aku duduk menunggu panggilan antrian, aku mendengar kucing jantan Anggora itu mengeong-ngeong lagi, ingin dilepas saja rasanya! Lebih baik kucing itu lekas mati, supaya tidak tersiksa lagi oleh rantai besi buatan manusia…