Monday, November 28

A LETTER TO A PERFECT NEPHEW.

Dear Muhammad Al Fatih..

Ammi is here, champ. :')
How's Australia treating you so far?
I bet and I hope you are having a very good-quality of life with Ummi, Abi, and Adek Cacah over there.

I know, I know you haven't even started to learn how to read properly. I am writing this letter only for a self-satisfaction, only to cure that I-desperately-miss-you feeling, with also an expectation that you will read this letter one day :)

Yes, I MISS YOU SO MUCH HERE T..T

Do you know what day is today, buddy? It's your 4th Birthday! :D

I am not there by your side right now to celebrate it, to throw pieces of cake to your face, to mock you until you cry, to give you the present you wanted the most just like the way I did before. But, trust me, I'll always be there inside of your heart, and vice versa. :')

You know what?

When you were born, first question came to my head was

"What's next? Is this little guy going to ruin my whole life with his naughtiness? Or is he going to make my life even brighter?"

The answer is already in my hand now.
Yes, you have been brightening my days since the first day of your life.
It might be because of I've never had a younger sibling before.
But yeah, by coming to my life somehow you just successfully filled up the missing part of my life entity.
By being the first nephew I ever had, you've just simply changed my life into a more colorful one.

You really do mean a lot to me, you know.

People said we have a lot of similarities (physically and mentally).
I said NO, you are a hundred times more charming than me, you are gonna be a much smarter person than me, and you will be such a much much greater guy than me. ;)

You will conquer this world just the way the great and late conqueror of
Constantinople, Muhammad Al-Fatih did. :')


Happy 4th birthday, Muhammad Al Fatih! The coolest kid on this earth.

The most awesome nephew God ever created.






Sunday, November 20

APALAH ARTINYA SEBUAH NAMA??


Apalah artinya sebuah nama?


Ya, dulunya memang saya setuju dengan penggunaan jargon diatas.
Kita tidak harus tahu nama seseorang untuk menilai kepribadian orang tersebut.
Kita tidak perlu tahu nama seseorang saat kita memberi ataupun menerima sesuatu.
Kita tidak harus mencari tahu nama asli seseorang saat kita terpukau oleh prestasinya.
Cukup tahu saja yang satu mana orang itu.

Tapi itu kan dulu!! #korban iklan#

Setelah mengarungi hidup selama kurang lebih, ehem, 20 tahun..
Pola pikir saya tentu saja sedikit banyak mengalami keterbelakangan perubahan.
Perubahan-perubahan yang tentu saja senantiasa ke arah yg lebih maju dan akan membawa bangsa kita kepada era yang lebih dinamis!! ( ini kampanye atau apa? -..-)

Jadi intinya, perspektif teraktual yang saya miliki tentang 'nama' sekarang tidak sama seperti dulu lagi, saudara saudara. ( daritadi kek -__-)
Menurut saya, peranan sebuah 'nama' sangatlah krusial, fundamental, dan membawa sial*

*abaikan frasa terakhir dari klausa diatas.

Well, saya terlahir dengan nama:
NAJMUL FAJRI

Bintang Fajar, maknanya secara etimologis, diambil dari bahasa Unta Arab.
Secara terminologis, memiliki makna "Anak laki-laki yang lahir di saat fajar/subuh dan bercahaya layaknya bintang" (sedikit ngarang, maaf).

Namun sekarang, nama saya di KTP, Paspor, Kartu Mahasiswa dan dokumen2 sejenis lainnya secara resmi sudah berganti menjadi

NAJMUL FAJRI USMAN

Yes, it already has my father's name at the end of it :)


Sungguh indah, bukan? ;)

Sungguh disayangkan, selama sekitar 16 tahun pertama hidup saya, secara ironis SANGAT JARANG SEKALI ( ya, dengan huruf kapital yang dipertebal) saya dipanggil dengan nama asli saya yang indah itu T..T Hanya orangtua saya yang senantiasa memanggil saya 'FAJRI'

Teman-teman dan saudara-saudara saya di kampung, meng 'anugerah' kan beragam nama panggilan untuk saya. Sungguh beragam. Beberapa diantaranya, yaitu:

PAYI. OYEK. OYEX.OYES. BAGONG. DOMPENG. NDUT. GEMBUL. CABUL. MAIMUL. MUMUL. RIRI. IMUL. PAJI. FARJI. FAHRI. dsb.

Diantara nama-nama itu ada yang hanya bersifat sementara, pun ada yang masih melekat sampai sekarang. Fakta yang lebih miris lagi, tidak ada satu pun dari nama-nama tersebut yang maknanya mendekati nama asli saya >..<
Dulu, saya tidak keberatan sama sekali. Mau dipanggil dengan sebutan apa saja silakan, asalkan eksistensi saya diakui oleh banyak orang dan imej baik saya tetap terjaga.

Tapi untuk sekarang, maaf saja. Prinsip saya sudah berbeda.

Pernah membaca atau menonton kisah yang bertajuk The Namesake?

Singkatnya, dalam kisah itu tokoh utamanya baru tersadar dan bersedia menggunakan nama asli yg diberikan ayahnya (yg menurutnya kurang modern) setelah ayahnya meninggal dan menjelaskan betapa penting dan berartinya asal-usul namanya itu dalam kehidupan kedua orangtuanya melalui sepucuk surat yg ditulisnya sebelum 'pergi'.

Kisah itu sungguh membuka mata, hati dan pikiran saya tentang betapa signifikan arti sebuah nama. Terutama bagi orang tua.

Orang tua saya mungkin saja menghabiskan berbulan-bulan untuk menentukan nama terbaik untuk saya.

Atau entah beberapa puluh kali mereka terlibat dalam perdebatan yang menguras energi dan pikiran sebelum akhirnya sepakat untuk menggunakan nama itu untuk me'label'i saya, buah hati mereka.

Jadi, sekarang I would like to declare that saya (dan orang tua saya) akan sangat bahagia dan menghargai jika anda memanggil saya dengan nama saya yg SESUNGGUHNYA!

Ya, tolong lah berusaha untuk memanggil saya dengan nama NAJMUL ataupun FAJRI.
Dan jangan sekali2 berani memanggil saya dengan nama USMAN!
Karena itu adalah nama ayah saya (plis deh -..-")

MUL, MOEL, and PAJRI are still acceptable though. You can call me that way. Karena basically itu memang nama asli saya.

Dan baru baru ini saya punya nama panggilan baru di lingkungan kampus saya di Malaysia.
They call me FAJ (read: FUDGE ) here. Masih bisa bisa diterima dengan alasan yg sama. Disamping itu artinya juga oke, katanya si tante Wikipedia:

"Fudge is a type of Western confectionery which is usually very sweet, and extremely rich. It is made by mixing sugar, butter, and milk and heating it to the soft-ball stage at 240 °F (116 °C), and then beating the mixture while it cools so that it acquires a smooth, creamy consistency. Many variations with other flavourings added are possible."

Yeah, It's a FOOD and it's SWEET. Two best words to represent and to describe myself.
HAHA.

Furthermore, I have to admit that the Nickname sounds cool. I feel like I am holding a huge authority just like Cornelius Fudge, one of the prominent Ministers of the magical world of Harry Potter, had. HAHA.

Saya rasa cukup sekian untuk post kali ini. Semoga aja orang orang yang sudah semena mena mengubah nama saya pada baca. Ehehehe.

Sunday, November 13

I AM BACK!!

Hey, guess who's back in the blog?? It's apparently ME!! HAHA
Whoaaa..It's been AGES since the last time I touched this virtual diary!
Fine, It's only been 1 YEAR + 1 MONTH + 1 WEEK since the last time I posted my crappy life stories in this blog. Such a beautiful statistic, rite?
Yet, It's still such a SUPERLONG hiatus, isn't it? HAHA Miss me? I know you do!
( As if there are people out there who regularly visit this blog -..-" )

Yeah, I know I am such a horrible blogger. Trust me, I always do. If there is a sort of Razzie Awards for young bloggers, I might have been nominated in all 9 categories in a row and won at least half of them. At least! #deepsigh

Well, in my defense, I wasn't really sure enough that sharing my private stories in this blog is a wise thing to do. But then, I realized that there is nothing bad with sharing our stories to other people. Instead, It might generate a great relief in our heart.
It always feels good to let your burden fly away by telling your closest fellas, doesn't it? It always feels good to see people's laughter and smile while you are telling them the happiness and funny stories of yours.

Furthermore, It took me more than one year to finally justify myself about the fact that

I AM A TOTAL EXTROVERT!

Yeah, It took me that long to know that I am possessing that Choleric-Sanguine temperaments. Never heard about that kind of temperament, eh? Click here.
In short, I am the people-oriented one! I can't barely survive without personally and intensely interact with other people. I am so 'opened'.

So here I am, unleashing my thoughts and my stories for the sake of survival. Hehehe.

Well, in this post I would like to emphasize some certain things regarding my blogging activity :

1/ A good friend of mine told me not to write on my blog by expecting people to read it. But do write it to satisfy myself. It's gonna make me feel better. I am gonna try to do so, bro! ;)

2/ A best friend of mine complained about the language which I used to write on my blog. Yeah, I've used the mixed 'Bahasa Indonesia-English' kinda language in my previous posts and It seemed like he got really confused and annoyed by that. Haha. Sorry Man, my bad.

There are also some of my foreign friends who demanded me to write full in English so that they can easily understand my stories. Well, guys, the thing is I do love to speak both of them!

I NEED to use English because as a student who is studying in an abroad university, in which English is practically used all the time, my written English so SUCKS , and people always said that "Practice makes Perfect", aye? :D

I NEED to use Bahasa just simply to keep my perseverance to preserve my national language.

So, I've decided to keep my bilingual style on writing here in my blog! But, I will try not to mix them in one post. Then again, It depends on my mood whether I wanna write in which language.
Are we cool?? Sip Dah!! <-- another failure -___-"

3/ I've changed the web address of this blog (again) since I found out that the former address was kinda SUPERLAME!!
So now, It becaaaaaameeee.. *Drum Rolls..DUNG..DUNG..DUNG..*


Not cool enough?? That's your problem! :P

4/ As we are reaching the end of 2011, I will try my best to recall all big days which happened to me for the past 12 months and write them on this awesome blog. Just want to put those memories in one certain place since I am such a forgetful pig and just want to see the 50-year-old-me smile when he reopens this blog in the future. Hehehe. But yeah, I dont give a promise this time. HAHA.

It's five in the morning already and I'm still not sleepy at all. Uh, I always forget how strong caffeinated coffee can affect my brain. Well, that's all for this time! Ciao!!

It always feels so good to be back, Baby! ;)