Simple Simplicity

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِيْنَ آمَنُوا اسْتَعِيْنُوْا بِالصَّبْرِ وَ الصَّلاَةِ إِنَّ اللهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرِيْن Wahai orang- orang yang beriman! Mohonlah pertolongan dengan sabar dan shalat; sesungguhnya Allah beserta orang- orang yang sabar (Q.S. Al- Baqarah:153)   Tiba- tiba saja saya teringat pada sebuah gambar yang pernah dikirimkan oleh seorang sahabat beberapa waktu yang lalu. Gambar tersebut tentang seorang ahli fiqih yang didebat dan dihujat oleh murid- muridnya. Kalimat dalam gambar tersebut kurang lebih sebagai berikut: At young age, my parents sent me to a college w ith the greatest teacher of fiqh, tajweed, and tafseer. I spent many nights studying and memorizing entire books. My life as a pupil was not easy . But with patience and discipline, I managed to complete my studies and became a teacher myself. Today 20 years later, I realize that the most useful thing I acquired during those years is patience. Kalimat terakhir lah yang membuat saya masih saja ...

Who doesn’t know Singing Contests nowadays? In (approximately) 2004, it firstly started in Indonesian TV stations and has been mushrooming till today. Not only in Pop genre, now even there is a booming Dangdut Singing Contest. Some people thinks that such shows are very good, for they widely open chances to those whose voice is beautiful to have a good career and to enrich Indonesian musical industry. While the opposite one assumes that such shows are not really promising, for the “products” can only survive just for a little time after the celebration. That is what also happens with teaching graduates. What I found funny was that suddenly my brain (I didn’t know why) automatically analogized these two phenomena. I live in Central Java. In this province only, there are so many universities which lay teaching graduates, whether from a department of a university or from a university which is specialized for teachers-to be. In a year, a university can graduate thousands of stud...

“ Bangsat! “, teriakku pada seorang di hadapanku. “ Kau, Kau benar- benar tak lebih dari sampah!”, aku mulai kehilangan kesabaran. “ Manusia macam apa Kau ini?? “, aku mulai memberinya pertanyaan retorika dan dia   mulai menangis. “ Tangisan palsu!”, hardikku. “ Percuma Kau teteskan ribuan air mata! Kau tetap hina! Tak lebih baik dari binatang! “ Dia menatapku ketakutan sambil tak henti- hentinya mengucurkan air mata. “ Kau bilang Kau wanita baik- baik? Hah? Lalu apa yang telah Kau perbuat??” Dia diam seperti sedang berpikir keras atas jawaban dari pertanyaanku, sambil masih tetap terisak menangis. “ Semua yang dikatakan orang adalah bohong bahwa mereka percaya Kau wanita baik- baik! “ Dia kehabisan air mata. “ Jawab!! Apakah Kau tak punya cukup jawaban atas pertanyaanku?? “ Dia terdiam sambil menatapku dengan matanya yang merah semerah bata akibat kucuran air matanya. “ Kenapa masih diam?? “ Aku kehilangan kesabaran, dan melayanglah ...

1.         To get one’s foot in the door = to get an opening/ promising opportunity = to start working at a low level, hoping to progress Example : It’s not easy to get your foot in the door at the company. 2.         On a shoestring = with very little money; on a very tight budget Example : Jim started his company on a shoestring , but now it is a multimillion-dollar company. 3.         To jump through hoops = to do a lot of difficult things before you are allowed to have or do something you want. Example : At work, Sam had to jump through hoops before he was allowed to manage the best project. 4.         To clear the air = to remove hidden resentment 1 = to remove the bad feelings between people Example: -           Jade has been mad at me, but I don’t know why. I want to clear the air , so I hope she’ll meet me to talk. - ...

Setiap dari kita mungkin pernah berfikir, mengapa tuhan tak adil. Mengapa setiap usaha seperti tak berbanding lurus dengan hasil. Mengapa yang menanam tak tentu yang menuai hasil. Sejak sekolah kita mungkin pernah mengalami hal demikian. Mengapa kita yang belajar mati- matian, tak bisa mendapat skor setinggi seorang teman yang baru menyadari ada ulangan namun tetap mendapatkan nilai sempurna. Saat kuliah, juga bisa jadi terulang kembali. Mengapa teman yang tak begitu cemerlang dan biasa- biasa saja, bisa dengan mudah menyelesaikan skripsinya. Mengapa dia bisa begitu beruntung mendapatkan dosen yang baik hati, sementara kita yang sudah semangat 45 mengerjakan skripsi, tertunda berbulan- bulan atau bahkan bertahun- tahun hanya karena tak seberuntung mereka. Selepas kuliah, hal serupa juga masih sangat berkemungkinan lagi dalam hal mencari pekerjaan. Atau mungkin juga untuk sebagian kasus lain, seperti dalam hal menjemput jodoh dan sebagainya. Terkadang kita juga berfikir, atau setidakn...

Corruption means illegal, bad, or dishonest behavior which is usually done by people in position of power. These days, people see “the show” between two institutions; Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and Indonesian National Police (Kapolri). Many people try to save KPK, and it shows that people have been tired of corruption cases that keep growing like mushrooms. However let see what happened in our environment. Do we ourselves have totally stayed away of the corruption cases? We may not pay attention of what I am going to tell, but it does happen. The first example is the scholarship allocation that is not received by the appropriate students. There are still many people who “pretending” to be poor in order to gain those scholarships, and falsifying the data becomes the way out of this. The exact falsified data may be the letter of poor statement, the electrical note, and so forth. The next simple sample will be more familiar for us. Many people still stay silent whenev...

Being 90’s children can be said as a blessing! Yeah, 90o’s childhood was full of so many traditional games. We didn’t recognize very well such modern and hi-tech games at that time. We liked to walk for kilometers with no fear of being kidnapped. Don’t you guys remember this kinda game? What do you name this one? Jumpritan   In English it is called “hide and seek”. Well, when I was child, my friends and I called this as   “jumpritan”   (In Jepara, one of cities in Central Java). Does it sound weird? Lol. Yeah, we called so at that time. Another name might be   “delikkan” , derived from word   “ n delik”   that means “hide”, and suffix – an   to show that it is a noun. This game can be played by 2 children for minimum, but the larger number of the participants, the more exciting this game will be. The rule is, one of the children is on duty as the “victim”. He should close his eyes and counting from 1 up to 10 in a place that is found as the ...