A Story of "Jomblo" Park : I'm Single (not) in The Rain

Helloo every readers of my blog! Would you like to spend a bit more long time to read my new post? Hope you don't get bored, and bored, anytime you read this blog. Because, now I gonna tell you kind of short story of my journey under the Pasupati Flyover, in Bandung. 

It started in the morning of a nice Friday on May 1st. It was totally a normal Friday, actually. But the special thing was, that this day was a holiday! In order to celebrate the May Day for the trade workers in the whole world. 

I was awake before the dawn to have a shubuh prayer. But, wait! I was not woke in my own room. Oh, there was someone next to me. Oh well, I was in Fadhilla's room. So, we had the shubuh prayer together in the room. We had planned to go to the Jomblo Park today, but we was just too sleepy to go anywhere in result of late sleep a night before. So we went sleep right after we had done the prayer.

Oh! It was about 7.30 and I was awake. I woke Fadhilla up and we rearranged the plans for today. We planned to go to Jomblo Park at about 11 noon. And while waiting, we made a design for the art lesson task. But it was 11 and we still had a hard try to go. Then we ended up deciding to go to the park after Ashar.


And eventually we went precisely at 3.30 and arrived there at about 4.15. And you know what? We didn't really know where Jomblo Park is! We only knew that there are the box chairs in Jomblo Park. But it's not the matter, we just decided to go along the way under Pasupati Flyover. Some meters before the parks, there were some poster along the flyover pillars.

It was written "Welcome for The Asian-African Conference Delegations" there. Yeah, it had been held a big celebration of the Asian-African Conference which was originally held 60 years ago in Bandung.

We arrived at Baltos near the Pasupati Park and thought for a moment, where would we go if we didn't even know how is our destination looked like. We saw the Pasupati Park there with exactly same 'morphology' as the park we expected as Jomblo Park. And finally we decided to just went a round of walk through the parks under the Pasupati Flyover.

First, we saw Pasupati Park that very similar to the Jomblo Park. We should be hurry so we just took some photos though it was a nice place to hang out for an hour or two with family or friend. We thought once to come here someday to do our school tasks.

It has many chairs in box form with various height. But unfortunately, being there was a bit uncomfortable since the smell came from somewhere that really disturbing the nice time there.

 And next to the box chairs, there was a skateboard arena with a lot of teenager played there, maybe every evening. It nice to see their motion in playing the skateboards. It entertain me much. And beside it there was a mini food court. But once again, we didn't have much time because I should had gone home at 5 and it was about 30 minutes to 5.


Then we went more further it was a bit down way, and we met a parking! It was written "The Parking Place of Jomblo Park" and the uniqueness of this thing was, the board was maybe being accidentally rotated 180 degrees. It was like drew that this really was a place for the 'jomblo' to have fun after getting frustrated for not having any couple.

But actually me and Fadhilla are also jomblo, haha. But it's not matter for now (and then) beside walked around the parks.

Before we went to the Film Park, we saw a wall art beside the stair, and it was (if I'm not false) the first president of Indonesia, Ir. Soekarno sit on something like a can and hold an umbrella. Me and Fadhilla had a funny memory that Fadhilla once bought me a notebook written "I'm single in the rain" on it's cover. And it was the motivation for us to take some photos there. With a caption: I'm single (not) in the rain. Why? I'll tell you after I show you the photos.

 Yeah, those were a part of our craziness. Only a little part, actually. Then, why I titled it with '(not)' instead 'I'm single in the rain'? Because, no matter whenever you go there, you will not really being under the rain. Of course, it just because the parks were located exactly under the Pasupati Flyover. You could see the difference between the sky and the sky of the park.

Next was one of the most famous park in Bandung, Film Park. There had been held a lot of event and also when me and Fadhilla came, there was an event that I forgot what is it. But it sure was a comfortable and well-designed park that match really well with the function itself.

Then, it was unnamed park. It was not actually unnamed, but we really were not finding any park's nametag there. But there were some boy played football inside the park and it was nice.

 There also were chairs for every one outside the park, or more matched to be called field.

The children played happily and a dog was having a rest peacefully. We went through the dog, and here we were, The Cikapundung River.

And it was the end of this journey, so bye!

The Way to Hafizh : Iqbal Fawwaz Ramadhan

Name      : Iqbal Fawwaz Ramadhan
Birth P/D : Kudus, January 13th 1998
Class       : Acceleration 12
School    :
   - TKIT Umar bin Khattab Kudus
   - SDIT Al Islam Kudus
   - SMPI Nuruf Fikri Lembang
   - SMA N 3 Bandung (graduated in 2015)
Motto     : Put all of your dreams as high as possible, with a faith I'd fight for it, just LILLAH I keeping on it.

Iqbal Fawwaz Ramadhan, or well known as Fawwaz is one of my inspiring person. He got the title of "Qur'an Hafizh" in his 15 years old which means when he was going to be graduated from his junior high school, SMPI Nurul Fikri Boarding School Lembang. Now he is my senion in SMA N 3 Bandung though soon he'll graduated and for your information, his apply for SNMPTN had been accepted and he will be a part of Bandung Institute of Technology, in Electro and Informatica Engineering School.

His late school, Nurul Fikri was the place where he began to memorize Qur'an seriously. As he said, he had memorized Qur'an since his elementary but he was not taking it seriously. Until in his junior high school, he met his ustadz or we could say teacher that asked him a question which will be the beginning of his memorizing journey.

"Where do you come from, Fawwaz?" 

A simple question? Yes, it sure is a really simple question. But with the answer Kudus, the teacher then said, " As I know, Kudus is the city of Hufazh. At every door, in every family, there will be at least a hafizh. So you do?"

It really touch him at his deepest heart. Yes. He came from Kudus. But he had no good in memorizing Qur'an. Then, he thought over again, over and over again. What will he give for his parents then in afterlife? Gold? Wealth? Nope. That will be totally meaningless. So he decided to start memorize Qur'an seriously.

But, in 3 years. Seriously? THREE. Yes. He memorized 30 juz of Al Qur'an in only 3 years. How could he had done such a thing? He memorize it not only once. He keep reread, and reread, also the meaning of it. Only read it was not a totality, so he had to understand the meaning of the verses. 

But this right way and shiraathal mustaqiim is not with no obstacles in it. It sure there were so many obstacles from himself and also from the conditions around him such as the difficulty of looking for the idle time. But the most disturbing obstacle must be come from himself, laziness. It could ruin anything for sure. The laziness was not only coming at the beginning. It also came in the end. The laziness to finish the memorizing.

The quantity for his memorizing were not exactly the same each years. At the first semester, he got only 1 juz. But the next semester, he got the lessons and could made 3 juz in half year. And then, then, and finally in the end of his school, after the national exam which means he had nothing to do, he had finished his memorizing and become a hafizh in his 15 years old. The most dream all moslems should dream.

And what he felt before and after he memorizing Qur'an? Of course there must be the difference. All of it actually are the positive ways. Although after finishing the memorizing of Qur'an he has a some kinds of heaviness on his shoulder.

So for those who are on their way to be hafizh, keep walk forward toward hafizh, and for you jannah.

But wait. Iqbal Fawwaz Ramadhan had chosen to continue his study not in Islamic based school anymore. It sure was difficult to adapt there. And, what was the first impression for entering non-islamic based school? Surprised. Yes, of course. In which way? Almost all of it. Especially in the connection between the boys and the girls because when he was in junior high school there was a certain edge between them. But now, he has to adapt there. He should not be egoist and keep to not have any communication with the other gender.

But he also had to keep in the right way. Keeping istiqamah is one of the hardest thing to do. The old good habits sure are not that easy to keep, but he should keep fighting.

So for the epilogue, there were some words, his favorite:

Laysal fata man yaquulu kaana abi

Walaakinnal fataa man yaquulu hadza ana.

It was not the real man who said, " My father was.."

 But the real man was who said, " This is ME."

Watch for the summary of my interview some months ago here!

" The Reluctant Heroes " A Song for The Heroes

If you were or are looking for a song that could touch your deepest heart, it would be this song. Why must be this song? This song has a deep meaning, a special song for those who have to die for something what they fought for.

The Reluctant Heroes is one of the Original Sound Track of a Japan anime, Shingeki no Kyojin or also known as Attack on Titan. 

The story of this anime is the struggle of a boy named Eren Jaeger to fight the giants or known as Titan that come from somewhere unknown and for the reason that has to be found. The struggle is not only coming from Eren Jaeger, but actually the whole civilian of a nation that live inside the wall. But the main role for this anime, Eren Jaeger has a bad experience with those Titans, he watched by his own eyes the moment a Titan had eaten his mother. So he turned into a brave and diligent boy in order to revenge the death of his mother.

The song was matched really well with the plot. But for my opinion, it was not only matched with this story but also the story of the colonized nations all over the world. The anime was originally made by Japanese animator, and aired for the first in Japan, but this song is fully arranged with English, so I chose this song. Here are the lyrics as I copied from Attack on Titan - Wikia.

Day by Day

We have lost our edge

Don't you know?

Forgotten is the life we led

Now it seems

You don't care what the risk is

The peaceful times have made us blind

Can't look back

They will not come back

Can't be afraid

It's time after time

So once again

I'm hiding in my room

The peaceful times have made us blind

"So you can't fly if you never try,"

You told me, oh, long ago

But you left the wall

Outside the gate

So more than ever, it's real

It was like a nightmare

And it's painful for me

'Cause nobody wants to die too fast

Remember the day of grief

Now it's strange for me

I could see your face

I could hear your voice

Remember the day we met

And it's painful for me

'Cause nobody wants to die too fast

Remember the day we dreamt

And it's painful for me

I could see your face

I could hear your voice

Song for reluctant heroes

Oh give me your strength

Our life is so short

Song for reluctant heroes

I wanna be brave like you

From my heart

Song for the reluctant heroes

Oh give me your strength

Our life is so short

Song for the reluctant heroes

I wanna be brave like you

Can't look back

They will not come back

Can't be afraid

It's time after time

So once again

I'm hiding in my room

The peaceful times have made us blind

" So you can't fly if you never try,"

You told me, oh, long ago

But you left the wall

Outside the gate

So more than ever, it's real

It was like a nightmare

And it's painful for me

'Cause nobody wants to die too fast

Remember the day of grief

And it's strange for me

I could see your face

I could hear your voice

Remember the day we met

And it's painful for me

'Cause nobody wants to die too fast

Remember the day we dreamt

And it's painful for me

I could see your face

I could hear your voice

It was like a nightmare

And it's painful for me

'Cause nobody wants to die too fast

Remember the day of grief

Now it's strange for me

I could see your face

I could hear your voice

Remember the day we met

And it's painful for me

'Cause nobody wants to die too fast

Remember the day we dreamt

And it's painful for me

I could see your face

I could hear your voice

My Favorite Parts

The peaceful times have made us blind.

And the sudden attack from the Titans really messed the outer side of the nation. Because nobody ever imagine about the possibility of this situation gonna happen, except Eren himself. 

Can't look back, they will not come back.

It means that whatever happened in the past, just walk forward toward the future because what happened can't be back whatever we do. And this also refer to those peacefulness feelings of the civilian in Eren's town that pierce into nothing but the scream of fears.

" So you can't fly if you never try," you told me, oh long ago.

This song is basically  a song, sang for a hero to the singer. So the hero told, " So you can't fly if you never try," long ago before the mess happened. That means that you will never know 'till you have tried. How could you see any result if you don't even try to make it happen. In this anime, Eren told everybody in that town that they will not live peacefully forever. The time will come, the time when the most scared species waiting outside the wall rushed in the town.

Then the singer realized years after that what the hero said was not nonsense at all, when the mess came to the peaceful place, in this case was when the Titan came inside the wall at 845 century.

So more than ever, it's real (but) it was like a nightmare.

What will you feel when the things that you never imagine come true. What happen if it were the things that you hope would never happen the most. The real things happened right in front of you and it were just like a nightmare that you really wish not to be true. 

'Cause nobody wants to die too fast.

It was just true that nobody wants to die too fast. In this situation every single person try to gain the most benefit and chance to surviving without even care the other. But, still, Eren was willing to be part of Reconnaissance Corps which is the most dangerous part of military. It was like committing suicide without having to shot himself. But all he wanted was to revenge the death of his mother and to come outside the wall where the wide world exist.

Song for the reluctant heroes

It is the base of this song. It is the meaning of the song which is for the reluctant heroes. Reluctant means unwilling and hesitant, close meaning to forced and the reluctant heroes mean they are the heroes, but they were also not willing to be it. It has a deep and strong meaning that the heroes have to fight, but also don't want to die.

I wanna be brave like you.

The braveness of the heroes really touched the 'singer's heart, and so then,

From my heart, song for the reluctant heroes.

It means that the singer sing for the reluctant heroes from his deepest heart.


About The Manga : Shingeki no Kyoijin (Attack on Titan)

As wikipedia said, Attack on Titan (進撃の巨人 Shingeki no Kyojin^?, lit. "Advancing Giants") is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated byHajime Isayama. The series began in Kodansha's Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine on September 9, 2009, and has been collected into 15tankōbon volumes as of December 9, 2014. It is set in a world where humanity lives inside cities surrounded by enormous walls as a defense against the Titans, gigantic humanoid creatures who eat humans seemingly without reason. The story initially centers onEren Yeager, his adopted sister Mikasa Ackerman, and their childhood friend Armin Arlert, who join the military to fight the Titans after their home town is invaded and Eren's mother is eaten. However, as the story progresses and the truths about the Titans are slowly revealed to the reader, the main narrative shifts, centering increasingly more around Historia Reiss, one of the top soldiers from the Survey Corps and the youngest child of the ruling family within the walls, of which the long-kept secrets are directly connected to the origin of the Titans and the lost history of the world.

A spin-off light novel series began in December 2011, and has received a manga adaptation. An additional light novel series and three additional spin-off manga series are also being serialized. A television anime adaptation produced by Wit Studio and Production I.G aired in Japan on MBS between April and September 2013 and a second season is confirmed to be released in 2016. Four video game adaptations developed by Nitroplus staffers in collaboration with Production I.G were announced to be released as bonus content for the third and sixth volumes of the Blu-ray Disc release of the anime, with another game developed by Spike Chunsoft for the Nintendo 3DS. A two-part live action film adaptation is also in production and set to premiere in 2015. Attack on Titan and three spin-off manga are published in North America by Kodansha Comics USA, while the novels are published by Vertical. The anime has been licensed by Funimation Entertainment for North America, by Manga Entertainment for the United Kingdom, and by Madman Entertainment for Australasia.

Attack on Titan has become a commercial success, with 45 million volumes in print as of November 2014.^[5] The release of the anime also saw a boost in the series' popularity, with it having received critical acclaim for its atmosphere and story. Although it also gained fame in neighboring Asian countries, the series' themes have been a subject of controversy.

The Reluctant Heroes is the original soundtrack of Attack on Titan anime in an album Attack on Titan

アニメ「進撃の巨人」オリジナルサウンドトラック / Anime Shingeki no Kyojin Original Soundtrack, released on 2013.06.28.

About The Singer : Hiroyuki Sawano (澤野 弘之)

copied from Wikipedia.

Hiroyuki Sawano (澤野 弘之 Sawano Hiroyuki^?, born 12 September 1980) is a Japanese composer and musician best known for his work on many anime, TV series, and movies. He is currently represented by Legendoor.

Sawano was born in Tokyo, Japan. He began playing piano in elementary school. From the age of 17 he studied composition, arrangement, orchestration, and piano under Nobuchika Tsuboi.^[1]

Bandung Breaks The World Records!

I'm back! With a lot (maybe) of story about an event held about a week ago, it was Angklung for The World in order to celebrate the Asia-Africa Commemoration. It was also for breaking the world record, 20.000 people in any genders, any professions, any ages were playing angklung.

  

Me, as one of the student at SMAN 3 Bandung also took a part in this event. My class, X-2 and also my class' neighbor, X-1 attended the world record by playing angklung in Siliwangi Stadion not too far from SMAN 3.

We went there at about 30 minute after the bell ring, at 7 in the morning. We thought it was just a short time to got in there, but it was totally wrong. It was a sea of humans. Really, I'm not lying nor hyperbolic. It  filled by the students from the whole junior and senior high school in Bandung. The line was not really nice arranged so it took a bit longer to got to the gate.

Even in the middle of the long line, some of my friend had bought some kind of foods in a mobile mini market!

But finally we got in there for the awaited moment, to play angklung together, not to consider the most of people there that not even had played angklung before. But that was one of the greatness of the angklung orchestra. You could manage the whole players without have to teach them for so long.

When we got to the gate, we were given an angklung that would we play inside and I got a Mi (Java) angklung, a box of snack, and a white shirt that we should use during the event, all for free. The umbrellas were opened one after another and is some kind of bother that we couldn't see toward the stage clearly.

http://cdn.assets.babe.co.id/files/3507404/images/480/0/20150424/c2c2a124e2f1fdce3fddfd675b573f76.jpeg

We were having some try for the scoring time later. It was a bit disappointment that I got Mi that was not frequently played during the performance. Not in the "We are The World" song, nor the "Halo Halo Bandung". But it still was so exciting, and one of the exciting moment is when the city major had us sing "Halo Halo Bandung" with a little recomposition at the lyrics, "...sekarang telah menjadi lautan api..." that means and now it's been a sea of fire to be "...sekarang telah menjadi lautan angklung..." which means and now it's been a sea of angklung.

http://rajatourbandung.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/11188388_499405656877927_7661821412613632561_n-300x201.jpg

And, it's the awaited one! The scoring from a jury from the Guinness Book of World Records. Before we began the scoring, the city mayor, Ridwan Kamil gave some greetings and led the counting of the participants. And theeeennn, here we go!

The conductor was a really young boy named Sandi, he sure was a really talented boy and I bet he'll be a success and great musician in the next era. We were playing a song, We are The World, featuring the vocal from Saung Udjo. It was a great orchestra, and I was amused so so much! And finally, the people of Bandung break the world record! 20.000 people played angklung!