Saturday, March 18, 2006

Book Review: soulmate.com


Cobalah pergi ke toko buku dan Anda pasti menemukan soulmate di sana. Itulah janji Jessica Huwae, senior editor majalah Spice!. Memang, yang dijanjikan adalah menemukan novel debutnya yang berjudul soulmate.com. Tapi bila Anda memang berniat mencari soulmate, di toko buku ataupun tidak, novel ini bisa menjadi pedoman. Setidaknya dalam mempertanyakan keberadaan soulmate.

Berkisah tentang Nadya Samuella yang memiliki segalanya yang bisa diimpikan wanita muda: cantik, cerdas, sophisticated, teman menyenangkan, dan karier cemerlang. Kecuali satu: pasangan yang normal. Mulai dari yang tiba-tiba menikah dengan wanita lain, tukang pukul, terlalu agresif, sampai yang anak mama. Ini membuat Nadya mulai meragukan kehidupan cintanya. Tapi kemudian ada Oka, pemuda sederhana yang tidak sengaja ditemuinya lewat internet. Sosok pahlawan yang diyakini Nadya sebagai soulmate-nya. Hanya saja, ada satu kenyataan dari pahlawan ini: dia menyembunyikan rahasia pahit di balik topengnya. Masih percayakah Nadya kalau soulmate itu ada?

Ada atau tidak. Nyata atau maya. Realita atau virtual. Buku ini dengan cerdas menganalogikan pertanyaan tentang soulmate dengan hubungan nyata yang dijalin lewat dunia maya. Semua diramu secara runut dengan detail yang luar biasa, terutama yang berkaitan dengan waktu. Sesekali kita akan dilempar ke masa lalu, tapi tidak sampai menyesatkan berkat alurnya yang tetap terjaga.

Bila diperhatikan, Jessica gemar sekali mempergunakan simbol dalam debutnya ini. Hedonisme Nadya terlihat dari nickname Nadya dalam blog-nya: bling bling. Rebelisme Oka tergambar dari aktivitasnya sebagai frontman band indie. Sampai-sampai nasihat terbaik justru datang dari seorang gay yang memiliki pandangan berbanding terbalik.

Seperti yang terlihat di cover-nya, membaca buku ini seperti browsing internet dan mengunjungi blog pribadi seseorang. Semua tampak lebih indah dari kehidupan kita, tapi kenyataannya adalah kita lah yang memegang kendali atas "mouse". Namun, menurut saya membaca buku ini seperti naik roller-coaster. Maka bersiaplah menjerit saat turun ke bawah dan tertawa melihat kekonyolan kita saat berada di atas.

Friday, March 17, 2006

It's a Laundry Day!

Laundry day is the only exciting day in the life of clothes. Think about it. After being worn all day, or perhaps all week, they all feel dirty, stinky, messed. Not to mention men's underwear which had to pole-dance on side A, then side B.

So the washing machine is their nightclub. You know, it's dark and there's bubbles happening. They're all kind of dancing around in there. A shirt grabs the underwear, "C'mon, babe. Let's go." They're all wet, "I can see through your blouse and you're not wearing anything."
Then you come by, open up the lid and they all freezed. Wrinkles all over their face. You have to iron them and, voila, you can re-use them. Clean and fresh, just like new. But they're not.

Now socks are the most amazing article of clothing. They really hate their lives, the shoes, the stinky feet and the boring drawers. The dryer is their only chance to escape and they all know it. They do escape from the dryer. They plan it in the hamper the night before, "Tomorrow, the dryer, I'm gone. You wait here!" The dryer door swings open, the sock is leaning up against the side wall. He hope you don't see him, then he goes down the road. They get buttons sewn on their face, join a puppet show.

What about that TV commercial about a detergents that could getting out bloodstains? Isn't this a violent image to anybody? Bloodstains? I mean, c'mon you got a T-shirt with bloodstains all over it! Maybe laundry isn't your biggest problem right now. Maybe you ought to get the harpoon out of your chest first.

The thing you need to wash isn't always your clothes. "It's also your souls," said ustadz, priest, guru, bhiksu and your boss. You could wipe away your sins after certain rituals, confession rooms and salary cut down. And voila, clean and fresh, just like new. But you're not. You're getting more wringkles. White stains on your hair. And you do the another sin. Hey, it's human thing! Just like clothes, you can't really be clean.

But thank God there's Friday. Where the moslem do their rituals and the other go to the nightclub. It's all the same, it's a laundry day! A day where you could wash away your dirty-stinky mind all week. And cleanly wear whatever you like to freshen up your day.

As for me, I did my laundry day to become a new clean and fresh me. But I'm not.