Jakarta Tales Vol 5 (contd)

YOU ROCKED MY WORLD, YOU KNOW YOU DID...

And now comes the really rocky part. I think 2006 is my Year of Accidents or the Year of Being Unlucky. And this is a precursor to either a really big calamity or a huge windfall that's heading my way. Obviously, I'm hoping for the latter. It's just that the signs seem to keep getting worse.

What would you expect from someone who has never lost a single penny, a wallet, a hand phone or any other valuable, as far as he can remember? Well, you should expect that after not having lost his first phone for 5 years, his 5-month old hand phone gets stolen - within a matter of minutes - outside the Pakistan Embassy in New Delhi in March this year. You should also know that he forgot his wallet (with Rs 1500) in a taxi in Kolkata soon after he returned from New Delhi.

This is just the beginning. Furthermore, you should also trust that this person would manage to lose his wallet in his boss's car in Indonesia when he thought he had it in his trouser's pockets all the time. It turned out, he had his boss's wallet and his own was missing. A few weeks later, he decided to move to a cheaper accommodation in hope of saving some money. The new house was more challenging than the previous one but not uncomfortable. His neighbour was a pretty Indonesian girl and his landlord was a friendly Indonesian too. He slept well the first night there. The next morning, he woke up when his hand phone alarm rang and went out 1 metre from his room to have a shower. He got back. His hand phone was gone. The friendly landlord and the pretty neighbour said they had no clue. The poor guy moved out immediately not wanting to live with people he couldn't trust if he stepped out just a metre outside his room.

He went back to his old kost. The sweet li'l caretaker was beaming when she saw him and said he never should have left. He thought so too. He tried contacting the landlady to tell her he was back and that he would pay again at the end of the month. But she was always away and also unwell so he informed the caretaker in his broken Bahasa. Although everything seemed perfect, something went wrong.

A few nights later, when this young man got back from work in the wee hours of the morning, he found himself locked out of his own room! There was a note from his friendly Austro-Indonesian neighbour saying that the landlady was upset that he hadn't informed her of his return. She thought he wasn't going to pay. He didn't have a phone so he couldn't call the landlady. Desperate, he somehow managed to wake up his neighbours and spoke to the landlady. His neighbours convinced the landlady to allow him to sleep the night. The landlady, however, made it clear she didn't want him the next day onwards.

So it was. The next day, even though this young Indian's boss, some of his AIESEC friends and he tried to enquire from the landlady her newly found cause for hating him, it didn't work. He stayed over at a colleague's house for the next one week. The colleague's old mother loved him. But that was exactly the problem. He didn't want to cause too much trouble to an old lady so he started looking for a new house. After 9 searches, none.

Finally, a ray of hope came in the form of Martin's Casa Grande :) a small little piece of paradise (at least for this young man) in Bendungan Hilir (also known as Ben Hil). Martin, a friendly German working for Allianz had a room empty amongst three. The young man asked if he could move in. Martin asked his Chilean wife and two darling little children. They said ok. He was in. A nice bar-b-q was organised as a welcome party for the young Indian. He was overjoyed.

Life was beautiful again. But just when things were looking too bright to be true, disaster struck without warning. At about 1am one night, this young man was going home from office. He was riding an ojek when a police officer stopped him. The cop asked the ojek driver where they were going and asked the Indian for his passport. The young man said he didn't have it. And in any case, what was the problem? The policeman, who obviously didn't speak much English, asked the young man not to question him and said if he didn't have the passport then he should come to the police station. The young man was shocked and also a little angry. Why should he go to the police station for not having done anything? He repeatedly asked the cop what was his fault. The cop did not reply, instead, he started searching the young man. The young man grew suspicious of the cop's intentions but didn't say anything. The cop pulled out his handphone and said he must accompany him to the police station to get it back. This was unbelievable. The Indian asked the cop to give him back the phone, but the cop refused to relent. Instead, he asked for 100$ and when the young man asked why, he pushed and kicked him on the legs.

This was getting out of control. The young man now really wanted to know what the hell was wrong. He threatened the cop to report him to the Indian Embassy. The cop seemed unperturbed. He wanted to hit the cop back but that was the last thing on his mind - imagine being in prison in a foreign country because you hit a law enforcer. So he offered the cop money, 1$ to start off with and then 10$. But the cop now seemed uninterested. He got to his bike quickly, asked the ojek and the Indian to follow and before the other two could say a word, he was gone. The Indian shouted for his phone but there was no one around. The cop had vanished, disappeared, evaporated, waned away. In short, he had fled.

The young man and the ojek sped around the neighbourhood as fast as they could trying to look for the nearest police station where they might find the cop. But everything was closed. There was no other cop on duty. They raced back to the young man's office. His boss immediately tried to call his phone. Switched off. They rushed to the nearest police station, lodged a report and they were told, "Tonight, there was no one on duty in the area you just mentioned. And it wasn't a cop who took your phone. He was a fake. There's been a few recent incidents involving girls and foreigners being stopped at night by unidentified policemen and their belongings have been taken away."

If things weren't bad already, then came the bureaucracy. They were told that the theft had happened in an area that wasn't under the jurisdiction of this police station. The young man, his boss and the ojek driver rushed to the one that had the jurisprudence over the area. They repeated the same story, for the third time now. The report was taken and they were asked to return the next morning.

The young man was there, bang on time the following day. He was told the officer on duty last night hadn't yet processed the report. To speed up matters, he was requested to go straight to the criminal reports department and lodge a fresh complaint. He did so, for the fifth time now. The cop on the other end of the table just grinned with a stupid smile and said, "We'll do our best". The young man gave up all hope. He knew nothing would happen. The bureaucracy and corruption in Indonesia is as bad or as good as in India. In fact, at times, its worse.

Since then, there have been no more accidents but you certainly hope there shouldn't be any more, don't you. And that's it. Now you know the "young man's story". What would you now say about my luck? But never mind, we all have our phases. And even though I was so angry that night I ended up cursing myself for having chosen to come to Indonesia, the country, the people and everything around me, I realised it was just a test of my patience and character.

Apart from life on the rocks, it's been pretty smooth otherwise. No complaints. Thank God for everything - the good, the bad and the ugly.

And finally, we come to the end of this manuscript. I thoroughly hope you enjoyed this rollercoaster and look forward to being part of it again. And yes, if you're ever in a situation like I was, listen to yourself, God and Louis Armstrong. It helps. Btw, to make my mails a little more interesting, I'm also sending two mails a few snaps post this one. Hope they really express what they are supposed to - a thousand words.

Alright then, sampai jumpa, and as I should have listened to everybody earlier, hati hati (take care).


Cheers
From your favourite "rocking and rocky" Indian
Yousuf