Bahasa Indonesia Itu Indah :)

I am currently exploring on short stories in Bahasa. I love the way Bahasa Indonesia is twisted and constructed in such a way that readers are swayed into the atmosphere and moods that are created by the writer. This current obsession is pretty much grown when a friend of mine named Heri Kurniawan (btw check his blog here) cast the idea to start delving into the vast linguistic beauty of short stories (or Cerpen, in Bahasa). I didn't buy the idea at first, as I have not tried doing so in the past and thought that short stories are not really explorable. I couldn't be more wrong!


Short stories are in fact truly challenging to make. The idea of being short is that those stories have pretty little chance to convey what is actually happening in the storyline. Different from novels or long stories, the sequences change very quickly, the transitions from scene to scene needs to be done fast, and words are the most powerful tools to explain the ideas that did not have the chance to appear from the beginning until the end of the story. In conclusion, effectiveness is the key. Each lines and phrases need to portray much more beyond what the reader can read. Each lines need to be so powerful such that they manage to pop ideas, atmosphere and mood into the reader without the reader need to see it explicitly written in words. This, I think, is the beauty of short stories. They are lines of hidden imagination.

Exploring more on the short stories, I searched the web for famous ones, the ones that won competitions or were published in prominent media. Reading theirs, I was stunned. Their choice of words and the delicate arrangement of words wow me. As a newbie in the world of short stories, I found Putu Wijaya's stories very thought-provoking. He is witty in his own way, and his story-lines made me imagine wonders.

Tickled by these new discoveries, I am so much inspired to start making my own versions too. So I spent the entire afternoon after my Tuesday exam and researched on how to make short stories. I need to admit, it is trickkkyyyyyyyyy.

Anyway, I didn't manage to construct one whole story, but the one below is my experiment on creating a specific mood and to create the entry of a short story.

Pelanduk

Hari itu hari Sabtu, pukul 9 malam. Bulan masih mati, langit masih rapuh. Bram terduduk melamun, sendirian. Gelas kopinya  setengah kosong, bungkus rokoknya masih setengah penuh Pelayan kafe lalu lalang tidak menghiraukannya, menciptakan ruang kedap yang menyelubungi tubuh lunglainya yang membisu tanpa nyawa.  Tawaran mereka untuk memesan gelas-gelas tambahan, mungkin, selubung usiran halus mereka, selalu dibalas dengan gelengan lemah. Sudah 4 jam waktu berlalu dan lelaki itu masih duduk membatu di bangku sudut, kosong.

Bram meraih telepon genggamnya dengan mata sayu dan mulai membuka kotak pesannya. Masih sama, tidak ada pesan baru. Ia menyusuri pesan-pesannya lagi, membaca satu persatu. Ingin dikoyaknya habis pesan-pesan itu, seandainya mereka nyata. Dalam kertas. 

Beberapa kali tangannya terhenti, arah matanya bergerak ke arah yang sama, seakan-akan ingin menebalkan huruf-huruf kecil yang kini menari-nari di otaknya. Kata-kata mati itu membuatnya galau beberapa jam yang lalu. Membuatnya tiba-tiba bangkit dari tempat tidur kamar kosnya, memandang nanar ke sebuah foto yang tertempel manis di samping jendela, mendesah, menyambar dompet, dan berjalan menyusuri jalan setapak menuju kampusnya. Kegalauannya menariknya ke tempat duduk di mana ia duduk sekarang. Kakinya, dan hatinya, masih enggan untuk menjejak kampus.

“Mas, ada lagi yang mau dipesan?” tanya seorang pelayan memecah lamunannya. Bram terhenyak.