Excuse me?!
My newly 'discovered' grand-auntie responded to my ignorance about the extensive family tree from Papa side that I don’t master at all. So yes, I suddenly have two grand-aunties visiting Ubud. I discovered the younger sister a few years ago. We belong to the Heritage but had never been in the same event until the day we met. Her American husband is diplomat so they often lived overseas. Anyway, she came to the Festival with her eldest sister that I met at dinner last night. They were overly excited about having me as their grand. Since we met years ago, she always excitedly introduced me to her friends as her grand. I don’t mind but… I just felt shy having to listen about what I do and have done. Okay, I take it as a compliment.
This morning I took a seat behind the elder grand-auntie, the one I just met last night. She was wearing an old batik in a ‘complete set’ (with embroidered kebaya and gold jewelries). I loved it! We had some 20 minutes before the session start when she started talking about book she’s writing. She writes ‘messages’ her mom passed to her. She takes it as family heritage that she has to preserve it in writing. She reminded me about our great great grandfather as literary figure in the early 1900 in Solo. That he was avant-garde at that time. Listening to her, I asked if that answers my inquisition about how I got western way of thinking. Excuse me?!
She was just surprised that I knew so little about my ancestor. That great great grandfather was a sort of ambassador that once lived in Netherlands and UK for long time. I was glp glp glp. I knew names and a bit history here and there but please don’t ask me how to put everybody in the family tree. So she continued her mini lecture on how our ancestor ‘introduced’ equality through his literary works. He was from keraton but he didn’t like the idea of distinguishing people by social status. He even made batik with 'anti-keraton' design. At this point she stopped and looked at me with her big eyes.
She is one who doesn’t believe in coincidence. Last night she thanked the Universe for having brought me into her life. This morning she found in her suitcase a semi old batik, copy of that anti-keraton design, that she had it made decades ago. The original batik has been totally damaged by age. She didn’t understand why she took that Sida Luhur batik with her. Since she believes there must be a message out of the coincidence so she is going to give that batik to me! I choked! Are you sure? That is yours and you had it copied because you love its meaning and you often wear it? Excuse me?! I stopped 'arguing' with her. In the end, I got double literary sessions this morning. We continued the same topic between sessions before I left her to have lunch with my Festival friend from Australia.
What a way to start a morning! I ended up attending about 3.5 sessions out of 10 sessions in 2 venues. I’m not interested in talks about myth, folklore, and supernatural so I skipped those to spend time with friends. I saw many people did the same. This event is a pot where friends from all directions meet. Some of our friends in Singapore and Australia came. It’s really nice!
I enjoyed the poetry session in the morning where the three poets read their work in such a style. A real style! I felt like crying because the performances were so fine and touching. And the second session was about a boy who fled from Afghanistan and came ashore in Australia. In the new land, he managed to get his life back as a rugmaker. It’s a touching story about pain in life and cross culture. I decided to buy his book for gift. Book signing is always nice. The family was warm also the biographer. To have a private chat post the talk is always super.
I decided to skip a jalan-jalan sore with poetry reading along the way. The sun was too bright for a walk without shade. I already felt hot and sweaty after the last session. I still have homework to do at home. Tomorrow is another day.
The grand-auntie in her grand outfit.