Jakarta Memories

This month, I dug into my childhood memories to create ‘Swimming Lessons’ - a short story published with Blue Sea Writers.

The piece is entirely fictional but it builds upon specific memories of growing up in Jakarta.  There really was a guava tree in my backyard.  And I spent many evenings squatting down to devour a steaming bowl of noodles on my street corner.  

In the story, I wanted to explore the relationships within the household especially between family members and staff, all from a child’s point of view.    I can’t help feeling, however, that I’m only scratching at the surface with this story.

I can’t quite capture my childhood memories on paper:  The steamy aroma of simmering broth.  The satisfaction of slurping it down with slippery noodles.  The grey mystery meat of ‘bakso’ meatballs, forever chewy and always tasty.  The glow of neighborhood faces, lit by flickering lightbulbs, kerosene lamps and the burning tips of clove cigarettes.  

Like Proust and his tea-soaked madeleines in ‘Remembrance of Things Past’, I am desperately hoping to recapture those lost moments.

I recently read another story by the writer and journalist, Manuela Saragosa, who also happens to be an old Jakarta friend.  ‘Billy No Mates’ made me nostalgic for the everyday magic of Jakarta, the seamless stitching of local superstition and infallible logic.  

I’ve also been catching up on my Indonesian literature.  I finally read ‘Man Tiger’ by Eka Kurniawan.  For anyone interested in contemporary literature from Indonesia, I highly recommend this book.   It’s often described as ‘magical realism’, which it is, but it’s also more than that.  It captures the way fable and myth are woven into the very real and everyday lives of people, especially in Indonesia, to explain the complex - sometimes terrifying - magic of human relationships.  Next on my reading list is his other book, ‘Beauty is a Wound’.

For next month, I’m attempting to write something a little different.  I’ve challenged myself to whip up a short story that I have no absolutely no experience with.  So, I can’t rely on childhood memories for the next one!   Will post here when it’s done.