One Legged Beggar

Almost one month ago I had to attend a compulsory-course aiming to increase its participants’ ability in english. The course was held in the one skyscraper in the south part of jakarta, rasuna said exactly, not really far away from my office. Indeed, it needed habbitual adaptation in the way I commute daily. Usually I go for my ofice by ex-japan-air-conditioned-t

rain, it takes only fifteen minutes from my starting-station in Bintaro with a five-minutes-additional-walk from Palmerah station to my Gatot-subroto-office. That is a main reason persisting me to reside permanently in where I’m living now. No traffic jam, dustless, no need to say: bronchitis.

That linguistic course asked to rearrange my everyday-morning route, whether by trains, buses, or motorcycles. Hence I decided to keep taking the train up to the further station, Tanah Abang, and continue my trip by kopaja to Bank Indonesia bus shelter, and finally by trans jakarta bus with once transitting on Dukuh Atas shelter. Later on I realized that I merely made my self travel 1,5 times further than I supposed to do. What a shame! The next day I figured out the shorter ones, I stopped in Palmerah Station, kept walking for five munites to the Gatot Subroto Street, taking any bus going to Cawang, and continuing my trip in mampang intersection by 66 or 20 Kopaja. That was absolutely shorter and cheaper, but less comfortable.

That unusual routine gave me a lot of new, eye-opening and heart-wrenching stories about how tough to survive in this harsh capital city. One experience I’d like to share was about the one-legged beggar on the overpass in front of my course-premise. First day I passed that bridge, I saw a beggar sat there, cleaning the floor by using a coconut-tree-made-from broom. It was absolutely a mercy coming out from my self when witnessing a middle-aged man, restlessly, cleaned public spaces without even asked any money or help from any body. What I did next after glancing him with a vivid pitifull was giving him some coins and hoped those would be useful for his today-meals.

And you know what? Something happened during two months later making me feel that I was an idiot and too-easily-melted-hearted person. Actually that beggar sat over there, precisely in the same spot, everyday. He merely moved his broom to the left and the right, bringing the rubbish to the edge then bringing it back to the middle. He repeated it over and over without even dumped that rubbish to somewhere out there. He kept that waste for the next day when he will sit in still the same place,use the same broom, play the same garbage and deceive people by attracting their mercy and help. Whoof…what a perfect acting for everyone who passed that oeverpass once or twice.

But this is jakarta, this is life.
Stronger, survive.

Ratu Lanang Sejagat