Gypsies "Friends" and Thieves

This particular song has a special place in a small compartment inside my heart. I was only 16 when I first heard this song. Since then, all the members of the original group have died except for one. I am a lansia (lanjut usia) now, a ketandan, an old man who gets by each day reliving the memories of yesteryears. Somehow the musix dished out today does not interest me at all or strike a cord of vein in my body. Perhaps that is what the world calls falling into old age.

The title to this blog I suppose the three types of generic friends that passed through my life at different phases of my period in this world. Yes gypsies, friends and thieves would aptly describe the scumbags that I had to deal with.

During my formal school education in Indonesia I guess was the only time I had true friends, perhaps because of our innocence or the absence of having to earn a living so that we would not go hungry. Even in college I guess this trend continued but unfortunately I have lost the contacts of those halcyon years. Our study years could be summed up by one word and that is we were all hardup. We had very little except for the shirt on our backs. Money, most of us had none. In Sekolah Menengah Atas Malang, Negeri 1, my cohorts had just as much as me and that is one big egg O. Hence we were always hungry in school. The boys at the education ministry placed filling one's stomach at the bottom of the pecking order. As for recreation we just jumped into the nearest river that happened to be nearest.

MY shior or constellation was Aquarius which was thought to represent a peaceful and rewarding life. I believe the peramal or tukang tebak (soothsayer) who said this has to have his head checked at a sanatorium.


The song above I first heard when I was 15 years of age and have never grown tired of it. Music has a unique and special way of harnessing and bonding people of different cultures all over the world. In the morning I took out my laptop as usual around 8 am and tried to look for any traces of past schoolmates and childhood friends that may give me a clue as to where they are and what they are doing. As always after two hours of frustration I decided it was time and stop. Where on earth could they be hiding, I thought to myself, they cannot have just vaporated into thin air.

When I was in KL, I like the First Baptist Church located at high ground called Bukit Gasing. The pastor was Rev. Lloyd de Run. He was a genial man and had immaculate manners. His wife was Chinese and the adopted daughter always followed them to services. Their real daughter was a Miss Malaysia/Miss World winner and the pastor had a son who trained dogs for a living,

How time flies. I remember going to the USIS (United States Information) which was set alongside the Gombak river. Further up  from here was the famous food court known simply as benteng. Often I would walked to Pasar Road, it was no Abercrombie and Fitch but it was always bustling with activities and the prices reasonable provided you know to haggle over prices. I remembered a Malay lady who sold nasi lemak (or nasi uduk in Indonesia). It was very delicious and the prices resasonable.