"Tidak apa apa."
May it be
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: A new day. Today I just see bright colors, in the small world of my dreams.
Posts: 384
"Tidak apa apa."
excerpts from a NY times article ~ Domestic Lives - Lessons From a Year in Bali
But throughout the upheaval in our or their lives, the Balinese around me would say, “Tidak apa apa.”
“No what what” is its literal meaning in Indonesian, but it’s more like: “No worries, we’ll manage.” And so we did. We built a school. We tended the children. We went to funerals and mourned the dead. We celebrated the birth of the cook’s baby.
And then we left. By early 2009, it was time to go home, for a variety of reasons. But our stay was astonishing while it lasted.
By sharpening my sense of what actually constitutes a danger and how to confront that danger with calm, Bali made me observe the world much more attentively. When you chance meeting a snake on your way to the bathroom, you watch where you put your feet. The larger, uncontrollable risks of life — well, you adapt as cannily as possible.
Perhaps more important, Bali renewed in me those productive, melancholy questions of where home actually lies. One day my husband found himself at a Dunkin’ Donuts across from a towering statue of Arjuna, a major figure in the ancient Sanskrit epic known as the Mahabharata. After texting me about this funny incongruity, he wrote: “Where is home? Only with you.” ~ now that's the guy I'm waiting for & probably Will Be Waiting, for sure
peace
But throughout the upheaval in our or their lives, the Balinese around me would say, “Tidak apa apa.”
“No what what” is its literal meaning in Indonesian, but it’s more like: “No worries, we’ll manage.” And so we did. We built a school. We tended the children. We went to funerals and mourned the dead. We celebrated the birth of the cook’s baby.
And then we left. By early 2009, it was time to go home, for a variety of reasons. But our stay was astonishing while it lasted.
By sharpening my sense of what actually constitutes a danger and how to confront that danger with calm, Bali made me observe the world much more attentively. When you chance meeting a snake on your way to the bathroom, you watch where you put your feet. The larger, uncontrollable risks of life — well, you adapt as cannily as possible.
Perhaps more important, Bali renewed in me those productive, melancholy questions of where home actually lies. One day my husband found himself at a Dunkin’ Donuts across from a towering statue of Arjuna, a major figure in the ancient Sanskrit epic known as the Mahabharata. After texting me about this funny incongruity, he wrote: “Where is home? Only with you.” ~ now that's the guy I'm waiting for & probably Will Be Waiting, for sure
peace
Currently Active Users Viewing this Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
