RABUku: Menolak Lupa Pak Raden

Kabar meninggalnya Pak Raden 2015 lalu, menyisakan kegundahan di hati saya. Bagaimanakah nasib karya-karyanya nanti? Saya merasa sayang karena anak3 belum pernah merasakan fenomena Pak Raden, si pencerita yang jago menggambar. Apalagi dokumen saat saya berkegiatan bersama beliau di komunitas KPBA tidak ada. Yah, walau kenangan itu selalu melekat di hati. 

Lalu kemudian, salah satu kawan editor di penerbit Noura memberi kabar bahwa buku karya Suyadi alias Pak Raden akan diterbitkan kembali. Hati senang bukan kepalang. Walau mengaku sebagai penikmat Pak Raden dan dongengnya, sewaktu kecil saya malah tidak pernah baca karya-karyanya kecuali dalam bentuk buku pelajaran. Ingat buku 'ini budi'? 

Dan ketika penerbit Noura Books membuka preorder, saya segera mengantri. Inilah kesempatan saya meneruskan warisan Pak Raden ke anak3 .... because he was that good.

Ada dua judul yang menjadi comeback pak Raden, yaitu Seribu Kucing untuk Kakek dan Pedagang Peci Kecurian. 

1. Seribu Kucing untuk Kakek

Pak Raden dan kucing itu sahabat sepanjang zaman, maka tidak heran jika salah satu bukunya melibatkan kucing. Berawal dari seorang kakek yang tidak memiliki anak cucu, ingin memelihara anak kucing. Dibantu istrinya, dia meminta anak kucing ke siapa pun yang dijumpai, tapi nihil. Keesokan paginya, kakek nenek itu terbangun oleh suara kucing. Bukan satu kucing, tapi banyaaak sekali. Haduh, bagaimana ini?

Cerita ini selain memunculkan rasa iba tapi juga bagaimana kakek memecahkan masalahnya dengan cara yang cerdas dan menyenangkan semua pihak yang terkait. Dan di akhir cerita, si kakek nenek pun mendapat berkah tambahan atas kemurahan hatinya. 

Buku ini lebih tebal dari kebanyakan buku anak-anak bergambar. Jadi saya lumayan ambil napas panjang sebelum membacakan untuk anak-anak. Ilustrasi kucingnya membuat si bontot gemas, apalagi ada 'seribu' kucing dengan berbagai corak dan polah. 

Walau settingnya di kampung dan mungkin tempo dulu sehingga masih bertelanjang kaki (hal yang sangat disukai anak3 saya hehehe), tetapi ceritanya tak lekang oleh waktu. Love it. 

2. Pedagang Peci Kecurian

Seorang pedagang peci memutuskan untuk beristirahat di sebuah pohon rindang di hutan. Namun, ketika tertidur, sekelompok monyet mengobrak-abrik peci dagangan dan kemudian dipakai. Terbangun dan kaget, si pedagang mendapati monyet-monyet itu di atas ranting pohon yang tinggi dengan mengenakan peci-pecinya. Apa yang akan dilakukan pedagang demi mendapatkan kembali pecinya?

Lagi-lagi melibatkan binatang dan bagaimana ide cerdas tetap bisa mengalir di keadaan apa pun. Walau digambarkan si pedagang marah, tapi tidak terucap kata-kata negatif di dalamnya. Sehingga suasananya tetap cenderung jenaka. Biasanya, anak3 saya ketika dibacakan cerita yang subjeknya ada yang dikerjai, mereka akan marah. Nah, di buku ini, mereka turut tertawa. Istilahnya, emosi terjaga lah. Ga pakai drama-drama atau becandaan slapstik. 

Looking forward for the next titles. Hanya sedikit usaha dari saya untuk berterima kasih pada beliau karena telah hadir di masa kecil saya. Dan ketika dewasa berkesempatan bertatap langsung dengan Pak Suyadi, yang bagi saya dia bak sosok kakek yang tak pernah saya rasakan. Saya tak akan lupa. Dan semoga anak3 saya pun juga begitu. 

Launching buku ini akan diadakan hari ahad ini, tanggal 19 Maret 2017 di perpustakaan kemendikbud senayan mulai pukul 9 pagi loh. Yuk ketemuan di sana. 

Truly Mother: Si Belang (the Stripes)

I was inspired by a blog contest held by KataKucing that produced catslendar 2014. A calendar that used cats as a model. Not some ordinary cats, but the famous cats on facebook. You could order it on her fb page. Too bad I don't have enough wall to hang it.

That's why I prefer to talk about cats and not
joining the contest because they want us to talk about the models, Let's Adopt, and KataKucing. And I can't think about anything less than my first pet, si Belang.

I think I was still at kindergarden age when my mother finally accepted her as a pet. First, I need to tell you that I have some blurry memories about it. That's why this writing would have been a little weak.

Ok, Belang was my first pet. My mother was actully hate any kind of pet. As the most responsible person in her family, having a pet was more like an add of life in her life, and that pissed her off. That is why she always tried to get rid of her. But one day, Belang came, and she was pregnant.

Maybe because of that, my mother was forced to accept it. You know, she was a nurse, and something inside her told not to refuse a pregnant cat.

I think that was her first pregnancy. And she finally made it. Two kittens. Look the same to each other. Was it possible that they were twins? I don't know.

I felt excited for the first born in my house (hell yeah, there would be more babies in this house. Like a lot!). I learned that kittens are very protective at first. They only allowed their mother to get near of them. I like to hear them miauw-in in whisper. Cute.

But then I learned about the wild world. The twins had been kidnapped. They were gone. Just like that. They were never getting out of their box in the back room. And suddenly nothing else left there.

Belang frustrated. Her typical miauw-in sounded everywhere at anytime. Day and night. I could feel the sorrow. She began thinner. Her face looked down. And after a while, she heard something. A voice. A kitten voice. Very small. Very far. But it got nearer. And then she quickly ran into the source. There it was. Her child. Only one who finally came back. Maybe their father had kidnapped them. And it was the only one who survived. We called him, Wiku.

And Wiku grew bigger yet coward. And he didn't feel embarassed joining his little brothers (after a couple times delivering) feed his mother breastmilk. Belang didn't care, she let him did that. Maybe he was her forever baby.

Belang's fight hadn't finished yet. She had a couple times miscarriage. I remember one dark night, by a flashlight I could see bodies of kittens without fur all over the balcony. Just like a PKI movie. And in one dark corner, I saw her there, 'crying'.

Then the last time she delivered, she kept asking us to go to her box to see her kid. While usually cats hate to see human when they were just having a baby.

However, I must say, Belang was the best mom ever. She kind of picky of choosing the man. And she did taking care of her children. She wasn't some whore cat like I had the last time which will standing early in the morning below a parking car, closing its eyes, let its only white neckfur blowing, and when a male cat slowingdown his steps, I could see her took a peak of him. B***h.

And we kept Belang for quite a long time. I don't remember how many cats that we have from her. All I remember that I had to pass lots of cats which were running trying to catch my walking feet while bringing one tiny chicken bone.

At the end, we finally have to bring her to a traditional market because we couldn't take care of her anymore. And I think my father chosed the furthest market because she managed to come back to our house.

Now  our house still become a perfect place for cats though the road has getting wilder. Not because the male cats but the motorcycle that constanly killed kittens with its attitude. And still I wish I could know Belang better.
#my500words