Tropical jungle, concrete jungle

My parents were raised in a small town called Singkawang located in West Borneo/Kalimantan. My mom would often recall her ideal childhood of living in this pollution-free environment where children roamed freely in and out of neighbors’ houses. Wearing nothing but sarongs, they would swim in clear-watered rivers at least twice a day. They’d also secretly escape to a nearby tropical jungle to play.  There, they’d pick mangosteens to eat, hike, and play hide-and-seek. The jungle served as their ultimate playground.

Mangosteen

It wasn’t until their maid, who accompanied them during one of their jungle trips, was possessed by a spirit that they finally got caught. According to my mom, they were walking around the jungle one day when they encountered a group of people who had dug up one of the graves commonly found there. They were moving the body into another location. When they arrived home, the possessed maid shaved both of her eyebrows and sat still staring at everyone with an empty gaze. Seeing this odd behavior, their grandma (my great-grandma) found out what they had secretly been up to. That was the last time my mom and her siblings ventured into the jungle to play.

From a tropical jungle filled with mangosteens and spirits, my parents moved to the concrete jungle that is Jakarta. My brothers and I were born and raised in this bustling city. What I remembered mostly growing up here is the hours I spent in our family car stuck in traffic, and not being allowed to play outside because the streets are dangerous, filled with cars and motorcycles, and the air outside is polluted. My teenage years were mostly spent indoors in air-conditioned malls. Parks are for hobos and drug addicts. It was an urban upbringing minus the gadgets and knick-knacks that kids nowadays have at their disposal.

Jakarta Traffic

The memory of my childhood in Jakarta is interspersed with some years I spent in LA. I accompanied my mother in LA when she was pregnant with my youngest brother. During that year, I attended a kindergarten in the suburbs somewhere in East LA. To say the experience of being put with a bunch of 5 year olds without any knowledge of the language, as well as social rules was a culture shock is an understatement. But that story is for another blog, another day.

Singkawang

 I’m heading to India via Singapore tomorrow. I’m looking forward to experiencing Hyderabad and Kolkata with Sudhir, Radhika, their boys, as well as Jeff and Sreela.