However, first off, I’m back. Yay?

So yeah, after months in catatonic phase finally I entered this dusty lair once again and found that I was such an awesome kid back then. Then I decided to revive this blog again although it won’t involve Igor, electricity and cables. But yes, I couldn’t hold the urge to yell “IT’S ALIIIIVEEEE!”

Oh well. It’s aliiiiive.

So, back to the main topic. I know that it’s in slim chance of me to review case studies (altho we could keep the hope up tho) but then I’ll review some books that I’ve read. In that way, I won’t be a lazy bum as I used to be and finish the damn books already.

So today’s book is ‘Babad Tanah Jawi‘. The book got this introduction “… Since Adam’s era” and I simply went bananas. But yeah, there IS Adam inside the first chapter of the book. Seems like all of us want to have the piece of the First Man eh? Whatever.

This book is quite fascinating, really. Many events being told here that I wish will be re-told in classrooms. Oh woe is the day when students have false understandings and accusations of the history. I mean, look, this is an example. Indonesia was colonized by the Dutch for friggin’ 350 years. Three and a half centuries. And how come such a country being colonized in such a long time? History books stated it as devide et impera. Divide to conquer. Just that. Period. Zip. No continuation afterwards. And here we are, the younger generations wondering what went wrong in our ancestors’ mind so they would fall into those bules trap.

Well, this book explains that. Apparently even the great kings in the past got this hobby of quarreling with each other. Friends become foe, sons become murderers, father becomes the masterminds, teachers become the rebels. And everything went into mafia world while everybody said “I’ll give you an offer you cannot refuse.”

And these big guys saw the troops from far faraway land as potential allies so you could imagine what happened next. “Fetch those bules here and make them bow to me and help me. And if they help me, I will give him a piece of a land here.” And if you’re an Indonesian, you gotta see the names of the Dutch people that given by the Javanese people in the past. Awesomely hilarious. With all that brouhahas, no wonder the Dutch people could reside calmly and enjoying all the royal facilities.

Anyway, despite all the good stories that one could munch, I’m a little bit disappointed since this book didn’t talk much about the tragic love story between Hayam Wuruk and (allegedly) Dyah Pitaloka Citraresmi, a princess from Sunda kingdom. Thanks to Gajah Mada’s arrogance, the (was) good intention of marrying a beautiful princess ended up as disaster. And the princess dead. No, the king lived. But yeah, it said the king dead because of heartbroken. AND GAJAH MADA WAS SAID AS VANISHING INTO THIN AIR.

Somehow I hope Gajah Mada is rolling on his grave and sulking, “me and my big mouth.”

Reading this book is like reading History books combined into fairy tales. Interesting stuffs here and there and somehow I hope one would be crazy enough to make this whole book into a movie or series of movie Harry Potter would run away in shame. Heh.