The Old And The Defensive
Some time ago I had to collect passport photos for visa purposes and decided to make a photograph in Jakarta Photos, Jalan Sabang.
From the outside, this studio is a dimly lit photo studio with ancient furnishings and an oma-oma and opa-opa shopkeeper. I arrived at eight in the morning, this studio just opened.
"Want a photo of what?"
"Japanese Visa"
"Oh, here and there"
I am warmly welcomed by oma and opa keeper of this photo studio trail.
This photo studio is very ordinary from the outside.
But what the saying goes, do not look from the outside is true. These ten years of photo studios were made reference by many foreign embassies in Jakarta. Reputasinya is high, the quality of the photo prints number one.
I so remember Photo Friends in Magelang when photographed in this photo studio, same old photo studio.
What makes Jakarta Photos stay even if the owner of his shop is oma-oma? Quality. I need to go through a 40 minute process of waiting for a photo pass, 20 minutes waiting to heat up the printing press, 20 minutes waiting for the printing process.
In contrast to the advanced photo studio with the latest printer and fast results. Jakarta Sales Photo is not about it all, it's about the results of quality photos. The paper is smooth, the pieces are neat, the colors are sharp, the quality is taken care of completely.
Jakarta Photos are old and enduring.
In addition Jakarta Photo still receive photo print from film. Of the many photo studios in Jakarta, this studio is still serving photo prints from the film with the number one quality as well.
Are the old things abandoned? No, Jakarta Photos keeps things past, a hard-earned romanticism. That's how Jakarta Photos persist, firmly established in the midst of modernity.
If you take a walk in Malioboro you will see many parents with a loose smile sitting for hours waiting for the buyer to come. Old people who remain friendly to every who comes, who do not want to surrender and lose by the times.
It could be that we young people say sorry for them, but they do not want to be pitied. They fight for themselves, with self-esteem that can not be measured by our own self-esteem.
What makes them survive?
Sincerity, nrimo in pandum
Living in Jogja where life feels very earthy, with Javanese values still being carried. No buyer keeps smiling, there is a thankful buyer, the fortune is from Gusti Maha Pemberi. Do not ask for more, do not accept beyond their rights.
Sincere attitude of life that makes the old people in Malioboro still smiling broadly to see his teeth toothless.
A city with its modesty letting the elderly take care of the past.
Kopi Tak Kie in Glodok also still survive, serving coffee since almost a century ago. Three generations passed and the coffee shop was still full of visitors. Stay in the narrow alley and muddy.
For Kopi Tak Kie, consistent is the key. Believing in its coffee suppliers for years and of course returned trust by supplying the best coffee ore. How to make coffee awake for many years makes this coffee shop into a legend.
In line with the story of Kopi Aroma in Bandung, which survives by way of coffee ore with wood and storage that can be many years. Meticulous way of producing high quality results.
We may as young people often underestimate parents. Slow and not adaptive.
In Bandung I always stop by Sources of Cuisine. Pastry and old bakery with the owner is gray hair, the guard also has a matching gray hair.
I always liked to imagine this pastry shop was very crowded in the era of the Dutch East Indies and the newly independent Indonesia. Now this cake shop has an average customer who is also middle-aged, rarely a young child.
That's why if I go to Bandung I always take the time to stop by the Source of Cuisine. Enjoy a recipe that's been nearly a century. Now the restaurant is closed and it feels very sad, live cake shop that survives.
The cakes and bread at the source of the dish tasted much more than the franchised bread outlets in the Mall that, when pressed, the bread was deflated immediately.
Source Dish is not a trend, ancient, modern people prefer to display interesting and bright. Then queue long for a bread that he said phenomenon.
Yet the old and authentic gives a stronger sense.
It's like old people who have been through years of onslaught. Trends are temporary, persistent determination, will last.
We should bow our heads to the conquerors of the times. They are not slow and not adaptive, they just take a lot of time to think carefully.
As the restaurant is hereditary keep the old recipe. Made with a small fire and flat, takes a long time to cook. Patience that maintains quality.
Young man impatient, old man. All just a difference about the point of view. In the end the old and the surviving that teaches the art of conquering the times. After all, if you need advice, to the experienced, to the parents we ask for advice.
And we too will grow old. So is not it?