First Post on PAL: A stroll arround Pram's House

Pramoedya Ananta Toer was the best Indonesian author. He wrote novels, short stories, essays, all with accurate histories. His most notable work was the Buru Quartet tetralogy. Reading his works is like watching a classic movie of colonial era. Jamie James in his article “The Indonesiad” in The New Yorker wrote: “the Buru Quartet is saturated with the gothic gloom and steamy atmosphere of the rain forest”.

Just like any Indonesian, we called Pramoedya Ananta Toer by his first name: Pramoedya, or, Pram for short. You can read more about Pram in wikipedia :)

Some moons ago I had an exciting project, we want to celebrate Pram in Blora, his hometown. Blora is a small town in north side of Java. It's a typical small town, calm, not many things to do, and the weather is nice. So this is a good opportunity for us to take a stroll to his house, where he spent his early life.

^{Little Pram's House}
His house is small, looks like an abandoned house. Inside this house, we'll find many books and other stuff that reminds us of a Young Pram's life.

^{The front door}

There was a poster hanging at the front door, with a very Pram's quote: "Read it, don't Burn it". There was a time when the new order regime banned all of Pram's works. They swept bookstores and libraries and burned all Pram's books they found.

^{Pram's old typewriter.}

To imagine that Pram actually used this typewriter to write his books, I feel a little bit sentimental. Besides the typewriter itself was vintage. I'm a sucker for such vintage things.

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^{Pram's little brother, Mr. Soesilo Toer}
Mr. Soesilo Toer is one of a kind. He has a doctoral degree in economic and politic fields and yet he choose a very modest lifestyle: being a garbage collector, and have a small farm of chickens and goats for his daily needs. He is very respectable man indeed.

^{The small town}

^{The traditional sweets}

It was a nice stroll. Pram's works is highly influential in Indonesian Literature. It's a good memories when we can recollect some of his works and reflecting it in his own hometown, while Blora itself has warm climate and calm nature, a typical central Java small town. Although IMO for tourists, this wouldn't be a great option, as there are not much you can do in such small town.