Kalatidha was a fictious imaginery novel that told a story of a nameless man, the main character of the plot, who was a prisoner accused for corruption. In his prison, where he felt being the ultimate free man, he read a volume of cuts of old newspapers from year 1965 and his mind wandered around in a mist he created..in different kinds of realms he himself could not differentiate, as they were one.
His wandering mind brought him to the old memories of two twin girls…with one of whom he fell in love during his childhood..He still remembered how he saw one of the twin, the one he fell in love with, died in a fire with her parents… a fire set by a bunch of people..as the family was accused of being a member of PKI – a communist party in Indonesia who was said as the mastermind behind the tragedy of 30th September 1965, the killings of seven generals.
The surviving twin, ended up crazy, in her own traumatic memories. While the man often found the dead twin’s bodyless spirit wandering around in a nearby foggy bamboo forest, he also often spotted the surviving twin’s soulless body roaming in the village and in front of her old house, which was now occupied by another family through a questionable ownership.
“Yang satu menjelma bayangan yang terkadang tampak dan terkadang hilang, yang lain masih berkeliaran di muka bumi dengan diri yang kadang hilang kadang kembali”
And one day, an ambulance and a group of bulky men dragged her into an asylum..as her quiet stare started to irritate the new family living in that house..
“…tatapan mata sayu itu tidak seperti mata yang menuduh tetapi mereka merasa tertuduh…”
There, in the asylum, she met another bunch of lunatics..No, not her fellow members of the asylum..but the doctors and guards on duty there..who, despite their avowed sanity, acted like beasts. They treated the girl like a caged animal..they kicked her..they raped her by turns.
Then, she wished if only she had been killed as well in the fire.
“Mungkinkah api baginya terasa begitu sejuk, dingin, indah tak terperi, sehingga sosok-sosok terbalut api itu membuatnya merasa iri, sepi, bagai ditinggalkan sendirian di dunia yang fana ini?”
And finally, came the judgement day..when the wandering spirit of her dead twin possessed her once souless body..They had once been two, but now they became one..an invincible warrior princess..
In the following 256 days, 256 men were murdered brutally..They were not only the doctors and guards who once raped her, but also those who burnt her house down, and those who, in that day, stood silently and watched the fire went rampant..and enjoyed the sight.
I enjoyed reading this story, like I enjoyed reading other Seno’s stories. The hidden meaning was simple, but Seno never failed telling a cliche in an unpredictable ways..and he did it with full power.
One lesson I gained from Kalatidha was how people always believe what they want to believe..how everything will turn out the way we portray and see it..
One instance set in the plot was how, in that gory 1965, thousands of people were accused, arrested, and killed because people believed they were members of PKI, having no chance to prove themselves first
“Setiap kali disadarinya betapa buruk citra dirinya dalam dongeng manusia disambarnya kaki siapapun yang terendam lidah ombak di tepi pantai kekuasaannya. Demikianlah ia akan mengada selama manusia menghendakinya.”
