An Eid Mubarak and An Afterthought

السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

/May peace be upon you./

What an Eid Mubarak means to you? 

An Eid Mubarak to me... is something that I have to deal with annually. It doesn't mean it's bad, it's truly the most amazing moment of the year. It's the time after a full month-fasting, so it's a celebration. 

Eid Mubarak is a moment you can see yourself for the past whole one month you've become, you've grown. It is a moment you can reflect yourself as a Muslim, as a person, who try to be better in so many ways, to always fulfill God's orders - see everything by not only eyes but also by a heart. It is a moment you can open your heart and see people you know; you hate; you love, and try to forgive their mistakes slowly even though it's really hard to do. I know it's hard because it's human nature not to forgive others easily. But I always remember that God always forgives His servants. He is the Most Merciful of all things and creatures in this world. I believe a human can forgive too. 

Eid Mubarak is the time that you see for the past one month you were asking for your safety, forgiveness, success, and always remember Allah. Eid Mubarak is the time you see a beautiful warm light towards you and you are aware that it is something you've missed after a whole year of ups and downs of your life. Eid Mubarak is the time of the year that you can hug your hopes so tight, then you let them be free - be some things that will be achieved somehow, someday. It's always a reminder for me to know that Ramadhan was coming, and then it didn't feel like it's a whole month passing by - because it feels like it's only a couple days. You will regret some prayers you skipped already in this month because it happens once a year. Once. 

Sometimes you feel like you are close to Your Creator, sometimes you don't. Eid Mubarak is the time (for me) that you get to know better and closer to Your Creator. And, you can see Him through everything you've done, you will do in the future, as long as it's positive and make a good impact for others. You can get to know Him better through your love to your family. You can get to know Him better through your passion in life. You can get to know Him closer through your problems in life. Yet, you can get to know Him closer through your absolute happy times of your life. You can get to know Him better and better if you want to learn to be a better person. You will see magnificent things in life, and you started to think that all of those things are His creations, His wills. 

I've seen a lot of Eid Mubarak in my life. The ages are absolutely different every year. The places might be different. But what I always have (the same thing) when an Eid Mubarak comes, and that is: I have the same full members family, sometimes I'll get more. The feels of joy, bliss, blessed, and just happy - are the same in every Eid Mubarak. Nothing will change in this celebration day. I am beyond blessed of this day finally comes. I am beyond blessed I see myself as I am today. Alhamdulillah.

I hope every Muslim in this world would have the same feeling as I have to this Eid Mubarak. Let us be grateful for what we have, what we've become. Don't forget that Allah is with us. He is ALWAYS with us, no matter you are in the top of the world or you are under the deepest ocean. Let us enjoy this moment with our loved ones. Let us be happy - and I hope it'll be contagious to other people and it will become a habit for us to make ourselves happy - to make other people happy.

Minal aidzin wal faidzin.

Happy Eid Mubarak 1439 H everyone. I hope you have a very great magical blessed day! :)

Golden Sunrise at Ranca Upas

Can I ask you something? Would you want to go traveling somewhere 'nature' with your friends during Ramadhan month? Because I would. Oh, actually I already did! It happened couple weeks ago when my college semester is over and holiday started to came.

It was really spontaneous. My friend, Ilman, asked me and the others to come with him to Ranca Upas. We were more than twenty people at first, then half of them said they couldn't join, so it was unfortunate. It was Friday night until Saturday afternoon. It's super quick, right? We were chasing for stars at night and the beauty of sunrise. Turned out we're only nine people and we started going to Ranca Upas from Bandung at 9:30 PM. It took only 1-2 hours - we arrived at 11:45 PM. My friend already borrowed two tents, sleeping bags, and mattresses to rest a little bit before the sunrise. It WAS HARD to build a tent, honestly, and we were all bad at this kinda thing - except for my two friends who are great at outdoor stuffs. We were done building a tent at 1:30 AM, way too long... I know ha ha.

We ate Indomie first at local stall before chilling under the stars. When we finished, we went back to our tents. The stars... Masya Allah. I couldn't stop saying those words. God made all of these things. The starts were beautiful. At first it was cloudy, but after awhile the stars came out and it was... magnificent, it was like a dream. We talked about about our lives while seeing the stars in front of our tents. It was cold, but worth to see! My friend started a fire from firewood to keep us warm, while the others were cooking us for sahoor. I laid down above the mattress, seeing the stars were shining and I was happy seeing shooting stars! It's AWESOME. We ate for sahoor then listening to slow instrumental music then fell asleep.

I woke up at 5:30 AM, so did some of my friends. We saw blurred sunlight in front of our tents. Some of my friends were still asleep. The rest of them and I decided to take a walk a little bit around the field. It was full of grass and mud. The nature whispered quietly and I was aware of that. It was like you were fully conscious but there were nature that sparked between your eyes and ears and you still wouldn't believe that - it was stunning.

This was the last photo before the golden sunrise. It was about 6:15 AM. We went back to our first place where we built our tents, then this view showed up. I was shockingly happy seeing this with my own eyes, furthermore I was beyond happy seeing the result of my film being scanned. The results were amazingly smooth, to be honest. 

After this beautiful view of sunrise we were enjoying, we went to some sort of deer's captive breeding. It was kinda cute, we took some pictures of us with the deer, then we went home at about 9:00 AM. We went home happily. 

For those who haven't been to Ranca Upas, you have to. It's just a short escape for you and your family / friends to avoid the bustle of the city. Make sure you have your own private transportation and don't go there by yourself, especially women. Let yourselves blend in with the nature, feeling the calmness of the breeze, yet seeing the spectacular shining stars at night and beautifully sharp sunrise in the morning. You won't regret the beauty of nature, after all.

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All photos were taken by Yashica fx3 super 2000 and film Ektar 100 (Oh how I love this film so so much!)

Hope you guys have a great Eid! (I wrote this on the night before the Eid) xx

Women's Empowerment Center [Architectural Project]

I believe everyone has his/her own faith. A faith itself will be found in anything that happen to go through in everyday life. I found mine through my recent project of my college. 

For the past five months, I'd been working on my final studio project. Firstly, I was doing fine but only following the time and what lecturer said - nothing pushed me to do more. But, when I know that students could pick a site to build any function they wanted, I thought it might be great that I chose my site beside Saritem Street. Those who don't know about Saritem, you can see its history here.

You should've been asking me why I have chosen that site, right? Well, let me explain the way my major works on this final studio project. The sites are divided into three groups: city center, urban, and sub-urban. In every group, there is a sub-group, which contains sites in different streets or particular areas. City center focuses more on public - how you build a building without breaking the city landscape and how you make a compact building. Sub-urban focuses more on landscaping - how you create a building without destroying the nature and treat the surroundings well. While urban... is in the middle between city center and sub-urban. My friends said those who got urban site is in the safe field. Students couldn't choose the site they wanted, but they could choose the site in the sub-group. I was chosen in city center and I have four different particular sites in two different streets. Short story, I chose a site beside Saritem Street. 

I was thinking about the women who live around Saritem Street. I kept saying to myself that those women have rights to live happily, they can pursue their dreams - without being a prostitute. I was trying to make a place for women to gather and make themselves empower by doing productive and positive things. So, I made a Women Community Center. But through time and a lot of considerations, I changed it into Women's Empowerment Center. Again, you've been wondering why I named that building 'Women's Empowerment Center', right? Right..., guys? Ha ha ha.

Here's the thinking process:

So that was my thinking process of getting a real function of Women Empowerment Center. Through the thinking process, it was the thing that pushed me to do more and more, and to seek about women's emancipation. I'm not talking about strong concept of feminism, I'm talking about humanity that happened to be women who are the topic that I brought to this project. 

It was the most unexpected process that I've ever been through. I met a lot of amazing people helping me improving this project. I am grateful for that. Once, I was stuck to search about flow of activity (it's about how far any activities can flow through the building, who are the users of the building, how many times the users use the particular spaces, etc.). Then, I was given a contact person from government (Women's Empowerment Division). I met her and we talked about everything related to women's empowerment and children's protection across the country. It was unbelievable, the person is the old lady who cares about women and children. Her name is Titik Haryati. And from that meeting, I was sure I was no longer confused about flow of activity. 

There were a lot of ups and downs moments while I was finishing this final studio project. But luckily, God had good plans for me to keep good family and friends to support me both physically and mentally. I joined some events and an organization that focus on women, one of them was called Fat Velvet, a collective from Bandung. Therefore, I realized that it is important to at least have a strong self-awareness, then awareness about human's issues in today's society - not only about women, but about all mankind. 

I ended up finishing this project happily, because I got a lot of life lessons for me, and I hope I can share it with you in this post (even though I might get a little overlap explaining things). I found my faith along this process, and that is I believe in kindness and humanity. Lastly, I dedicate this project for my mom who sees through me as a whole human without a doubt, she believes in me - her family. I also dedicate this for women out there who are still struggling to find lights, to find peace within themselves, and to find the right path of their lives. 

All photos were taken by iPhone 6s and edited in VSCO.
The maquette was made by my friends, Filene Krizia (existing site) and Novita Florentina (the Women's Empowerment Center building).