Meandering Thoughts…

        Am I jinxed? It seems that every time I get a new phone number, something happens.

       "Aiyya you! Your mouth aaa… eeii. Touch wood!" a friend of mine would say if she ever hears me saying that. Then she would proceed to knock on any wood available around her at the moment. Hmm… wonder what she’s up to these days. I must make a mental note to contact her later. Oh well, back to the subject.

       Since I’ve been here, I’ve changed my phone number quite a number of times already.

        Let’s see. The first number that I used was the ’standard issue’ Simpati network given out to all of us by the attending seniors during our orientation week. Because the rate was making my pocket bleed, I soon changed to the cheaper Mentari network. Then not long after that, I defected to XL because it supposedly had the cheapest deal around. Everything was fine, but soon I started experiencing problems with the network. Calls can’t get through, messages not sent, and at times there was no coverage at all.

        Disgruntled, I switched to IM3. The rate was cheap enough, the coverage was good, and plus, because most of my contacts were also using IM3, I got even lower rates for calls and SMSes to the same operator. Everything was perfect.

        Semester break came and I flew back to Malaysia. Upon landing at KLIA, I turned on my phone and voila! No network. I guess there was no global roaming with IM3. No matter, because I had planned on using my Maxis line that I kept active anyway.

       Two months later back in Makassar, I switched back to IM3. I text messaged my parents to tell them that I had arrived safely and will begin classes soon. Surprisingly, they didn’t reply. Okaaaayy… So, maybe they hadn’t noticed the SMS yet, or they were busy and didn’t have the time to reply. I kept on sending the usual regular messages to them, but even after a week, still no reply. By that time, I was feeling rather hurt. Full of self pity, I imagined that they all had forgotten me, so busy were they with their own affairs. Oh, how insignificant my existence was to them. Boo hoo hoo!

       Then on the first day of the second week, I got an extremely worried SMS from my mother.

        "Are you okay? Are you well? We haven’t heard anything from you. Maybe you were busy settling in but it’s been too long."

Huh?

Eyyy??!

Chotto matte! That’s my line!

        As it turned out, IM3 was having problems with its overseas network. SMSes from abroad can get through but none can be sent out. Ahh… what a relief. My family still loves me!

        At first I thought I’d ride it out, thinking maybe the problem will be fixed soon. But after more than a month, there was still no improvement, so I had to change. The problem was; to what? After mulling over it for a bit, I decided to change back to Simpati. I might have to spend a bit more, but at least there’s nothing to complain about the service.

        Two weeks after I used Simpati, IM3 was back to normal. But I’ve already alerted everybody of my new number, and it would be a hassle and confusing to change back. Talk about Murphy’s law.

        From Simpati to Mentari, then to XL, IM3, and back again to Simpati. I have now come to a full circle.

        Before this, I had never been able to memorize any of my Indonesian phone numbers. They were just too long. Surprisingly enough, this new Simpati number that I had resigned myself to simply stuck to my mind from the first time I laid eyes on it. There was nothing special with the number sequence, still the same amount of digits. Amazing! It was as if I was meant to have the number.

        Like they say, every cloud has a silver lining. That should have been the happy ending for this story, but it was not meant to be. This cloud was a big, black storm cloud full of lightning charges and no amount of silver linings can help. My descent into the hellish nightmare was just beginning.

        I started getting misscalls from unknown numbers. It was coincidence that I wasn’t available to pick them up, either I was in lectures, wasn’t in proximity of the phone or simply not aware of the calls. I didn’t bother to return them; somehow my instinct prevented me from doing so. I was also not of the habit of receiving calls of unknown origin. Then, one day I received a stray SMS.

        The text message was written in short-form Indonesian that I could barely make sense of. It seemed that some girl mistook me for a guy named "Redi". She asked me how I was, that she was fine, she was staying in a place called something something (I don’t remember) and that her credit was running low, would I be so kind as to top-up her prepaid account for her? I replied to her, apologised and explained that she got the wrong number, expecting never to hear from her again.

       A few weeks later, I got another SMS from (I presumed) the same girl. She said she was staying with somebody called "Om Hasi" or something. She asked me why I was keeping mum, I was making that poor uncle worried and told me to contact them a.s.a.p..  Again, I replied that she got the wrong person and the wrong number.

      After that, I kept getting calls and SMSes from the same number, and again, providence or coincidence, I wasn’t available to answer any of it. Then one day I got an SMS from the uncle himself. He was very polite and fatherly. Just as politely, I explained to him the situation. He was confused. Apparently he got my number from this Redi character’s relative, who was adamant that the number was indeed Redi’s. I asked the uncle to help me sort out the misunderstanding, and to tell the relative specifically to stop distributing my number. Grrr… if I could get my hands on that guy!

        I guess the old gentleman really did help. For the next few months, nobody bothered me. The Simpati number was truly mine at last, or so I thought until one day I got about 20 misscalls from and an SMS from another strange number.

     "Where’s Yuli? Do you know that you are making her mother worried to death? Tell us where you are right now!"

        Oh god, puh~leeeze! Not again.

       Thinking that this was another one looking for Redi, I replied to the sender, telling him I’m not Redi and I didn’t even know who that was.

       "Don’t give me that bull****! I know you are not Redi. You are Nengsi! Stop beating around the bush and tell us where is Yuli!" came back the reply.

        "I’m sorry but I don’t have any idea what you are talking about. This is a big mistake. You’ve got the wrong person and the wrong number. I’m not Nengsi, I don’t even know who that is. And I certainly don’t know anyone called Yuli. Please, stop contacting this number."

       "Don’t bluff. Yuli is the operator at Ramayana* you met earlier. Don’t pretend that you don’t know her. How could you do this to Yuli’s mother? She’s been trying to contact her for days. Now tell us where you are right now!"

        "I’m sorry but but I am telling you the truth. I don’t know any Yuli!"

       "WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW?!!"

        Oh my god! He was seriously pissed off. Did he think I’m a scoundrel that kidnapped this Yuli, or that we eloped or something? What if he could track me down? What if he tries to hurt me, or kill me? This is nuts! When I bought this SIM card, the pack was still sealed and I had to go through all the normal registration procedure. There was no way that this could be a recycled number, could it?

        Gyaaaaaa! I know, this number is cursed! Either that or this is one elaborate, sick joke. Redi, Nengsi, Yuli or whoever you are… enough already! Let me be! Leave me in peace!

CURSES! (Mojo Jojo style).

        I stopped replying his SMSes. That stubborn mule wouldn’t believe me anyway. When I didn’t reply, he kept calling me for days instead. Hah! Shine, baka!

        The next day, I went and bought a new Simpati number. Please, please, please! Don’t let there be any problems with this one.

        So far, these past 28 days have been blissfully uneventful. I only get messages that I should be getting and received calls that are truly intended for me. Alhamdulillah. Hope it’ll last.

*Ramayana is the name of a local chain store.

       Have you ever had one of those dreams that felt so real, that when you wake up you’re confused whether it was just a dream or an actual memory?

        This has happened to me a few times, nothing major though. Sometimes maybe a few of us friends would be chatting and they would go, "Oh yeah, and about that thing that happened that time… yadda yadda yadda…". Then I would interject, "But didn’t that thing then turned out to be like this and this and that…?" and all of them would stare blankly at me. Only then I’d realize that I got mixed up again.

          Dreams are elusive and can be very hard to recall. There were also times when I can’t remember what I dreamt, and then on another night and a different dream, I realized, "Hey, this is a continuation of that dream!" When I woke up the next morning, I can clearly remember last night’s and the previous dream.

        There’s an ATM machine near my place, but it’s not from a bank I or any of my friends are patrons of but we still use it because it’s convenient. The problem is (apart from the high transaction fee) sometimes after punching in the withdrawal amount, only the receipt comes out and no money. And when we check the balance, the amount is still deducted from the account. It happened to me not too long ago and I think the worrying and the stress to settle the problem spilled into my dream.

       In this dream of mine, I went to my bank on an errand. While waiting for it to be completed, I had a chat with one of the clerks and started complaining about the ATM problem. She was very nice about it and explained the situation for me. Apperently using the ATM after office hours would do that. She said when you use another bank’s ATM machine, the bank has to contact your own bank before dispensing the money, and when you use it after office hours, the attempted communication can’t get through and bounced back. Hence the account deduction but without the money. A plausible explanation, no?

        When I told my friends about it (conveniently forgetting to mention it was a dream), they accepted the explanation as the truth! Tee hee… (^v^)