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Dear Mr. Gates:
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Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 11:51 WesternIndonesiaTime Subject: Sophan Sophiaan's Deathly Hollow at Ngawi
It was certainly not a nice birthday gift when on Saturday morning of 17 May 1958, my birthday, around ten o'clock I found the news on TV about the road accident that caused Sophan Sophiaan to die on his motorcycle, a Harley Davidson. The accident was when he slipped in a hollow on Salak bridge at Ngawi, East Java, causing him to fall and dragged by his motorcycle. At that moment he was a leader of a 1.908 km motorcade tour around the island of Java to commemorate 100 year of Indonesian Resurgence Day of 20 May 2008. On this day a hundred years ago some young Indonesians formed an organization called Budi Utomo that became a significant organization to encourage other young Indonesians for their struggle toward the Indonesian independence day of 17 August 1945. Sophan Sophiaan was an actor turned politician. He became famous after in early seventies he played in a movie called "Pengantin Remaja", or "Teenage Wedding", with Widyawati who later on became his wife until his death recently. The movie "Pengantin Remaja" was inspired by the success of Hollywood film "Love Story", a 1970 romantic drama film written by Erich Segal based on his 1970 best-selling novel with a same title. It was directed by Arthur Hiller, known as a tear-jerking tragedy, considered as one of the most romantic movie of all time by the American Film Institute, and was followed by a sequel, Oliver's Story in 1978. "Love Story" starred Ali MacGraw and Ryan O'Neal and also marked the film debut of a then-unknown Tommy Lee Jones, who played a minor role in the film. (source: wikipedia.com)
Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 13:12 WesternIndonesiaTime Subject: Sophan Died After My "Between Motorcycle and Helmet"
Preceding the deathly motorcycle accident of Sophan Sophiaan, something happened to me that although I hope it has nothing to do with the accident but I think I should write it here. On 14 May 2008, in the morning around half past nine my sister was preparing to go when she found that the car, a Chevrolet Blazer, was unable to start. It had not been used for more than three days, and probably the battery was dropped because a small light inside the car often turned on all day and night. I was in the bathroom that moment, when the maid asked me to help with the car. By the time I was out of the bathroom, the car was stuck half way out of the garage door. It was because outside the garage door there was an askew wall approximately 125 cm high, so whenever the car would go out, it should be turned left first, otherwise it would hit the wall. That day, because the battery was malfunction, the steering wheel was heavy so my sister was unable to turned it fully. I helped push the car back to the garage with the maid and a neighbor's maid, then turned back to the bathroom. Less than five minutes later, I found that the car had been pushed out again, with the help of a neighbor's driver and a lad. Although this time it was able to move much farther, but again it stuck because of the left mirror on the outside of the window was so close to the wall. I helped drove the car by turning the heavy steering wheel much to the left, making it able to get down to the street. Yet it was still useless because the battery was dropped severely that even the indicator lamps on the dashboard were unable to turn on. When the neighbor's driver tried to charge it with the battery of an Isuzu Panther, it was still unable to start the Chevrolet Blazer engine. So the car was then parked in front of the neighbor house, and my sister went with another car. I ventured to call Hang Tuah, an authorized service station for Chevrolet, and a mechanic there advised me to charge the battery at the battery charger shop, because the battery of Isuzu Panther was from a different capacity. I told my sister about that, and she turned back home, then she went with me to the battery charger shop. We found one near the Mall, and a man there said that it would take around two hours to charge the battery, or about two o'clock it would finish. While waiting for the battery being charged, she and I went to Cinere Mall. She went to the bookstore while I went to the Musholla, a place for pray, on top of the cinema. After practicing afternoon pray there, I went to the basement of the Mall, to an Internet cafe, Best-Net. It was an Internet cafe that seem conducive with my consent to move up to the eternity, since they located at the basement so they have no computer number 4, instead computer number 3A. And it was there I wrote a joke in my ex-senior high school friend mailing list, a joke titled "Between Motorcycle and Helmet". About my observation toward the motorcyclist. Whereas those riding big and expensive motorcycles like Harley, BMW, Ducatti and others, tend to wear helmets that can still expose their faces. Probably, I thought, because they think they have purchased the motorcycle expensively so if their faces were unseen, they would felt loss, nobody would recognize them riding the expensive motorcycles. While those riding small "bebek" motorcycle, "bebek" means "duck" and it is used to call the small motorcycle mostly Japanese made, would tend to wear helmets that hide their faces, so they can tell their friends that they were riding cars. Of course it was just a joke. In case of me who only ride a borrowed bicycle, I felt lucky because whenever I failed to greet people I know, it would not be a matter, they would feel lucky for not having to say hello to me who only rides a bicycle and rather crazy. Again, of course it was just a joke. Three days later came the news about Sophan Sophiaan died after his big motorcycle slipped on a hollow at the Salak bridge in Ngawi, East Java. According to the news, the cause of his death was by injuries on his chest..........which was between his motorcycle and his helmet.
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Thank's, A.M. Firmansyah Tel. +62812 183 1538
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