CC's Encounter

I’ve made it! I’m sitting alone in the back seat of late model Mercedes, with Madhu driving me to a steel processing plant on the outskirts of Jakarta. I sit contently, glancing vacantly through the tinted window. It’s been almost two hours since I left the hotel; the last of my three day visit to this city in transition. As I push the newspaper aside, I notice an ad for a watch I have always admired – maybe I should buy one as I fly out this evening.

Ahead on the dusty road, is another shoddy village, consisting of 5 concrete shells open to the road – no doors hide the ramshackle furniture. Flagging football posters and a TV blaring are the only signs of life.

Two shirtless men are beside the last building, a lush rice paddy their back drop. I guess their age as close to mine - mid-20’s. How is that man squatting on top of that post, his brown legs pressing against his chest?

His friend, puffing away on a cigarette, lets out a guffawing laugh - his ribs now even more pronounced on his slender frame. What are they laughing about? What’s on their schedule today? Harvest season is months away. Will they check the irrigation channels, repair some tools or just share a few more cigarettes, a few more laughs?

Our car rolls slowly by and unbeknown to the squatting man, he is now staring straight into my eyes. My tinted window ‘mask’ allows me to stare back, long and deep. Have I made it or has he made it? Who cares who’s made it? Have I become a cliché of the privileged few? Why do I have a pen with a white blot on the top? Will that watch I admired tell the time any differently to my plastic one? Cufflinks, frankly, are a pain to put on each morning. I don’t usually sit in the back seat! What have I become? What do I want? What do I need?

I arrive at the airport that evening. I bypass the alcohol and watch shops. I do something I have never done before - I buy a packet of cigarette find a quiet place, light up and think.