Salihara

I just got the news: There will be Komunitas Salihara in the near future. A complex built to give art a proper place. To build an enriching community and hopefully society. Salihara once was my home. I didn’t know that until my mother told me several months ago. It was the place that my late father built for us, our own nest, far from our demanding extended family. My mother and sister always told me on how my father used to take me to go around the kampung with his motorcycle while the neighbors admiring me because of my physical appearance at that time (I once was white, have big eyes and Shirley Temple-like hair). They used to tell me stories on how my late father loved me dearly and tried his best to raise his own family while he kept the role of the wise big brother in my mother’s big family. I never remember my late father. I know him only through stories. Good stories, in fact, that in the end left me wonder whether the stories are true. i mean, it's sounds too good to be true. To me, he is a mere shadow. Almost mystical. I know that I am weird in feeling this way, but honestly, that is what I feel. And now, a news on Salihara brought back those mixed-up feelings…