9 Summers 10 Autumns

 NAME : Rendi Satrio

 CLASS :  1SA02






BOOK TITLE : 9 Summers 10 Autumns

AUTHOR :  Iwan Setyawan

PUBLISHED BY   :  Gramedia Pustaka Utama

PUBLISHED IN YEAR :  2011







THE CHARACTER(S) OF THE STORY:
Iwan Setiawan
A-boy-with-red-and-white-uniform: Undefined boy
Abdul Hasim: Iwan’s father,
Ngatinah: Iwan’s Mother, Mbak Isa and Mbak Inan : Iwan’s elder sister, Rini and Mira : Iwan’s little sister                                                        
     THE SETTING OF THE STORY:
The setting place of the story is in New York City, America. But in New York, Iwan told his past story in Batu, East Java; Bogor, West Java; Venice, Italy; Yogyakarta; Banyuwangi; Bali; Pasuruan;
The setting of time is from 1974, when Iwan was born until 2010 when he left NYC.
The plot is a mix plot, because in the novel he retells his past story.


SUMMARY OF THE STORY

Iwan was born in the city of Apples in East Java. He raised in a six by seven meters house at the foot of Mount Paderman in Batu. The house had two tiny bedrooms, on very small living room, kitchen, and bathroom. As the only boy in the family, Iwan always had to sleep in different quarters. Sometimes he would sleep in his parents’ room, her sisters’ room, the living room, the kitchen or with his grandparents’ in their fragile home that was made from bamboo sticks. His father is Abdul Hasim. He doesn’t remember his birthday and his parents. He worked as a kenek (an assistant to a public transportation’s driver). After five years working as kenek, He finally had his own driver’s license. He thus began work as a public transportation driver. Iwan’s Mother was Ngatinah. She was also raised in Batu and had never left Batu. Iwan’s Elder sister is Sity Aisyah, called Mbak Isa. She was the star of the school because of her academic achievements, but she failed to pass UMPTN. And her family could not afford to send her to private school at the time, so she had to wait to take the next UMPTN. Besides, that year Iwan’s second eldest sister would be graduating from senior high school and their parents could not afford to pay both of their college tuitions, and Mbak Isa gave her heart away and decided to let her younger sister take the opportunity. Then, she tutored junior high and elementary school students.  Iwan’s second eldest sister is Mbak Inan. She often represented her school for science and poetry competitions. After high school, she enrolled herself into Brawijaya University in Yogyakarta majoring Fisheries. In college, Mbak  Inan actively entered debate competitions. She managed to win a national award for her efforts. Their Family was extremely proud of her; and winning the prestigious award also made it possible for her to receive a scholarship to Japan. For a month, she stayed in Japan as exchanged student. Rini Agustina is Iwan’s little sister. She is the closest sister Iwan had. After finished high school, after seeing how successful her mother’s sister was as the village’s midwife, Rini took the entrance exam at the nursing academy in Malang. But unfortunately, the competition was really tough, and she didn’t get in. Rini decided to take one-year diploma majoring in hospitality at a college in Malang. After she graduated, she decided to help Mbak Mami, her mother’s sister who worked as the village’s midwife. Iwan’s youngest sister is Mira Fatmawati. She was their beautiful doll. Sge went on to study veterinary medicine at IPB (Bogor Institute of Agriculture); and here she began a new chapter in her life. After graduating from the institute, Mira worked at the government division that oversaw the cattle industry in Bogor. She quit her job and worked at the Indonesian Bird Flu Commission in Jakarta.

Iwan was born in Batu, on December 2nd 1974. When he was born, his parents were extremely happy because they had wanted a boy for so long. His birth was a speck of hope: a boy who would work hard and provide for the family. For him, this hope at once served as a challenge and a dreadful prospect. He didn’t know where to start; or how to begin to fulfill this hope. All of his mother’s brothers had made their living driving public transportation cars; His father was a driver.  Everyone around him inspired him; they were so close to him that it felt as though he was born to became them, to drive

When he entered elementary school, he mustered up the courage to stay in school without having my mother at his side. And he enjoyed his time in classroom, because he could “play” with his school subject, his toys. And at the end of the school semester, they were all taken aback by the fact that he had made it to the top three list of most successful student in his classroom. Aside his academic excellence, it turned out that he also had hidden talent. Bu  Sun, my music teacher said that I had a good voice. She trained me to sing better, and sent me to represent the school to several singing competitions. One of his singing friends who had been taught by Bu Sum at the time was Krisdayanti, his classmate who has now become Indonesia’s most favorite singer. Bu Sun was also the one who discovered Yuni Shara, Krisdayanti’s sister.
More than just singing, Iwan had also represented the school for reading poetry competitions.

When Iwan got into junior high school, He felt like he was getting closer to the perceived “challenge” that a man, especially the only son of a family, should be independent and help provide for the family. He had to take his lessons seriously, and he treated his books very seriously as well. He studied hard, perhaps even harder than all his friends. He started getting up really early in the morning, so he could study before he had to go to school. Sometimes he would wake up at one in the morning, and he didn’t care that it was still dark outside, or that he had to study under a dim night, or that there were apparitions around me. He fought off my own exhaustion and fear because he wanted to study; wanted to defeat his fear and failure. So he began the fight against the feeling of “smallness” that was gnawing at him. He got through junior high school with much success. He excelled academically; as did his sisters. Because of that, the reputation of our little house slowly rose toward the light.

SMAN 1 is the only public senior high school in Batu that every parent in that area would like to enroll into. Actually, Iwan would like to enroll his self to SMAN 3 Malang or Military High School Taruna Nusantara in Magelang, but his boat finally settled at the foot of mount Panderman. In Senior high, Iwan began to join a theater club. Being the part of theatrical community was one of the most life-changing experiences he ever had. Aside, from teaching them how to become great actors, Mas Yani, the theater instructor also opened their windows and threw our dream out into the great ocean.

When Iwan started his senior high school years, he began to open his self up. Because He had done so well in junior high school, He felt more confident about his self and he started to develop close relationships with his peers. He began to have a few close friends.  Among his new friends, he got to see great houses with ceramic flooring, spacious yard, motorbikes, cars, video players, telephones, pianos, and piles of books. His eyes were suddenly opened. He wanted to change their fate for better. He tried to tutor some elementary student and junior high school student. More than that, he managed to enroll his self into Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), majoring statistics. He chose that because some of his seniors had successfully enrolled themselves into the school and they were very accomplished.

After Iwan’s father sold his minibus to pay for Iwan’s college tuition, Iwan went to Bogor from Lorena Bus Terminal in Malang. In the next day, he arrived in Bogor with two of his friend who also passed the entrance exam to Bogor Institute of Agriculture. The bus stopped at Baranangsiang Terminal. They were greeted by Mas Imam, their senior from SMAN 1 Batu, who also studied at Bogor Institute of Agriculture.  They stayed at Mas Imam’s rented room until he found their own place. Teguh, Iwan’s Senior High School friend from Batu and Iwan finally moved out from Mas Imam’s room and into another rented room in Bapeund area behind the Baranangsiang Terminal. The house was inhabited by several senior students majoring in Statistics and three first-year students. Most of the students were from other parts of Java, only one student hailed from Jakarta, Mas Mul- Who became Iwan’s roommate. He was very patient in answering iwan’s questions surrounding his life in Jakarta, religion, family, music, the past, the future, and the most importantly, what it was like to major in Statistics. It was one of the more popular majors at Bogor Institute of Agriculture, which was also one of the most difficult majors to study. The faculty only accepts 40 to 50 students a year. Iwan might have been one of the best students in Batu, but here in Bogor his academic achievements seem fairly small compared to other accomplished students. With hard work, and always longing to return to my little house, he managed to finish his first year of college with a satisfactory GPA of 3.3! It was a good GPA at the time.

Entering the second year, Iwan had two major expenses: His college tuition and rent fee. At the same time, Mbak Inan had to pay for her own college tuition as well. Bapak worked night shift as truck driver, Mbak Isa tutored more students, and Ibu contributed in every way she could. Iwan tried to cut down on his living expenses down to the bare minimum. He wanted to finish the school as soon as possible. He wanted to get us out of this misery. Because there was no tother way to cover the growing of expenses, Bapak finally had to borrow money from his brother, Lek Tukeri who worked as green grocer in Pulomas area, North Jakarta. The money they borrowed from Lek Tukeri was used to pay for his rent and college tuition.

Because Iwan would go to Jakarta to Lek Tukeri’s house every so often to pick up his “Scholarship fund”, he felt like seeing more of Jakarta. With Lek Tukeri help, as well as some scholarship fund from Supersemar Foundation, he left the old place and moved to a quiter neighborhood in Bagunde area. Iwan shared his room with another student. His name was Firdaus Ria Herlambang, a second year student at Bogor Institute of Agriculture who majored in Biology and came from Bekasi. Often the weekends, Daus would take Iwan to his parents’ house in bekasi. Daus didn’t only introduce Iwan to his relatives in Bekasi, but he had also taken Iwan to see the city of Bandung and was incredibly touched by it. The journey has its own special place in his heart. The journey opened a new page. Iwan saw a new life, a new lifestyle, a new family and new warmth. His eyes were opened and the world looked so much bigger. Since then, he made commitment with his self to always discover new place, new cities, new culture.

One of the more “serious” journeys he had taken during his college days was with his best friends who also majored in Statistics, during the internship program (KKN) in Pasuruan. Through they had very little money they decide to take crazy trip from Jakarta to Yogyakarta, to Banyuwangi, to Pasuruan, and to Bali. After finished KKN, Iwan return to Bogir to finish the thesis. His guidance instructor was a “popular personality” in his statistics faculty, Mr. Andi Hakim Nasution. He was a great inspiration for all of them. Spending his last year at IPB with Mr. Andi Hakim Nasution was life-changing for Iwan. Though he was very buzy, Mr. Andi had never stopped visiting the library to speak with his students about their thesis and recommended important books to them. With Mr. Andi’s guide and Iwan’s own good will, he managed to finish his study less than four years.

October 4th 1997 was one of the most beautiful and touching days of Iwan’s life. A celebration of life, a winning streak. His parents and Mbak Isa came to Bogor to attend Iwan’s graduation ceremony. On that day, there was a great surprise for Bapak, Ibu, and Mbak Isa. Before the main event began, the best graduates were announced. Out of the several names mentioned, Iwan’s name was also announced as the best graduate from MIPA faculty with GPA of 3.52. He felt like he was flying as he walked to the podium, receiving the award.

Iwan wanted to work as soon as possible so he could pay back everything he owed to Lek Tukeri and “free” his family of the mounting debt. One day, Mas Dindin provided me with a way out that I had yet realized. He talked about his job at the multinational company and the ins and outs of his job as a data processing executive. That night, Iwan gave him his application vacancy at the company he worked for. One morning, Iwan received a message that there was a call from Nielsen Jakarta for a job interview. All his friends in Nielsen accepted Iwan very well. He finally worked at Nielsen that day.

At the end of each month, Iwan would set aside some money for his little house in Batu. He had also opening a bank account for his little sister Rini and Mira, so they could receive money as well. Each month, his confidence grew. He became more comfortable at his job and far more serious about it. After a year, Iwan decided to leave Bogor. Aside from the fact that he often had to stay late at the office, he also wanted to feel what it was like to live in Jakarta. Daus and some of my friends from Bogor took me to the new place.

After two years of working at Nielsen, Iwan decided to seek new horizons, new challenges. He sent out his application letter and attended a number of interviews; and then he was accepted as a data analysis at Danareksa Research Institute.  After he joined with Danareksa, he still made the time to stop by his old office at Nielsen, once or twice a week, to help DP teams finish their foreign project. He worked as a consultant after working hours at Danareksa, He wanted to give something to the place that had given me the first opportunity, where his career began.

One day, there was an email sent to Iwan from Fidi Sjamsoedin, one of Iwan’s colleagues back at Nielsen Jakarta. The email said “Ati is looking for you!”. Mbak Nurati Sinaga was Mas FIdi’s manager at the department of Customized Research. Mbak Ati had moved to Nielsen International Research, based in New York. Maybe she wanted to give Iwan some project in Jakarta.

And the news was amazing. It was blinding. Iwan didn’t think, he just day-dreamed. New York seemed so far away. But now, Mbak Ati was looking for iwan and offered him a job as a data processing executive in New York. That was very amazing, right? Mbak ati sent me an email to arrange for a telephone interview with a senior manager of data processing in New York. Though the interview with Rickie, from Nielsen New York went well or even better than Iwan had anticipated, he still did not dare to hope that he would get the job in New York. At last, the news Iwan had been waiting for arrived.

A few days before Iwan’s departure, Mbak Isa managed to borrow some money, about USD 1000, from one of the students’ parents to pay for his living expenses in the first month of his stay in NY. Because he was too buzy working at Danareksa, he didn’t have time to go back to Batu and say goodbye to his family in person. After transiting for a few hours in Seoul, he continued his journey to New York. That morning, on October 1st 2000, around 10 am, after journeying for 20 hours, his plane landed at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York