The Independence of Raindrops

August 2023

Amidst the everlasting crowd where I was, there I saw a fine lady sitting below a great tree, under its benevolent shade. I can tell regardless of her make-up or not, she’s a keeper and true to her aesthetics and attitude, her shots are killers. I couldn’t exactly pick which one to feature on my portfolio; she’s just gorgeous. Well, aptly said, a belle.

Though I was lost in the crowds and so was she, waiting for her colleagues to finish a grand event held exactly where the crowd was, my mind just can’t let go from the fact it was raining the morning before. It’s so sunny that afternoon! Given this was at the mountainous Bukittinggi, it was rather chilly. My white Spanish-bought shirt can handle ’em easy.

Jakarta hadn’t got any rainfall for the last couple of months. Even if it did rain, it’s so little I’m not interested calling it ‘a rain’. At that time I was once again standing on Svarnadwipha, it rained like crazy. Is it because it’s equatorial region? Is it because it’s highland? Who knows; all I know is I wanted to collect those rainfalls as much as I could, bringing it to my plants who forever long waiting for a drop of deliciously acidic, no-chlorine water.

I thought I was in the misty Colombian jungle when I woke up that morning before. I remembered Señor William who shared the same hotel as I am in Bali who told me he came from Bogotá. After looking at the world map, Bogotá and Bukittinggi do sit almost near the Equator, as it’s almost the similar latitude. Also, Bogotá is also high-land region, so is Bukittinggi. Yes, I am indeed in Colombia.

That, until the fog cleared and showed the landscape that snapped me back to Indonesia: the pristine rice fields and the Rumah gadang-inspired bungalows and some other folks speaking Indonesian and a bit of Minang. The pristine environment of the montane area with air so fresh I never felt so good breathing. Though I had a melancholy since I didn’t really want to come here as I still had things to do.

Upon the glimmering morning light, I marched, descending to the rice fields where the frogs croaked. Some people stopped me because it turned out I was trespassing, and that jammed my mood for a bit. The show must go on, I said to myself, and I continued marching, until I saw a stray dog and fled as fast as possible. I gotta say my fear of dogs isn’t going away real soon. No cure for rabies, and the statistics say so*.

Thanks to that bewildered mutt, I couldn’t walk further, therefore I couldn’t appreciate the landscape adored by the Victorian people back then. And to add insult to the injury, it rained. No; it poured down. Heavy rain.

The blessed rain covered all the area of the bungalows I was staying in. Fogs continued to settle in, slowly blanketed the clear sky as I observed the rain that never came to my gardens. Being in a mountainous region, it is to be expected it was cold. Not that cold though, as I have prepared for it by bringing cajuput oil to help me stay warm. The blessed rain felt perennial, as it showed no sign of slowing down.

When you think about it, where did these rainwaters came from? Knowing what kind of geology and ecology West Sumatra is, it is safe to say it was local; nearby, there was a vast jungle with trees and ferns unbeknownst to me (safe to say deep in that jungle, a titan arum awaits to bloom, who knows). These green behemoths released lots of moisture and oxygen into the atmosphere, in which clouds and fogs were formed. Thanks to the wind and temperature, the water molecules precipitate, and boom! Rain!

Is it, though? Of all we know, can we create water out of nothing?

I may be wrong, but from what I understand, most, if not majority, of Earth’s elements are not renewable, which means they basically just recycled stuffs. Yes, there are tons of them but… Earth is not infinite. The fact that our Pale Blue Dot is one of the smallest planets in The Solar System amplifies the concept of finiteness of our resources. Yes, oxygen may exist in other celestial bodies, but we’re discussing Earth’s right now.

Those waters dropped from the sky and landed on the Ranah Minangkabau may not be originated from Ranah Minangkabau herself. What if I told you that hydrogen and oxygen molecules might already travelled the world far beyond our mathematics capabilities? It has been doing that for billions and billions of years, even before first life form appeared.

As we know, it’s not just water that move; wind, and by extension, air; and even landmass. They move, circling the Earth for the remainder of Earth’s existence. They don’t really settle in their places, like we do, moving to one place and another, whether we like it or not.

The water we consumed may be once consumed by a person you never know existed, back in time. Beings from the land before time even had consumed the water you used to take a bath this morning. The rainfall that blessed the highlands of Bukittinggi might have doing the same thing back when The Epic of Gilgamesh was composed. Water on our planet is that ancient!

OK, so, if water can move freely from one place to another, why… can’t we? You see, what must you do before arriving to a foreign country? First, you must have a passport; second, make sure you have a visa, travel or work; have none of them, and be ready to be denied entry or if you ever be able to enter, deported. That’s what some of us, people, experience. Even moving locally can be troublesome, like what I experienced here multiple times in Sumatra.

We made history, no doubt. And what else do we made/make? Countries. All with their glorious borders and laws, with local cultures as a defining trait. With the existence of countries, we defined our kind with various sentiments, be it a warming ‘brotherhood’ or a vicious us-versus-them stance. I’ve seen what understanding values of countries do to people, and I have mixed reactions towards it.

Our technological development does allow us to commute to wherever we want, but it’s only for a few percentages of people. Some of us are bounded to the very soil where they were born, never to leave even if they can. Some of us wanted to enter a place for causes we want to fight for, but we just can’t. The least we can do is to commute locally, but yet again it felt confining.

Knowing where the waters have been, why can’t we be like that? Waters don’t give a damn about borders; if they were formed in Colombia and evaporated to the skies above Brazil and The Atlantic Ocean and passes through Central African countries to Southeast Asia and eventually fall here on my head, they’ll do that just fine. Waters don’t have to apply visas, managing passports, documents, and declarations, or concerning about foreign laws and policies. They just drop down from the sky with no fucks given.

The vibe of Independence Day was still coming in hot below the mighty trees around The Jam Gadang. The crowds were euphoric, loud noises were the thing, and people were celebrating the fact that we’re no longer Dutch or Japanese colony. It really was a great day for the local people of Bukittinggi as well as the lady I took photos of, but not for me.

I looked up at the green, lush leaves and I closed my eyes, feeling the wind that breezed onto my body, all with its cool air. I remembered the raindrops that morning. Knowing what concepts lie under our understanding of independence — yes, one of them is countries again — I never think true independence is already in our hands. We never be like water, flowing freely wherever it wishes, even if there are obvious obstacles and perils. They just flow through, not giving a damn.

I reflected on my past. Was I independent? Was I really set myself free from The Netherlands and Japan? Or was I in the clutches of unexpected conquerors who build a stage and make me as their Pinocchio?

Then I remembered the blessed rain. As it is a force not bound by our human concept, no borders nor laws can stop them. Unlike us, bounded by something we made up and put in pieces of paper and/or a bunch of pixels in an LCD monitor.

I continued marching. Now to chow some local cuisines.

*West Sumatra, as of 2023, holds 5th position as Indonesian province with the most rabies cases, about 5,900 recorded cases. There have been efforts to vaccinate people against it and culling stray/feral dogs, but the numbers of cases barely swindled