A bottle of Johnny Walker scotch sat on the table. Drinking
alcohol is prohibited in the Islam religion and having the bottle in front of
all the guests brought comments and whispers at the tables.
Pak Kuntoro called his managers and
supervisors to the front of the room, one at time. Each person was required to
entertain the guests by singing, telling a joke, or doing a pantomime. At the
end of the individual’s performance, Pak Kuntoro
offered a shot of scotch from the bottle. Most performers turned down the
drink. It is possible that only Christians accepted the drink, and perhaps Pak Kuntoro was checking names on a list. Maybe he was
reconfirming the religious conviction of each guest. No more than three
performers accepted the drink!
It was my turn to come to the
front. Pak Kantor invited me and my wife to the front
of the room and announced that today was a special day for my wife and me. We
were celebrating our twentieth wedding anniversary. The guests politely
applauded.
Pak Kuntoro said, “Mike, tell us what
can you do for the guests.”
I saw a big karaoke screen and decided to sing my favorite song.
“Pak Kuntoro, distinguished Directors of Bukit Asam,
ladies and gentlemen, I will sing The Great Pretender
by The Four Platters.” It was the only song for which I knew some of the words,
but did this song fit the occasion of our twentieth anniversary? I realized
that I could have picked a more suitable song like Love Me
Tender by Elvis Presley. Why didn’t I ask my wife before talking?
The party facilitator handed me the microphone. The karaoke was
advanced to the song The Great Pretender. The little
ball started on the first word of the first two lines of the song: “Yes I’m the great pretender, pretending to be what I am not you
see, pretending …” The karaoke ball stopped on the word “pretending”,
everyone was waiting for the words to exit my lips, but only my eyes were
moving and following the karaoke ball on the screen.
I had stage fright. I was frozen! I was pretending that I could
sing!
Luckily, my wife saved the situation as she took the microphone
and sang the song. I managed to get in a word or two and to turn a red face of
embarrassment to the audience. The guests all laughed and applauded my wife as
she finished. My performance of The Great Pretender
turned out to be great entertainment!
Figure 16
- The author and his wife sing together in front of the Bukit Asam guests on
their 20th wedding anniversary.
It was the only party I ever attended where a bottle of Scotch
was half full at the end of the party. The Muslim guests surely declined the
drink offered to them, and like I mentioned earlier, only two Christian and one
Buddhist guests accepted the drink. My wife and I were not offered a drink—I
did not perform very well and a Muslim man could hardly offer another man’s
wife alcohol. The bottle remained half full for another celebration.
It’s hard to believe that twenty years have passed since that
embarrassing attempt at singing. I am thankful that my wife has stood beside me
on our twentieth anniversary and all the years full of crisis and stress. Being
a miner’s wife is difficult and many marriages do not survive the stress. It
was a reconfirmation of the importance of having your wife standing by your
side, of the importance of her support when the husband pretends what he is
not, you see.
Note: If you wish to learn more about safety at the mining companies, click ad icon below.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario