Antara Anyer dan Jakarta

Song name - "Antara Anyer dan Jakarta" - Sheila Majid

I received a SMS from Hendra today that he was meeting with one of my ex-client team members, GPU. Hendra used to work for me in a bank merger project in Jakarta - I was there in 1999. It brings back a lot of memories. Hendra would not have messaged me if he did not have the same flashes of deja vu - meeting with people from the past... this was one of the good project experiences I had in my career in consulting. After all, there were very few of us who has these fond memories still around the same company.

How time has passed ... It was a time when I was still young, impressionable, motivated. I headed out to Jakarta during the period when Megawati was elected president. The previous election shed blood and many did not want to go to work at Jakarta at that time. I was just promoted at that time and was eager to "take on new roles". I was promised to lead a technical team, and my "friends" - colleagues I was close to was going for the project. It was led by a good charismatic leader. The team had already been there for a while to build the merger plan. It was time to implement the plan.

This was my most memorable project. When I went there, I was given a pager. The pager was a security device which the firm subscribed to using a security consultant. The pager provided key information to tell you when to run or when to stay put, it also had different levels of security alert.

But I found the country very friendly and safe. I actually really liked the people, the client and found a lot of comfort in the environment. I "co-led" a fun team, a small 6 person team which managed the technology integration aspects - in my final role - I was a one person leading about 20 men in rollout teams. Thinking back, this must have indeed been very challenging for a chinese female like me then. My co-team manager was an easy going local - he is still around the firm. My client manager was a steady individual, who drew a lot of strength from my input. We got along very well and I was a good trusted advisor. I presented in Indonesian to the CIO twice. We rolled out 20 branches, and in one incident, we were locked in a branch overnight due to security issues outside. I was driven around by a driver who was a standard norm in indonesia. My driver smuggled durians into my apartment for me when I asked for the "best durian" in Jakarta. I slept in a room with 15 other females during a "client away" trip. During our weekends we would go to Puncak (the hillsides) for some jagung bakar. I created a reusable warehouse for recycling equipment. I worked in that warehouse which was small size of two conference rooms, underground, with about 20 smoking men all the time. I had the worst rollout incidents in this project - all things went wrong at one time that it was 2 nights of sleepless nights before we were able to go off. I regret that I left in a hurry, because after that I left for another offshore project in Taiwan.

The Sheila Majid song Antara Anyer dan Jakarta still hangs in my memory of those days. Not because of any love story (thats what the song is about!), but the experience and the people whom I met, and that I never went back there for the last 9 years - I said I will be back but I never did... it brings back a lot of memories.

And the best thing was, I did go to Anyer. One day, a few of us asked our driver to drive from Jakarta to Anyer and to the corner of Java island, took a ferry to Sumatra and back. It was just another town at that time, but when I heard the song, I knew the meaning will always ring in my head as long as I remember the good old days then, the camaraderie of friends and long lost acquaintances. I cannot remember all my team members, but there are a few HP, ESS, GPU, AW - these are my clients who were mad enough to be with me on that journey.

I hope I can say again, I will be back. I miss those good old days, and respected all of the people I was with then.