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Dear Mr. Gates:
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Date: Tue, 20 January 2009 11:48 WesternIndonesiaTime Subject: An Intentional Mistake Of Dusk Praying Time
18 January 2009, around five o’clock in the afternoon I spotted a dry plant in the hanging pot outside my bedroom’s window. I went outside and watering the plants at the front yard of the house. Around thirty-five minutes after five o’clock I managed to finish watering the plant and went back to my bedroom to watch the news on TV. Rahma Sarita was hosting the Kabar Petang news program with Divy Lukmansyah whose last name sounds a little bit like my name Firmansyah. Approaching 17.45 o’clock, or a quarter to six in the afternoon, Rahma informed that there would be a break for the "kumandang of adzan Maghrib". "Adzan" is the call for praying; Moslems have five-times-a-day praying times, each of it started with the "adzan" call. "Maghrib" is the dusk praying. "Kumandang" is an Indonesian word which means "reverberate". After the commercial break, Rahma appeared again and apologize for it was not yet the time for "adzan Maghrib". Each of the five times praying has its own specific time, and it keeps on changing according to the circulation of the sun around the equator. As you may also know, along the year the sun keeps on moving around the equator, further North, then approaching the Equator again, then further South from the Equator, then back again and so on. It causes different length of day and night, in the winter each day’s time is shorter in Europe and North America and other countries at the North, while in summer, each day’s time is longer. Although in Indonesia the difference is not too wide, but still there are differences between the day time in June and in January. Therefore the beginning times of dusk praying Maghrib are different in January and in June. In June it starts as early as 17.47 o’clock, while in January it is as late as 18.20 o’clock. Since Rahma had appeared several times in recent days Kabar Petang, actually she must had known that on 18 January the adzan for Maghrib should had been around 18.20 o’clock like in the previous days, because it would be unusual for that time to change widely in just one day. Yet it seemed like she intentionally made the mistake, to response to my letter about the clock that stopped a quarter before four o’clock. In that letter I wrote about "…..Friday 16 January 2009, around six o’clock in the morning the clock was not working, and it had stopped at a quarter to four. And it was in the next morning after I recognized the tumbling bamboo trees a day earlier..…." As if to make sure I realized her response to that "clock that stopped at a quarter to four", she appeared wearing gray blazer and dark brown blouse inside similar to the color of the clock. After mentioning her apologize for it was not yet the time for "adzan Maghrib", Rahma mentioned "….and we’re still waiting….". I have no idea what was her meaning of "we’re still waiting" , but maybe it was about waiting for your helping to realize the "test".
Date: Tue, 20 January 2009 12:16 WesternIndonesiaTime Subject: Fire At Tank 24 Of Plumpang
A few hours after Rahma’s appearance with Intentional Mistake Of Dusk Praying Time, approaching ten o’clock at night on Metro TV there was a Breaking News about the fire at Plumpang. At first it was reported as a fire in a gas-station nearby the fuel depot, but later on it apparently was the fire in tank number 24 in the fuel depot of Plumpang, the biggest fuel depot in Indonesia, located in North Jakarta. It began with an explosion, followed by huge fire as high as a hundred meter, consuming approximately 2500 kiloliters of Premium car fuel at tank number 24. People in the houses nearby the depot had to evacuate themselves to prevent from bigger fire that might cause disasters to their houses. Around ten hours later, at approximately seven o’clock in the next morning, fire had stopped, and only one tank was damaged. For me, the tank number 24 has the meaning that if I should get married soon in accordance with my New Year resolution of "From Single Four To Double Four", I should be better not keep on staying in the house of my sister which is located in Depok, that sounds like “depot”, or it would cause a disaster.
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Thank's, A.M. Firmansyah Tel. +62812 183 1538
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