Chika Bagaskara, is the eldest daughter of Katon Bagaskara. She has reached a quarter of a century of age and has a lot of desires. “I am fickle, depend on what book I am reading,” she said. “If I am reading Kahlil Gibran, I could be like a poet. But if I am reading a chic-lit novel, I could turn to an urban cutie.”
Having a high interest in reading had made it difficult for her to stay focus on her study in LSPR. She would take a break for numerous times and went off to do various things. From doing an internship in a PR company, event organizer, café, to art gallery. On the seventh semester, she started to feel restless after seeing an advertisement in Kibar, a start-up incubator. “It looked fun. And I was never really into college life anyway.”
So, she went to ask her parents’ advice. “Dad told me to meditate. Oh wow! How do I do that? I did not have the slightest idea.” Long story short, Chika decided to quit her study and chose to join Kibar. “It is indeed full of fun, to be friends with all the start-up gangs.” She got so many new things to learn.
So, what is the most impressive thing? “It is not about the job, but about poetry.” Chika loves to write poems since she was a little girl.
One day, Chika was asked to read a poem in the café where she worked. “My heart was pounding. I felt naked. That was the first time I opened the other side of me.” All this time, Chika kept her hobby to write poems to herself. “Normally I am a cheerful person, but my poems are dark and bleak. Dad was always worried whenever he read my poems, he would check on me, ‘are you okay?’…” So, rather than facing her dad’s questions, she kept her poems hidden.
After reading a poem in that café, Chika found more courage to express herself and her masterpieces. “This is a fragment of my poem….”
“Shadows. What more should I write to satisfy me? Yes, I have to be full, they said. But how to be full if I am always hungry?”
