Shower Thought 🚿 #2 — There Is No Original
“Be yourself. An original is always worth more than a copy.” — Suzy Kassem (American writer, poet, and philosopher)
Welcome to my second shower thought story. It’s a type of story where I try to share with you a particular topic that is bothering me. Usually, this thought is coming when I’m taking a shower; hence the name. Let’s start with this simple sentence:
Everything must be influenced by somethingThis thought popped out when I was thinking about one of a dish that is considered to be our national dish, beef rendang.
It’s a slow-cooked beef curry from Padang, west of Sumatra. Indonesians are very proud of it. It is considered to be one of the top dishes in the world. Yet here I am thinking:
“Isn’t it kinda same as the curry that originated from India?”
“Is the curry part of rendang being influenced by Indian curry?”
Looking at the geographical perspective, I think there might be a possibility. I try to convince myself here. In fact, there are a bunch of Indian descendants that reside in Indonesia for years. For example “Little India” in Medan. Medan and Padang are on the same island, even though they are not very close to each other.
And the closest island in Indonesia to India… is Sumatra!
We also had other dishes such as Nasi Goreng (Friend Rice) and Bakmi (Noodle) which I think were greatly influenced by Chinese dishes. I once watched a documentary about the existence of Bakmi here in Indonesia. It turns out the word “Bakmi” derives from the Chinese dialect “Bak” which means “meat” and “Mi” which means “noodle” (Wikipedia applauds this). So it literally means “meat noodle”. So for all the street vendors out there, if you serve noodles without meats, you’re not selling Bakmi, my friend 😎
What I want to say is… I think all that is happening right now in the world must be influenced by something. Whether it’s because of history or based on your own experience. There is no original.
Left-handed cultural taboo here in Indonesia where it would be considered rude if you use your left hand when you give something to another person, also exists in Ghana.
The Indonesian language has many similarities with Arabian or Hindi. It might get influenced when there are many Islamic or Hindi empires that reigned over centuries ago.
People are often overproud of something and claimed that something is rightfully theirs. “It’s an original from my country”, so they say. In my opinion, we don’t need to be that far 😂 Like for example the constant debate of cendol, whether it’s Indonesian, Malaysian, or Singaporean. Why is it not enough to just say that it is humanity’s? It belongs to us; humans.
I still think that all things created must be influenced by something. Whether it’s music, arts, dishes, or as simple as a name for your baby.
In order to have something on the right side of the equation (=), you must have something from the left side, am I right?
So what do you guys think? Still convinced that there is something original? 🤔
