“Aku Rapopo” is Javanese term, means “I’m
fine!”. It’s currently a hip meme[1]
especially among Javanese speaking communities.It has been popular at least
since late of 2013 through social media, and become more popular as hashtag “#akurapopo”.
Literally “aku rapopo”is telling a good news; asking people not to worry,
whilst it’s actuallya satire.Along the way, it also becomes a daily joke. Here
are some picture which may help you to get the point (I hope it help):
That is just the brief information about the
term “aku ra popo”. I choose to use it in this text with no intention at first.
It just cross at my mind when I start to
write. But then I realize that it’s a specific cultural hip, that may be caught
only by the Javanese-speaking communities. So I think it necessary to make this
sort of prologue. It is not only the word of “aku rapopo” that popular, the
word of “travelling” is more massively well-known around the world.
*****
Nowadays, people travel more and more. They travel with many different purposes:
vacation, hobbies, getaway, working, pilgrimage, family visit, study, or even
getaway from routine. I my self
travel a lot (not that many but I still
count it as a lot :D ) in these late 3 years. My work as a researcher allow me
to do it. I usually extend for days or weeks in my research just to explore the
area as a tourist, not a researcher [Let me tell you that there is a huge
different exploring a new place as tourist and as a researcher. I often trap in
self-problem about it. That could be another article to tell about the identity
issue, you should just wait]. However, both of being a tourist or a researcher
allow you to live in different environment, custom, culture, and way of living
from your home. It allows you to meet people, have relationship with locals, another
travellers, and people that “somehow” live in the area. This text is about
those circumstances that I often deal
with. That at some point I just can response and express it with
#akurapopo.
