There was this one moment in Unimas where I encountered a strange incident.
I was sitting on the second floor of Cempaka college, where my room was situated. There was a kind of festival going on at the ground floor. People were flocking, although not in great number, to the front stage of the Cempaka main office. A live performance was being held there.
Chorus of bands started performing. Some were quite ok, some were not quite. But all of them were united in providing a good entertainment for all of us. It was a relief to sometimes see people coming together to this kind of atmosphere.
Then there was this one band, oblivious to my attention, assembled themselves on stage. The lead singer was a female, and she didn't possess any obvious character that would warrant my attention. She sat there, attuning her guitar, and waited for her turn to perform.
To be honest, I didn't like her. Maybe because of her appearance. Could be because of her looks. Or perhaps because of her bland expression. Or it could be all of them blended together to make me detest her without any concrete explanation. It was just like, I disliked her for no apparent reason.
But then her magic unfolded. Once she played her song, all of that hatred dissipated quickly into the cold night. To the rousing audience, she sang Drama band's Cerita Dia closed to perfection. It was like one of those episodes of America's Got Talent where Simon Cowell habitually looked down upon participants only to be blown away by them afterwards.
The only difference was that, I was watching it live. My impression towards her totally changed in an abrupt second.
Some people do have this magic of changing people with their gifted talent. Changing people's perception in a split second is no easy task, but she executed it with perfection. In fact, she didn't even think of changing people's perception towards her when she braced the stage. She just did what she do best...performing in front of the crowd.
Sadly, I never saw her again after that. If music is her way to connect herself with other people, then the best thing for her to do is...to play on.
