I thought I had seen it all…the island of Bali in all its glory…the flowers…the beautiful people…the food…and the sense of Time! I guess I am proved wrong when I drive into Ubud, a hill station of sorts that has the highest concentration in Bali of musicians, artists, writers, restaurateurs, retirees from across the globe, has beens, wannabes and the odd couple. The person I am encouraged to meet by my Balinese Home Stay family is Janet De Neefe.
Wayan, the head of the family, tells me that Ibu Janet is a celebrity in Ubud. Particularly after the work she has being doing for the community in the last five years.Google her and you will be enlightened about this distinguished and accomplished lady from Oz. I don’t…because I want to know the real Janet, the person behind the persona she portrays and so I hesitantly telephone her to seek an interview. A cheerful Aussie voice on the other side greets me with “Om Swastiastu” and promptly confirms lunch the following day at Indus, one of her two popular restaurants, the other being Casa Luna. The night is spent with Wayan and his family drinking Arak (Balinese Toddy), munching on pork satay smothered in peanut sauce, pink Balinese rice, Tempe and a marvellous spread of diced fruit. I like the snake fruit (the skin resembles snakeskin that’s why it’s called snake fruit}. Wayan’s wife, Kadek smiles at me and giggles. In Pidgin English she asks me about Sanjay Dutt. She likes his long legs and the way he dances. “Do you know him”’ she asks me. “Yes” I lie. This is because I don’t know much about Indian Film Stars even though I had lived in Mumbai for a number of years. Suddenly loud music fills the air. Incredulously I hear the theme song from Umrao Jaan. Yes its India, Hindus and film songs that mesmerise the Balinese.
I am an honoured guest in their home. Kadek places her palms on my face and says that we are one as our religion and colour of our skin is the same. What a wonderful thought. People everywhere in Bali greet me with such adoration I feel embarrassed that I haven’t brought a part of India with me to share with them.
The next day I walk down to Indus a short distance away. It is a restaurant that has two levels. The interior is an eclectic mix of a Parisian café, touch of modernism and a sprinkling of Balinese culture. On the walls the bright paintings by Janet compliment the furnishings that are in lustrous shades of red, pink, mauve and orange. The roof is made of alang alang…the typical Balinese grass roof. The open terrace on the far side overlooks the mini valley below. The lush green vegetation soothes the eyes and quietens the soul.Janet is sitting on the terrace on a round café table dressed in her pink lucknavi kurta and slacks wearing Indian chappals on her feet. She smiles and waves to me. I walk over and say namaste to her. She breaks into a grin and says that she had been to India with her Balinese husband Ketut in January this year. Apparently they had visited Delhi, Jaipur and Agra. “The Taj Mahal is like a vestal virgin waiting for the day of reckoning. I was moved to tears. Ketut couldn’t understand why I cried. I felt like I had been there before. The energy, the beauty and the ethereal web that cocooned the Taj were divine.” She gushes and goes on to add, “Yes I also visited Rishikesh and stayed at an ashram.
The following day Ketut and I bathed in the Ganges to cleanse our spirits and seek our Gods blessings. It was so cold and the single rod heater didn’t really help. But the layers of soft cotton quilts under which we slept kept us warm. I felt I had returned to my roots”.“I just love the colours of India, the spicy foods especially street food and the textiles. I wanted to buy everything I saw” she exclaims. There is something bizarre in this conversation. Here is a woman from Oz, dressed in Indian clothes married to a Balinese. She has become a Hindu and an Indonesian citizen with four beautiful children named Dewi, Krishna, Laxmi and Arjuna. Her life is like her interiors…a diverse mix of cultures uniting in harmony. In her I see the spirit of Bali. An acceptance of Life as it is without prejudice. The food she orders arrives on the table. Each plate is decorated like an artwork. The flourish of a leave from watercress placed delicately over each dish is her signature. I hesitate to touch the artwork. She eggs me on to sample the Balinese cuisine laid out especially for me. Wish all you readers were here to partake of this delectable banquet.
I recommend for starters the Grilled Salmon Caesar Salad and for the main course Janet’s favourite dish of Chinese Spinach with chicken and rice. The other dishes I am honoured to taste are: Smoked Marlin and potato salad with salad leaves, avocados and capers in sweet chilli mayonnaise; Balinese seafood Satay on lemon grass, prawns and white fish ground with spices and coconut vegetables. But the piece de resistance is the Betut Bebek (smoked duck), a speciality of Bali and eaten mainly at ceremonies, seasoned with a lively blend of spices and then baked in coconut bark over smouldering coconut coals for a minimum of six hours. A few glasses of Santa Ema Gran Consejo Sauvignon 2004 are an essential accompaniment!After having eaten a meal fit for a king I am confronted with an apparition of sorts, Janet’s very own lime–papaya meringue pie for desert. This is followed by a comforting warm cup of the famous Bali coffee.I can hardly concentrate on the conversation.
I am lulled into the feeling of attaining nirvana, sitting on the terrace overlooking the green expanse below. This is Bali presented by a lady from Oz. This is Bali that comforts the weary and calms the hustle and bustle within us all who come here.Later in the day, I visit her Honey Moon Guest House and also to be a spectator at one of her internationally well-known cooking classes conducted by her, to carry on the interview that was delightfully interrupted by Janet’s culinary extravaganza. The euphemism of Guest House is misplaced. It resembles the Balinese version of an old Indian haveli, the ornate doors, high ceiling and ambience. The manicured lawns, fountains with lotuses, statues of Lord Ganesha and Lord Buddha gracing the gardens and the azure swimming pool make it a paradise for honeymooners.At the Honey Moon Guest House.
I meet Ketut Suardana sitting in his garden playing chess with the local Pamangku (Priest). He is quiet, unassuming and shy. I introduce myself and he breaks into a smile. He asks me to sit down next to him and seeks my opinion on how to play chess. He tells me that Indians were the best chess players. I nod my head in agreement. He laughs and tells his opponent about how Indians nod they heads. Yes I am Noddy in Neverland! There is a saying that behind every successful man stands a woman. In this case it’s the reverse. I ask him what he does and he tells me that he is the Manager of the famous Bali Football Club (International Premier League). With a little encouragement from me he adds that he is also Treasurer of the Ubud Village Council since 1983; Manager, Bali Body Building Association; Manager of other football teams viz. Tunas Muda and the Persegi Football Club. He is designing and building a new hotel a stone’s throw from the present one. And he also assists Janet in running the many businesses they own and operate.He asks me if I had read his wife’s book and without waiting for my reply he goes on to describe the two marriage ceremonies they had: in a church in Melbourne and the other in Bali in traditional Hindu style. He goes on by telling me his love for his wife and how he is content to be behind her supporting every idea she conceives and wants to make into reality. I see in him the depth of his culture and respect for women and their place in his society.
Janet first visited Bali in 1974 when she came here with her parents. The memories of a vibrant and exciting Southeast Asian cuisine and culture lured her back like sirens in a Greek epic. Her childhood recollections of visiting markets with her Maltese grandmother and experiencing the colours, smells and rhythm of life only helped her in her resolve to revisit this island paradise to make it her home.After she gained a BEd in Arts and Crafts at Burwood State College in Melbourne, she decided to take a break from formal education to work in restaurants. She returned to Bali in July 1984 and met her future husband, Ketut, on the second day of her holiday. In the following years, she returned to teaching in Australia, in between spending time in Bali. She taught Balinese cooking at the Council of Adult Education in Melbourne for a brief time, giving up this work to open her first restaurant, Lilies, in Ubud.
In 1989, Janet and Ketut were married. The next year they established the Honeymoon Bakery and Guest House, the name reflecting this happy time for them. In the following years, they opened two more restaurants, Casa Luna and Indus, as well as the Casa Luna Home wares shop and, most recently, an emporium selling Indonesian antiques and textiles.The bombings of 2002 jolted the Balinese and the rest of the world. Janet was devastated by the sheer destruction of life in paradise. She couldn’t comprehend how life could be wiped out by mindless violence, till then an alien concept in Bali. Nothing had prepared her for death in paradise. Along with her husband and the Balinese she cooked free meals and offered comfort to the victims and their relatives.
This incident only brought out her inner strength, the ability to rise up and make a difference in society. To give back to the island what she had taken for so many years. Thus was born The Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.Prior to the first Festival she felt the need to write down for posterity the beauty of her marriage to a culture, to its people and above all to highlight the numerous layers of subtleties that existed in its culinary perfections. Her book Fragrant Rice speaks of the pain after the bombings, the vibrant life she encountered in the markets, families, relatives, customs and rituals.
It is a love story: The Wizardess from Oz falling in love with a Balinese, setting up home, begetting him children, mastering the culinary techniques of Balinese cuisine and further making this into a successful business employing hundreds of locals. Read the book dear readers if you want to be inspired on how to appreciate the intrinsic values of family, food and yes love that so many of us have lost in the race to catch the morning train to work.She narrates one incident after her marriage when she was taking stock of her presents her husband walked into the room and announced that nothing belonged to them but to the community in which they lived, the people who had helped out in the ceremony. Most of the presents were given away except for some odd bits and pieces.
This incident showed her the true spirit of the Balinese. The island didn’t belong to her. She belonged to Bali. Suddenly, she moves her shoulders from side to side and giggles uncontrollably. I guess the Chilean wine is doing its work. That’s what I thought till she announces that she was an usherette at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne many moons ago, a witness to some of the greatest performances including those by Barry Humphrey’s. Her training in ballet, tap dancing and jazz ballet was a delight. She earned ribbons in Irish Dancing. It’s show time folks! Hah! That’s what Rod Steiger said in All That Jazz, I guess the same applies here albeit with a touch of Bali mania.
Now back to the Ubud Writers & Readers’ Festival that was launched by Janet in 2004. The conception was based on the premise that the festival would instigate the economic recovery of the island. It also attempted to showcase Indonesian writers with the aim of eventually translating more Indonesian works into English so that they could be introduced in to mainstream international literary circles. Of course, the numerous children’s workshops only helped in dispelling all notions that it was an elitist festival.Each festival increased awareness of the intricate diversities of cultures fusing in art to become one in thought. The myriad faces of the international attendances mingling with the Indonesian Diaspora brought about cohesion of purpose, to see the planet as one global village where the leaders of social development, political peace and creative soothsayers combined to make a concerted effort to bridge the adversities and to translate them into commonalities of purpose and hope.
The growing attendances from festival to festival were encouraging. In it reflected an inert goodness in mankind to throw away the hatred of generations accumulated by our ancestors, to cloak our selves in a brave new world of perseverance for peace, religious harmony and respect for diverse cultures.Without the benign assistance of the Indonesian Government and the tremendous work done by the Balinese Community as a whole Janet could never have achieved such worldwide recognition for the festival.
Today according to Harper’s Bazaar it is one of the top six literary festivals in the world. And this is just the fourth year since its inception! Her life in Bali reflects the true nature of this wonderful country, the unity in its diversity: The fact that though it has the largest Muslim population in the world, yet it is a Republic. Equal rights to all who live within this great country… Indonesia Zindabad (Long Live Indonesia!).If perchance you meet Janet De Neefe and her gracious husband Ketut Suardana say Namaste to them. And when they reply Om Swastiastu fold your hands and bow your head ever so gently. Peace to all and happiness to those who bring love with them.
For, as John Lennon said, Love is all we have.A word of advice, leave your hang ups behind and bring all the love you have. And if you don’t have it you’ll find it here. Trust me.
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Om
