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“I declare myself an artist starting from 1954, because I only consider my national-scale work. Before, I was only a Bintang Pelajar (Student Star) who won local competitions,” shared Titiek Puspa, or ‘Eyang Titiek’ as our editorial team calls her. “How many years has it been?” she asked. “It’s been 66 years,” we answered. “Oh dear, am I not over it by now?” she replied with a laugh.

As she mentioned, the 66 years only covered her years as a nationally-known artist. Her journey as a singer began years before that, since her days of competing in local singing contests as a school girl. The Finery Report was granted the opportunity to speak with her for an hour-long interview. Eyang Titiek is a warm figure with a fantastic sense of humour, not to mention a fascinating life philosophy.

Titiek Puspa, who is 83 years-old today, was born on 1 November 1937 with the given name Sudarwati. Her name was changed three times due to her being a sickly child. “The Javanese would change their children’s name if they keep getting sick as a child. From Sudarwati, to Kadarwati because I fell ill, and then Sumarti because I stayed ill. Even then, I kept falling sick, and once I changed my name to Titiek Puspa I ended up getting cancer and heart disease,” she told us with a laugh. Indeed, Titiek Puspa has had to battle cancer and heart disease in the past few years. Despite the hardships, she always responded with grace and humour. In fact, this sense of humour sets the tone for our interview with Eyang Titiek.

We covered quite a number of topics, from the women who inspired her work and how to deal with haters to her anti-aging secret (everybody listen up!). Here are parts of our conversation with Eyang Titiek Puspa that you do not want to miss.

On new pandemic hobby

“Somebody bought me a colouring book and pencils. So I started drawing and colouring and I am honestly amazed by my own creations. I made the Eiffel Tower in France pink. Shocking pink. It turned out to be so cute, amazing,” she gushed. This new hobby becomes a stress reliever for her, even though she never thought of herself as being good at drawing or colouring. “This hobby makes me want to get up early because I want to draw. So that my mind will stay dynamic,” she continued.

On her song-writing process

“I have always loved to write, and if I happen to write a good one then I’ll have myself a song, but if not, so be it. I have books full of my writing; some I remember, some I do not, and there are some that I wrote but for some reason I left to do other things and now I forget them,“ she said while chuckling.

On the song ‘Kupu Kupu Malam’

“I wrote this song because she was a woman. A woman who had no other choices, so she decided to take that route. She did everything to provide for her children.” This song was inspired by a true story of a female sex worker who came to see Eyang Titiek when she was traveling out of town for a singing gig.

After Eyang Titiek came back to her hotel room, there was a knock on the door. It was a woman who asked for her time to chat. It turned out that the woman was a single mother who was forced to become a sex worker after her husband left her and their children, leaving her with mountains of debts.

The woman shared how tormented she felt for keeping this job and how she longed for a better life. This experience inspired Eyang Titiek to write the song “Kupu Kupu Malam” and she immediately recorded this song upon her return to Jakarta.

In an unexpected turn of event, less than a month since that first encounter, the same woman saw Eyang Titiek again in Jakarta to introduce her new husband and to inform that she now had a much better life. “When we met for the second time, I had already recorded the song. Thus, the lyrics still say “apa yang terjadi terjadilah” (whatever happens, happens) and not “saya sudah bahagia” (I am happy now),” she explained.

On her childhood aspiration

“I went to SGTK (Sekolah Guru Taman Kanak Kanak (School for Kindergarten Teachers)), because I had so many younger siblings and I saw how my mother cared for her 12 children until she sat on the floor and said “Why are you all so naughty?” I remember her rubbing her feet, and even crying. So I thought I wanted to help mothers, even if it is only for a few hours that I got to entertain their children.”

Eventually, her journey to become a kindergarten teacher was halted as she was forbidden to take the exam by her father. He still held on to the belief that a woman’s place is at home and told Eyang Titiek to marry instead.

On social media and technology

Recently, Eyang Titiek started to spread her wings to the digital world through her new YouTube and Instagram accounts, though she admitted she did not really understand these new technologies: “I did not understand these technologies. It was just that my granddaughter said “Eyang, why don’t you join social media like your friends? I’ll take care of it”.”

Though she said she did not really know how to use these technologies, she has been using softwares and applications, such as Zoom, to give online speeches and sharing sessions to different communities, particularly to support online fundraising campaigns during the pandemic.

On how to deal with haters

“Back then, people still had a little bit of manners, so they were not as blunt as people today. Well, there are well-mannered people today, too, but there are many who just say whatever they want to say.”

According to her, there are only two ways to deal with negative comments: if the comments are true then fix our behaviours or actions, but if they are untrue then ignore them. “Forget it,” she said simply. “If you still want to respond, then just give them short replies such as “you are mistaken”,” she added.

On her weirdest encounter with fans

In her youth, Eyang Titiek was known for her impeccable appearance with captivating curves. So captivating, in fact, that many people at the time mistakenly believed that she used butt padding on her backside.

“I always used to wear kain (jarik) to wedding parties. One time, my backside was pierced with a brooch pin out of nowhere, so I started screaming in pain,” she shared. The culprits turned out to be a group of youngsters who then yelled “Oh, there’s blood! It’s real, it’s real!”

On her anti-aging secret

She has a rather unique anti-aging secret: sleeping on her back. This habit started way back when she was 35 years old when she felt that her face was starting to ‘droop.’ “As such, from that point on I started to only sleep on my back. Sometimes using a very thin head pillow or no pillow at all. Because when we sleep on our backs, our cheeks are pulled to the sides, whereas if we sleep on our sides our face will be squished. That is just my opinion as a dummy, okay,” she said with a laugh.

“Besides that, for our stomach, we eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. If we sleep on the side, then the stomach will be pulled to the left or to the right, eventually it will not be elastic anymore. If we sleep on our backs, the tummy will be pushed down by gravity,” she continued.

Although, it turns out that this habit has an unexpected side effect, “My front side is good, but my backside keeps getting squished, right? Before, people thought that I was using butt paddings, but now my backside’s plumpness has been affected after being squished for years,” she admitted with a hearty laugh.

On her relationship with God

At the moment, Eyang Titiek chooses to live in an apartment for safety and convenience reasons. However, she also chose a low-rise unit, “As long as it is close to the sky, so I can chat with God,” she joked.

She believes that every human being, including herself, has his or her own way to build and maintain their relationship with God. “I have always felt close to God from when I was a child. I have always chatted with God. Whatever happens in my life, I always talk to God,” she told us.

“One day I was chanting God’s name, “Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar..”, but then my daughter called and I paused. I was then talking to my daughter about a song. After we hung up, I took the tasbih again, but when I resumed I just started chanting “do, re, mi..”.” Shocked, Eyang Titiek started laughing uncontrollably and talked to God, “Ya Gusti, are you playing with me? Why did you let me chant ‘do re mi’?”, I was laughing so hard I hurt my stomach,” she said.

Her message to the younger generations

“Kisses of love and prayers from Eyang to everybody. Do continue whatever you do as long as it is done for good purposes.”

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