Upon suggestion by ARSARI Djojohadikusumo Foundation, a “secret project” in order to commemorate the 67th birthday of Hashim Sujono Djojohadikusumo on 5 June 2021 was carried out. This secret project entails organizing a surprise gift in the form of testimonial book from his colleagues at Yogyakarta, especially UGM.
Since December 2020, Catrini Kubontubuh as the Executive Director of YAD has been in contact with Prof. Inajati Adrisijanti (Poppy) to plan the preparation of this book. Soon after, Poppy formed an editorial team consisting of herself, D.S. Nugrahani (Nia), and Jujun Kurniawan.
It was decided that the book will contain testimonies and personal recounts of writers, who are people connected to Hashim both personally or through YAD. Some of the writers are YAD scholarship awardees from 2008-2020. Some others are people who once worked alongside Hashim in various joint projects between YKHD/YAD, Gadjah Mada University, and Yogyakarta Heritage Conservation Center since 2006.
There are 32 articles in total, 11 of which are written by professors of UGM Faculty of Humanities, 12 written by YAD scholarship awardees, and the rest are Hashim’s colleagues from his projects at Yogyakarta. Poppy and Nia as editors purposefully kept the various writing styles of every writer so that the anthology of articles compiled in this book felt personal, captivating, and diverse. All the articles are full of honest and personal impressions of the writer towards Hashim.
This anthology of articles ended up painting a mosaic on the figure of Hashim beyond what is known to the public. It is especially interesting that many of the writers who felt to have been helped by Hashim in one way or another, but still have much to learn of him, and vice versa. It is an interesting bond, but all the writers came to one conclusion, that Hashim is a philanthropist who cares deeply about the state of education and heritage conservation in Indonesia. Aside from the reveal of his down to earth side, we also know of his generosity that expect nothing in return of his deeds. Thus inspired the title of this book: HASHIM DJOJOHADIKUSUMO: SEPI ING PAMRIH RAME ING GAWE.
The book meant to be a modest birthday present for this wonderful person was delivered to him during a virtual conference with the writers on 10 June 2021. As it is supposedly a “surprise gift”, the conference was “camouflaged” as a meeting with UGM professors. We sincerely hope that this modest gift in the form of prayers and gratitude from his friends at Yogyakarta can find a place in his heart.
Recording of the moment the book was received is available at YAD youtube channel at: https://youtu.be/xCzbouy3xsl (JK)