This is a shortcut. A shortcut connecting the Kukusan area in Depok City to southern Jakarta. Although it is called Jalan Serengseng Sawah, there isn’t a single rice field left along this road. Nor are there any serengseng plants. However, if you take this road, you can still find a sizable reservoir, Setu Babakan.
In the mornings and evenings, this road is busy with vehicles transporting people to and from work. The road is not very long but has many twists and turns, along with gentle inclines and declines. Houses are tightly packed along the road, interspersed with businesses and a few schools. Occasionally, traffic jams occur when public transport stops or cars are parked haphazardly along the roadside, as the road is only wide enough for small four-wheeled vehicles to pass each other.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, this road was deserted as people were restricted from going outside, and many were advised to work from home. The only frequent traffic was ambulances carrying the bodies of those who succumbed to the deadly virus. A new, expansive cemetery was built at the end of this road to bury the victims of the virus. In no time, the new cemetery was filled with graves, devoid of any floral tributes.
When the pandemic ended, the road became busy again, even more so than before. In the mornings, it was once again filled with various vehicles—motorcycles, private cars, public transport, and pushcarts crowding the road. Amid this hustle and bustle, there was a new sight. Every morning, a wheelchair competed for space on this road.
A middle-aged man, always dressed in a simple t-shirt and shorts, with slightly dark skin and curly hair, pushed a wheelchair from the direction of Jakarta. If you travel on Jalan Serengseng Sawah between seven and nine in the morning, you are sure to see him. He pushed the wheelchair with measured care, as if handling a precious artifact. Naturally so, because the person in the wheelchair was an elderly woman, frail and thin, with wrinkled skin and sparse white hair.