Ratih Kumala: An instinctive, detailed storyteller

Pursuing a career as a writer requires a lot of energy and persistence, according to novelist-scriptwriter Ratih Kumala. Suppose you are walking to an Indonesian restaurant with a friend. You both sit at a table before taking a glimpse at bottles of sarsaparilla and kerupuk(deep fried crackers) sitting atop it. You might not think too deeply about them. That is not the case for novelist, short story writer and scriptwriter Ratih Kumala, who said that she had a penchant for developing stories from small, often trivialized things, such as the objects that were sitting on our table during an interview in mid-September.