Nearly blind Tubi sells 'cincau' drink to survive

By Listiana Operananta

JAKARTA (JP): Despite ever-stiffening competition from the mushrooming number of modern, branded, canned and bottled drinks, Tubi, a nearly blind man, continues his own minuscule traditional business selling cincau.

Tubi has sold cincau, a combination of plant-based jelly, water, sugar, coconut milk and ice, for the last 30 years in the parking lot of the Central Jakarta District Court. Each glass costs Rp 500 (18 US cents).

"Selling this drink is the only job I can do" is his argument for why he has not changed professions for such a long time.

Tubi sells the drink that is popular throughout Java from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. His daily earnings range from Rp 2,000 to Rp 5,000.

"I make more only when there is a big trial on at the court," he said. Profit then jumped to as much as Rp 15,000, especially when dozens of security officers are present, he said with a smile.

Sometimes people in the court don't pay their drinks either. "I don't know whether they forget or just don't want to pay," he said.

Tubi, who hails from Kebumen, Central Java, said, "I don't know when my birthday is. My father died before I was born and my mother couldn't remember when she gave birth. But I'm sure I'm no more than 50 years old."

He explained that he never went to school nor learned to read. "My parents were poor and I was forced to become a sheep herder during my childhood to help earn a living," he said.

Tubi came to Jakarta in the 1960s. "I can't remember the exact year but it was around the time of the aborted Communist coup when I bought my train ticket from Semarang to Jakarta," he said.

"I came here to find a job that wasn't farming or herding sheep. Luckily I got a job in a restaurant in Grogol. My responsibility was to wash dishes and sweep the floor," he said.

But Tubi only worked in the restaurant for one year. He was left jobless when the restaurant went bankrupt and the premises was repossessed by the bank.

"I was unemployed for several months before my friend -- a woman I knew from my home town and was working as a servant -- said that her boss needed someone to clean his house," he said.

Tubi worked as a servant for three months until another friend offered him a job selling cincau.

"I think I was in my late 30s when I started selling the drink. But unfortunately I had trouble with my eyes not long after I started my new job. I couldn't see clearly, especially after 6 p.m., as everything went blurred and dark."

He said he had tried to find a treatment for his eyes but he refused to take doctors' advice and have an operation.

"The doctors said that I'll probably go blind, but what else could I do. That's why I always try to be home by 6 p.m. because after that I can't see a thing, I'm afraid I could be struck by cars."

Tubi, a divorcee and childless, spends Rp 16,000 everyday on sugar, ice, the jelly and other ingredients for the drink.

"But sometimes I have to borrow money for it. Luckily I'm a regular customer at one of the shops in Senen market, and the owner trusts me."

He said that he also has to pay Rp 1,500 each month for the yoke he uses to carry his wares. "I am responsible for its maintenance as well."

Tubi rents a room near the yoke's owner in Kampung Duri, Central Jakarta, for Rp 1,200 per day. "There's no electricity and I have to go to a public toilet and pay Rp 200 per visit. I also have to buy one bucketful of water for daily use."

When asked what he wanted in life, the aging drinks seller said he wanted to return to his village in Kebumen and go back to farming.

"But I have no money, no family and I can hardly see anything with my deteriorating eyes. Selling this drink is the only job I can do," he reiterated.

"I guess dreams, most of the time, remain just dreams," he said, choking back tears.