Prospecting - Anthony Bright-Paul

Since I had just embarked on a new business I had every excuse to play golf, since I hoped to interest and perhaps enrol a young fellow in the Pro-shop. He was busy, so as I made my way to the first tee another fellow seeing me on my own called out and we agreed to play together. He hurriedly ran after me.

Now this fellow was from Malaya, married to a Welsh girl, and both had good jobs as I soon found out. In fact my prospecting was going pretty well, as this fellow seemed well set up, well-qualified, the head of a design department at one of our major airports and a very busy fellow. Anyone who has been in business knows that the best prospects are already very busy and already doing well.

It soon turned out that he was Muslim, that his grandfather was Indonesian, and that his family had not really approved his marrying a white girl. When he said that he was Muslim I said that I had sometimes done Ramadan, whereupon he replied that he was not a practising Muslim. Nevertheless he was intrigued that I should know a few words of Indonesian, and while I kept trying somehow to get round to the wonderful new business I had just joined where one could make thousands of wonderful dollars, he evinced no interest whatsoever in earning a residual income, but constantly exclaimed his interest that I should know a few words of Indonesian.

Had I lived there? No, Pertama kali di Indonesia! In fact not just the first time but the only time I had been in Indonesia was in ’95. He could not believe it! I told him I only knew a few words, like Tuan-tuan, Njonja-njonja sekalian, which are of course the words with which Bapak opened nearly every talk, which means simply Ladies and Gentleman.

To cut a long story short, every time I got round to business his head went down. It was abundantly clear that he was not interested in earning extra money. But every time an Indonesian word cropped up, he expressed his complete fascination. So much so that he invited me to the Clubhouse for a drink.

So he began to press me and I said that I belonged to a movement called Subud. Wait a minute! How do you spell that? He had to write it down. So I began to tell him a little. Oh yes! Latihan he recognised straightaway – training. Latihan Kejiwaan – oh yes, he understood that also, that it was the training of the jiwa. Of course, being Muslim he had no difficulty with nafs or nafsu. When I mentioned Shariat he smiled.

From a business point of view the afternoon was a complete failure. But as my new friend departed he said he would immediately look up Subud on the net.