Test pack which was written by Ninit Yunita is a novel about a young family who has a classic problem in their marriage. The happy married couple who has built the family with love and respect then finally be far apart. It is a romance fiction, beautifully executed and has become an easy reading story with a good deal of life values. Simply written and acceptable by young or mature married couples, and also unmarried ones.
This is one of my favorite novels that settled in Indonesia, and written by a young Indonesian novelist in 2005. The success story of this novel has brought it to be adapted as a movie, which has the same title, Test Pack in 2012.
The story begins when a woman named Tata, expecting a baby after 7 years of her marriage with Rahmat. Tata and Rahmat have a perfect marriage, never been having serious problems, until Tata obssessed about having a baby. Tata is a successful lawyer, so is Rahmat who’s been doing a great job as a psychologist. Saving other people marriage is a common issue in their lives.
As Tata is hoping so badly to have a baby by her own, Rahmat doesn’t think that having baby is important as long as they love each other and enjoy their lives. Hence, this perspective leads Tata becoming very sensitive and cranky. To be a good husband, Rahmat tries to accomodate Tata’s wish. They have tried so many ways to get Tata pregnant.
Becoming an obssessed woman for having a baby, Tata collects many things related to pregnancy. She reads parenting books and magazines, watches DVD about delivering baby, buys baby stuff and even collects so many types of test packs. Everytime Tata and Rahmat make love, Tata tries to take the pregnancy test afterward. Whenever she finds negative indicator showed on the test pack, she turns sad and irritable. Test pack is the most important thing in her life.
Tata’s obsgyn said that her reproduction organ is in perfect condition, nothing should be worried of, and ready to do conception. All she has to do is trying. Yet, still it desparates her.
Without telling Tata, Rahmat visits the obsgyn to check his reproduction system. Rahmat has been avoiding visiting a doctor ever since as he doesn’t like anything about hospital, sick people and doctor. But for his wife sake, he pushes himself to do it. The test of Rahmat’s sperms concludes that they’re not in a good way to make Tata pregnant. In the other word, he’s diagnosed infertile.
The world seems turning upside down for Rahmat. He is shocked. He feels guilty for being unable giving a baby to her wife. For this reason, he doesn’t know how to tell Tata about the test result, that finally he puts the result at the bottom of his drawer.
Few days later, accidentally Tata finds a piece of paper that has her husband’s sperm test. Tata is shocked, even worse than her husband. She is terribly angry to Rahmat for hiding the test result. After a long fight, Tata left the house. Tata can’t accept the fact that her husband is infertile. She should have had children if she married a fertile man. Love is not an important thing anymore. All she wants to have is a baby.
This novel tells us how Rahmat has to strive his marriage from breakup. How hard his life is without Tata by his side. From the beginning to the end I can’t stop reading it and hooked by the beautiful dictions Ninit Yunita used to describe every scene in this novel. Well done!
