Girindra Wardhana

Girindra Wardhana is one of the characters of The Forest Children verse. He is a recurring character who first appeared during the gang's visit to Semarang, where he had picked them up at the train station.

Childhood
Girindra is the only child of Krisna Wardhana and Nurmala Wardhana. He was prematue due to complications during pregnancy, but was born healthy and stable on December 12th, from the targeted December 23rd date on a state hospital in Semarang.

Girindra grew up to be a cheerful and adventurous child. He often played with the children around his neighbourhood, bravely venturing to forests to see the Peri Hutan in the woods. But he was mostly close to a chyerti that lived on a beringin tree on his yard, Kanggani, who was both his caretaker and friend.

He attended a local school where he excelled in natural/spiritual magic more than normal lessons. While attending school, he was also an apprentice to his father's job in Lawang Sewu. He was often participating in rituals that required an older, more experienced wizard, and in result often missed school because he was sick. Even though his magical skill increased, his schooling declined.

Girindra often recalled being confined in one of his house room to expel spirits that posessed him. This brought him to view his father, who forced him to do it, in a negative light, and Girindra often expressed wishes to be born in another family.

He also participated in a forbidden ritual that Krisna did with Theresia Widagdo that resulted to Theresia's death. This traumatized Girindra a great deal and he refused to speak for days, only speaking at last after Nurmala informed him about a plan to send him to live with her relatives in Jakarta.

Theresia's funeral was did in Semarang, where Girindra met with her children, Arimbi Adiratna and Amiyandra Andezka. Girindra became close to Amiyandra, who seeked help in him, and they started exchanging letters.

After Girindra has graduated junior high school, he was "smuggled" out of the house and sent to live in Jakarta.

Jakarta
In Jakarta, Girindra lived with Sarah Permatasari, a relative of Nurmala who had been living on Jakarta for twenty years. She works in a private company as a managing director. With her help, Girindra was able to enroll into a private high school called Gonz*ga High School in Jakarta Selatan.

In there, he was acquianted with Kinan Mahardika, who was also the class organizer. Despite their difference in wealth and upbringing—Kinan was the oldest son of an architecture mother and a senator father—Kinan acted kind to Girindra, and was the one who introduced the dark, glamorous world of teenager in Jakarta that included alcohol, unsafe substances and sex. They became best friends and partner in crime and was often rumoured to be dating by their classmates.

While Kinan was active on the basketball team, Girindra joined the nature lover extracurricular and was active in it. During their second semester, Girindra met Antariksa Syailendra during a detention and acted friendly to him. Antariksa did not originally return the favor. Girindra became slightly annoyed, but Kinan had expressed the fact that Antariksa is actually really nice once you get to know him, and so he kept acting friendly to him. It paid off in the end and the three of them ended up becoming friends.

Girindra originally expressed romantic interest about Kinan, but Kinan never took interest of him and instead flirted with Antariksa when he was not off dating other people and getting his heart broken.

During their last year, before the national exams, Girindra was informed about the death of his mother. He became distraught and almost messed up his exams if not for the endless reassurance of his friends, mostly from Antariksa who pushed him to finish the exams first and would accompany him to Semarang, daring to cancel his plan with his family to go to Bali. Girindra finally finished his exams before he went back to Semarang. Though Antariksa did not end up accompanying him to Semarang, Girindra realized his feelings about Antariksa but did not expressed it directly, instead saying it to Kinan who had helped organize his graduation.

After that, Girindra did not come back to Jakarta, even to attend his graduation. Despite that, he kept in touch with his friends and started exchanging letters with Amiyandra again, who had stopped temporarily because he was busy during his education.

Ramayana
In Semarang, Girindra was forced to live with his father and he began participating in rituals again. He obtained the recipe of Ramayana from his father. Ramayana was originally a potion which recipes had been passed down from generations to generations in the Wardhana clan. It was used to enhance the ability of the user to be able to see spirits. As commanded, every month, Girindra usually made a large batch of it so that they could do the job on Lawang Sewu easier, as the Wardhana clan do not originally have the ability to see spirits.

Girindra did not attend university in Semarang. His higher level education is spent as an apprentice to his father. Their relationship did not warm even a little bit during this time. They only talked as little as necessary and Girindra even avoided to be home as much as possible.

Meanwhile, Antariksa had been accepted to work on Magical Development and Research Department. He had invited Girindra over to a farewell party in Jakarta. Girindra, of course, complied and after receiving the information and went to Jakarta. They stayed on Mulia Hotel, and under the influence of alcohol, their relationship finally developed more than friends. The next day, Antariksa departed to move permanently to a closer domain to his office. Girindra came back to Semarang.

However, Antariksa did not come back to Jakarta and did not maintain contact with Girindra after their relationship had progressed, leading Girindra to believe he was avoiding him after the incident.

Someday, while Krisna was drunk, he told Girindra the reason of his mother's death. Girindra, angry because of that reason and the fact he only told him now, stopped speaking with his father entirely. He locked himself in a room Krisna used to confine himself in and started modifying the chemical structure of Ramayana into a powerful hallucinogenic drugs. He was the first consumer of the drugs.

The newly modified Ramayana was able to induce powerful hallucination with terrible after-effects. It was no long after that Girindra started manufacturing it in large amounts and sold it to the public, under the name of `Ramayana`. It boomed and became the most sought-after drugs in Indonesia.

It was not long after that Krisna discovered the drugs. However, he did not show any reactions to it, preferring to be silent.

Appearance
Girindra is a tall, dark-skinned Javanese man with short hair. He has an athletic build and faint muscles. Because he spent the most of his time speaking in Javanese, he still speaks with an accent, and his voice is described to be `teduh` and calming. He has ritual marks (that looks like tattoos) in ancient Sanskrit symbols that appears on his back whenever he does rituals.

He's either seen wearing batik with fabric pants or a plain white shirt and ripped jeans, often accompanied with a worn leather jacket or denim jacket, depending on the time of the day it was. He has a worn pair of boots that he wears whenever he goes out.

Personality
As depicted in Arundari, Girindra is a kind, soft-spoken fellow that tries to help anyone who asked him for help, even if it's out of his league. He tends to be patient with every problem he has. Girindra is also shown to be brave and adventurous, especially in his earlier years.

However, he is also really spiteful, as evident by the relationship between him and his father. He actively tries to destroy what his father hold dear. This trait worsened after his months long stay at Lawang Sewu.

Additional Information

 * His name is a derived from a ruler of Majapahit empire, Girindrawardhana. It is unclear whether his family has connections to the ancient king.