A few days ago I received a novel entitled The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini.Thanks Zarina for lending me the book.
The title of this novel reminds me of my childhood when my friends and me made our own kites and flew them.The joys were not limited to making and flying them but also chasing them when the rope snapped due to sudden gust of winds or two or more kites got their ropes entangled with one another.Chasing and looking for them where they dropped were quite fun for young boys.We may not be The Kite Runner but we were kite chasers.
Kite flying among the adults had their time.It was normally held after harvesting season.They had competitions as well as gamblings where our kampung folks gathered and turned into a festival(in the 60's).
Nowadays, my children donot play with kites anymore. They have too much to study and they play computer games on their computers. Some kids are using xbox or PS2!
Children games have changed a lot over the last four decades. To the older boys out there,please share your experience with me.
NB: Now,I am at chapter 5 of The Kite Runner, but I have a lot more books to read.You can peek at my posting early this year here.
What's interesting to me about the kite played by adults were the Wau Bulan, Wau Barat & Wau Kucing. Mind you, they were serious playing it those days with competitions, prizes and all. I liked the sound made by wau bulan when "that thing" atop of wau hits the wind, the call it "busur". It has a deep humming. I wonder where can I hear the same sound nowadays?
Posted by: GAB | Tuesday, November 14, 2006 at 10:34 AM
GAB,
I love to hear that again.(busur vibrating against the wind).My wau is a small one -called wau kikit.
Do you remember 'kertok'? - a musical device made from coconut?
Posted by: Adib | Tuesday, November 14, 2006 at 11:22 AM
You name it Sir. I came from kampung, I had a taste of it when I was in primary school; any forms of traditional games and performances for that matter, starts from kertok, gasing, mak yong, menora, wayang kulit and so forth. I remember when I was only say 5,6 yrs old, I was so scared watching the licking of sword as a finale for menora when the blood was put on pieces of rice paper and passed around to the crowd, wonder what was that for.
There are a few things that I bet many people don't know... "Ttuang" is made out of buffalo horn to be blown as a public address announcing the gotong royong or even death, similar to "geduk" used as well. Another thing is "bbageh", the kind of ritual for healing process done by shaman (bomoh). I can barely remember those because it was gone the time I was growing up.
Posted by: GAB | Tuesday, November 14, 2006 at 01:02 PM
abedib,
I read the novel last year - a great book indeed. Hope you enjoy it, there might be tearful moments though...
Posted by: aufaa | Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 03:47 AM
Would suggest you to read 1421 by Gavin Menzies as well - a treasure for historical reading.
Posted by: aufaa | Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 03:50 AM
Aufaa,
Thanks for your suggestion.The Kite Runner is the first book that made me feel sad when I read the ackowledgement by the author.
Posted by: Adib | Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 04:59 AM