The Lost Paradise

The atmosphere was quite quiet, only seen a few children were staring at something in their hands. Earphones in their ears was a sign of usage of gadgets. Whether it's a mobile phone or tablet, obviously they didn't stuck earphones on a piece of tofu, right? ;)

This phenomenon has begun to plague everywhere. Many children began smarter in electronic devices usage than their parents. Tecs (technologies) advancement and ease of everything is incredible. We have to admit it and nothing's wrong with that. Offsetting the progress had to be done by everyone in order not to miss something important.

I'd ever write about ease of technology in this article : United by Postcards.

In my postcards exchange activity, many friends from abroad want to get the Indonesian typical cards. One of this themes I have is about the traditional children's games. Let's see what I have below : 

Do you familiar with games shown on above postcards, dear friends?



I think some of you came from the golden age of these kind of games : balap karung, patil lele or benthik, petak umpet, gasing, engklek (hopscotch), kelereng, egrang, lompat tali, congklak and bekel. Don't you think they are our paradise at that time?

Most of these games can't be played alone. You have to unite with your friends to gain euphoria of the games. See... do you catch my point, darling? ;)

Games for children are now widely available on mobile application. You even could download it free, anytime, anywhere... and make your kids happy with it. You don't even have to go out of your home. It's totally different with what I had to face decades ago. I had to be more sociable to gain knew knowledge and additional capabilities.

I remember how happy I was while playing bola bekel with my chilhood friends. This one was my favourite game. I didn't like to play with too many people as I was a little bit shy at that time. Through this exciting game I learnt how to associate and compromise. The way we had to be patient while other played her/his turn was one important thing we couldn't get if we played one single individual game.

For whom never played bekel, this is how to play the game :

1. Use a so called Bola Bekel (as shown at the video) and some pawns -we called 'em Biji Bekel- for this game.
2. Throw ball upward while taking pawns one by one. After all done, try to grab the pawns two by two, and so on. Adjust the way we take the pawns based on how many pawns we use.
3. For the next step, try to change pawns' standing position into the same direction. Put it one by one, two by two, and so on.rn
4. If someone missed the ball or it's out of hand, the next player can start his/her turn. The turn changing can be applied also if player can't grab Biji Bekel properly as ordered.

This game looks so simple and old-fashioned. But there are some good points we can get while playing Bola Bekel :

• Patience. Players will wait for their turns patiently. They can only start their turn if other player failed to fulfil the order. Just compare it with the way we play mobile application games. Once you decide to change one game to another, you only need to click a button. Everything is under our fingers' control. 
• Compromise. Having interaction with some people pushed us into a situation of compromising. Sometimes we found discipline / orderly people, but in another way they are some people can't be set. 
• Getting involved and socialized. Playing together with friend directly (face to face) urge us to be involved one another. It's time to see how your friends interact with you.

Playing Bola Bekel is one of my favourite chilhood game

Do you have sweet memory of your chilhood game, my dear friends? Please share it in comments form. I hope this game won't be our lost paradise. This paradise should belong to every Indonesian.

I do wish you didn't only see this traditional games in postcards. Tell me you didn't only  master yourself through individual games on your gadgets, but you also can manage others while playing together in a compromising game as told above.