Modern-day children missing out on joys of kampung life

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Amir Osman (right), 17 and Daineal Asraf Irman, 10, ride an oxen-drawn carriage through a kampung road in Jasin, Melaka. The owner, 60-year-old Mohd Sulong uses the cart to bring firewood to buyers in the village. — Bernama file photo

These days, after children return home from school, their favourite pastimes are either watching cartoons on television or playing video games on their handheld gadgets. And, not forgetting, surfing the Internet or keeping themselves updated on social media.

So engrossed they are in the world of social media and online surfing that they become oblivious to their surroundings. Some youngsters even lock themselves up in their rooms to avoid being interrupted by their parents or siblings. That’s what life is like now for children. It used to be different during the 1970s and 80s.

Gone are the days when children made their own catapults to catch small birds, went to the river or stream to catch fighting fish and climbed up trees in the jungle to pick fruits.

Why, nowadays children feel embarrassed to be labelled as kampung kids – little do they realise the joy of growing up in a village environment replete with the capacity to build their character and turn them into more resilient individuals.

Sharing his experience of growing up in a kampung in Melaka during the 1970s, Zainal Ibrahim, 47, said after school, he and his friends would head for the bushy area near where they lived to shoot stones at birds with their catapults.

“I remember making our own catapults, using materials found around the house like rubber tubes from old bicycle tyres, rubber band and Y-shaped tree branches,” Zainal, who works as a clerk at a private firm, here said.

To make the catapult, they made use of the rubber tube to serve as the elastic band which was then fastened to the two prongs of the forked branch or stick. And, they used small stones as ‘bullets’ to hit their prey.

Zainal, who lives in Bukit Katil, here said among the birds they caught were the merbok (zebra dove), kelicap (hummingbird) and murai (magpie) species.

“These days after school, children prefer to spend their free time fiddling with their gadgets,” he said. Information technology executive Shahrim Sulong, 40, also has fond memories of his childhood in Kampung Hiliran Masjid, near Kuala Terengganu in Terangganu.

Besides prowling the neighbourhood in search of birds, armed with their catapults, he and his friends would also venture into the nearby jungle to pluck edible fruits. “Those were our routine activities after school each day,” recalled Shahrim.

Among the jungle fruits that were easily available then were buah kemunting (its scientific name is downy myrtle), buah sentol (sandoricum koetjape) and buah jambu arang (eugenia claviflora roxburgh).

“The buah sentol tree was huge and tall and since we found it hard to climb up this tree, we would hurl sticks at the tree or use our catapults to bring the fruits down,” he said, adding that the fruit had a sourish sweet taste and was delicious.

“We would eat the fruit right there in the jungle but if we managed to collect more than we could eat, we would bring some home with us. I used to enjoy eating the fruit dipped in a sauce made from kicap (black soy sauce), sugar, coarse salt, belacan (shrimp paste) and a little chilli.”

Fruits such as sentol, kemunting and jambu arang are hard to come by now, he said, adding that children these days would not even know how to identify edible jungle fruits.

Administrative assistant Noor Azmi Hamdan’s favourite activities whilst growing up in Kampung Merlimau Pasir in Merlimau were catching fighting fish, catching birds with catapults and going in search of jungle fruits.

“Usually, my friends and I would catch the fish in rivers and drains just using our bare hands. We would put the fish in a bottle and take it home,” he said.

“We would look out for the black or dark green coloured fighting fish as they were more fierce and were better at fighting,” he said.

Noor Azmi feels that people who grew up in the era before

the arrival of the Internet and digital gadgets were generally resilient and independent, thanks to their kampung upbringing which taught them valuable lessons on how to fend for themselves and overcome challenges. — Bernama