The boys at the entrance of the mosque had no idea about the preaching going on inside

It was Friday, an important day of Friday prayers for Muslims. Just as Christians go to church mass on Sundays, Muslims visit mosques on Fridays and pray in groups. The mosque I found in a densely populated area of Jakarta was also holding a mass prayer. A large number of men were gathered inside the mosque, listening to the sermon of a man standing in the back.

Even though there were a lot of people gathered, not all of them were listening to the sermon with serious faces. In particular, the boys near the entrance looked so bored that even I, a passerby, could see at a glance that they were not interested in the sermon being preached in the mosque. They were whispering to each other and occasionally laughing. They weren't really interested in the group worship, but it was obvious that they were there because their parents told them to.

Watching them, I was reminded of myself as a child, when I was bored with the principal's never-ending talk.