I remember being really excited as a child when it rained (given Oman's dry climate, even darkening clouds, although temporary, made one extremely joyous. I remember the Omani kids dancing out in the rain, and us coming back from school gleefully jumping into the puddles of water.)
Challenged in terms of grammar and vocabulary, I remember once excitedly telling my 6th grade class teacher, Mr. Chand, "Sir, it is raining hardly." He suppressed an amused smile and explained why "hardly" in this context would be inappropriate. "To describe heavy rain, you could say 'It is raining cats and dogs'." And while I had no clue how cats and dogs falling from heaven could denote heavy rain, in my gleeful state, I accepted it immediately.
Years later, I discovered that that's an expression hardly ever used. And I decided to look it up, to see how it came into being. Every idiom has an interesting story.
While there are quite a few explanations relating to Norse mythology and medieval superstitions, one, however inaccurate, that stuck in my mind was the simple explanation that cats and dogs sought shelter in the thatched roofs during a storm, and during heavy rain were washed out. For more information, please check this link.
The excitement that rain brings with its first showers and ensuing petrichor is so deeply entrenched in me, that the perpetually wet weather of Bangalore has barely done anything to diminish it. This post follows a "raining cats and dogs" moment, quite welcome after the dry spell that Bangalore went through.
Dear Mr. Chand, so many fond memories from that particular year:
- The first time I heard of Darjeeling (I still associate it with the horror story he once related in class, on his birthday, when we insisted he not teach that day).
- Beginning of the year, when he captured my young heart with "Teachers are your second parents."
- Raining cats and dogs
- Mr. Chand was the person I'd run up to when my desk mate troubled me. At the start of the school year, he insisted on a boy and girl at each desk, to encourage intermingling. And also desk rotation, so everyone gets a chance to sit right at the front. I had a real brat as a desk mate. When I get up to answer, just before I sit, he would pull out my chair...I've fallen down in quite compromising positions throughout the year. But the thing is, we were also best buddies. I'd complain to Mr. Chand, my desk mate would apologize, and all would be forgiven.
