The Hindu Business Line : `Give not a windy night a rainy morrow, to linger out a purposed overthrow'

JULY 26 saw Mumbai receiving 94 cm or rain in 18 hours. In recent days, Kolkata was rained out; Chennai received a record 42 cm of rains in 40 hours; and rains have damaged 700 km of roads in Bangalore. And marooned villages are many.

With an average annual rainfall of 11 metres, the town of Cherrapunji in north-east India is 15 times as wet as London, notes www.newscientist.com in a recent article that probes why the place is also a desert. Heavy rains forecast in Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, reads the day's weather prediction.

Earthquake survivors in Kashmir wait in the rain for supplies provided by a Pakistani army relief centre, reads a photo caption on http://abcnews.go.com. Hurricane Beta made landfall Sunday on Nicaragua's central coast, dumping up to 15 inches (40 cm) of rain there and in neighbouring Honduras, states CNN. Weeks of heavy rain from Maine to Maryland made this October the wettest on record in many East Coast cities, says www.nypost.com, citing meteorologists. No better (or, is it worse?) time to come to terms with rain, therefore.

Rain, according to Concise Oxford English Dictionary, is "the condensed moisture of the atmosphere falling visibly in separate drops". Rains are `falls of rain'; and `rainfall' means "the quantity of rain falling within a given area in a given time". Rain is "any storm, shower, or other quantity of water falling from the sky," explains Encarta. The word also means "weather marked by heavy or persistent rainfall".

In Pericles, Prince of Tyre, the Bard writes, "Wind, rain, and thunder, remember, earthly man is but a substance that must yield to you." That may not apply to our civic facilities, which only yield too easily to nature's fury, reminding one of Exeter's words in King Henry VI, part I, "There comes the rain, there begins confusion."

For, it is not always that `it drizzles rain,' as in Much Ado About Nothing. Such `gentle rain from heaven' Portia would compare, in The Merchant of Venice, to mercy that `blesseth him that gives and him that takes'. In all probability, therefore, when the Met office announces, as in Macbeth, "It will be rain to-night," it may not just rain, but pour.

On the fable behind `raining cats and dogs', www.bartleby.com speaks of the cat's mythological influence on the weather. "English sailors still say, `The cat has a gale of wind in her tail,' when she is unusually frisky." And witches that rode upon the storms were said to assume the form of cats, it adds, and notes that the dog is a signal of wind, like the wolf. "The cat therefore symbolises the downpouring rain, and the dog the strong gusts of wind which accompany a rainstorm; and a `rain of cats and dogs' is a heavy rain with wind."

Isn't that `rainfall excess', you may ask, but the phrase means "the volume of rainfall available for direct runoff, and is equal to the total rainfall minus interception, depression storage, and absorption," according to http://water.usgs.gov. And the Bard would beseech in a sonnet: "Give not a windy night a rainy morrow, to linger out a purposed overthrow."

The line "Dissolve, thick cloud, and rain; that I may say, the gods themselves do weep," from Antony and Cleopatra is a forerunner of bigger tragedies. So too, one may say of "Spit, fire! Spout, rain!" from King Lear.

As verb, rain can mean things other than water too, as in `bombs rained down on Baghdad'. Or, "Reporters rained questions on the beleaguered police chief," as http://encarta.msn.com suggests.

Our thunder from the south shall rain their drift of bullets on this town, declares King Philip in King John. "Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear," you can hear, in Timon of Athens. Overhear too Cleopatra say, "Bestow'd his lips on that unworthy place, as it rain'd kisses," in Antony and Cleopatra. And find Lady Percy lament in King Henry IV, part II, "Never shall have length of life enough to rain upon remembrance with mine eyes."

The word's origin is from Old English regn, informs Online Etymology Dictionary. "From P.Gmc. *regna- (cf. O.S. regan, O.N. regn, O.Fris. rein, M.Du. reghen, Ger. regen, Goth. rign `rain'), with no certain cognates outside Gmc., unless it is from a presumed PIE *reg- `moist, wet,' which may be the source of Latin rigare `to wet, moisten' (cf. irrigate)." Related words are also time-lined: "First record of raincheck is from 1884, originally of tickets to rained-out baseball games. Raincoat attested from 1830. Rainmaker first recorded 1775, in ref. to tribal magicians."

In the present-day context, rainmaker generates income for the company by attracting clients. "I'll take a rain check on that drink tonight, if that's all right. I won't play tennis this afternoon but can I get a rain check?" are examples that http://dictionary.cambridge.org offers for explaining how to use `rain check' in situations "when you cannot accept someone's invitation to do something but you would like to do it another time".

To be as right as rain is to feel well; to rain on somebody's parade is "to do something that spoils someone's plans"; and doing something `rain or shine' indicates performance irrespective of the weather.

`Rainbird' is a bird that can foretell rain by its call, they say; `rainbow coalition' is a political alliance of convenience with differing groups, as closer home; and rainforest is dense forest in tropical areas with plenty of rainfall, ever under threat caused by development.

`Rainbow' the arch of colours in the sky, is created by refraction, total reflection, and the dispersion of light, explains www.weather.com. "It is visible when the sun is shining through air containing water spray or raindrops, which occurs during or immediately after a rain shower. The bow is always observed in the opposite side of the sky from the sun."

Just the stuff that inspires poets and playwrights, so you hear Shakespeare writing `He hath ribbons of all the colours i' the rainbow,' in The Winter's Tale. And he gets Falstaff complain in Merry Wives of Windsor, "What tellest thou me of black and blue? I was beaten myself into all the colours of the rainbow." Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky, sings Rabindranath Tagore.

RAIN as an acronym stands for `Recognize, Avoid, Isolate, Notify', `Recruiting Automated Interim Network', and `Redundant Array of Independent Nodes', lists www.acronymfinder.com. The site www.abbreviationz.com adds `Rescuing Animals In Need' and `Run Around In Nachos'.

Rain is distinguished from mist, by the size of the drops, which are distinctly visible, educates Webster's 1828 Dictionary.

"When water falls in very small drops or particles, we call it mist, and fog is composed of particles so fine as to be not only indistinguishable, but to float or be suspended in the air." Raindrops generally have a diameter greater than 0.5 mm (0.02 in), informs http://encarta.msn.com. "They range in size up to about 3 mm (about 0.13 in) in diameter, and their rate of fall increases, up to 7.6 m (25 ft) per sec with their size. Larger drops tend to be flattened and broken into smaller drops by rapid fall through the air."

Rainfall is classified as light if not more than 2.5 mm (0.10 in) per hour, heavy if more than 7.50 mm (more than 0.30 in) per hour, and moderate if between these limits, adds the Encyclopedia entry. "Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man's growth without destroying his roots," counsels Frank A. Clark.

Rain is said to be heavier immediately after a bolt of lightning, says Wikipedia, and traces the cause of this phenomenon to the bipolar aspect of the water molecule.

"The intense electric and magnetic field generated by a lightning bolt forces many of the water molecules in the air surrounding the stroke to line up. These molecules then spontaneously create localised chains of water (similar to nylon or other `poly' molecules). These chains then form water droplets when the electric/magnetic field is removed. These drops then fall as intensified rain."

Do you know that not all rain reaches the surface, and that some evaporates while falling through dry air? "When none of it reaches the ground, it is a precipitation called virga." About the smell during and immediately after rain, http://en.wikipedia.org has this to say: "The source of this smell is petrichor, an oil produced by plants, then absorbed by rocks and soil, and later released into the air during rainfall."

Henry Ward Beecher exclaims: "Rain! Whose soft architectural hands have power to cut stones, and chisel to shapes of grandeur the very mountains!"

So powerful a force that the best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain, as a sage advice from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow goes. He had also said, "Into each life some rain must fall."

May that not, however, be `acid rain' containing harmful chemicals spewed out by our polluting activities, and descending on our heads as nature's retribution.

ComingToTerms@TheHindu.co.in

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