An ear to the Ground

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The specialists lot may regale in the vastness of knowledge they possess in respective fields. But it may be no match to the intimate knowledge of day to d nuances that a common man possesses. Pune in India receives fairly high rainfall every year. It rains from end may to about mid-October. All sorts of rain gear for humans as also vehicles come out on the streets for sale. Umbrella and rain coats obviously make a large chunk of these. for two wheelers they have splash guards and handlebar protection things. The sale begins along side footpaths just as the clouds begin to gather, the dark ones in particular following the pre-monsoon showers. This has become so routine that no one notices this happening. This year should have been no different. But the ware-sellers were conspicuously absent till nearly first week of July this year though the Mateorological Department had been issuing regular predictions since the begining of May regArding excess rainfall this year. There was a very heavy shower on the 05th of June. Yet no one was to be seen trying to sell rain gear. Dark clouds will gather threatening serious rain but will spill over to other areas, on a fairly regular basis. Then suddenly on one such day when there were some isolated clouds on the horizon, that early in the morning one noticed many a of the rain gear seller displaying rain gears almost everywhere. It was a little amazing to find them, particularly on a day when the rain prediction had almost stopped meaning much and the threat of the clouds din't appear very serious. But then suddely before noon, there began a drizzle which converted itself into some serious rain which engulfed the entire city and by the end of the day, it was rain all around. People got caught unawares and the rain gears sold well. And since then it has been raining, well, regularly here. I had seen such a happening in the deserts of Rajasthan about seven years ago where-in common people's knowledge of nature had baffled their better educated brethren. One must ask other Mylotters to share such experiences where-in the almost instictive knowledge of a common man is no less than those who gather it with long years of study and experimentation. Hoping to hear more on this matter.