Recall the days last week when as per the weather man’s reports, Chennai was supposed to be a deluge? It was a deluge alright.
It was a deluge of people celebrating unprecedented success as India went on to record the biggest chase yet in the sub continent. The emotions were flowing; the commentators were screaming themselves hoarse about how England’s spirit and India’s victory were a dedicated to the men who fought to keep the terrorists at bay in the wake of the Mumbai terror strikes. Sachin Tendulkar was lost for words and yet ironically, they flowed freely in praise of the people in Mumbai who had sacrificed their life.
In all of this, the weatherman drowned.
Such is the bane of their profession, that one never quite knows when one says, “the weather can be so fickle.”
On this occasion, cricket fans were grateful that the weatherman was not right, unlike most people who usually are not.
Predicting the weather is not an exact science, as any Indian would be quite happy to point out, and more power to him.
The proof is in the use of language.
I am an english teacher for French business people and I teach them one of the differences between ”will” and ”going to” by pointing out that whereas the pretty weather reporter on the BBC can say
”It will rain on the Yorkshire Moors tonight”
(”will” - future news/the press)
We lesser mortals have to say
”It’s going to rain......”
(”Going to” - visible/deductible future).
It’s difficult for the French to grasp this subtlety, but an Indian cricket supporter finds it easy. There again, the French do not play cricket, so we have to be tolerant.
Excellent day to you Sreelata!
