Written by: Venita Coelho
3 min readNew DelhiNov 14, 2021 08:36 AM IST
School had just started and roll call was said
When a big peal of thunder rolled overhead
The rain started out with just one single drop
Then it poured and it pelted — it just wouldn’t stop!
There were drips there were drops
There were plips there were plops
There were tinkles and sprinkles
And splishes and splashes
And whooshes and splooshes
And oodles of poodles
And uddles of puddles
And a splitch and a plitch and a ploop and a spit
And that rain kept on raining — it just wouldn’t quit!
Soon the whole class was just a bit soggy
The garden outside was all sticky and boggy
Our books were all green. Our pencils all smelly
All the erasers just turned into jelly
The library had a really large puddle
That spread to the gym and caused a big muddle
Some of the teachers got covered in mold
All purple and spotty — they were odd to behold
The Principal came out in ferns and in fungus
The fuss that it caused was really humongous
In English the water was up to our shins
By Mathematics it was up to our chins!
When you’re in the middle of double subtraction
A fish can be a most awful distraction
Our playground was fully drowned out by mid morning
At noon they put up a shark attack warning
The water it wooshed and it swished and it wished
And it gushed and it rushed and it mished and it squished
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And it rose and it rose and it filled all the school
Our fine institution became a large pool
Class One and Class Two were scared of the thunder
Class Three and Class Four were simply drowned under
Class Five had to climb on the roof in the rain
And Class Six and Class Seven were never heard of again
Just when things looked awfully dark
The watchman suggested — ‘We should build us an ark!’
We built it with homework and rulers and strings
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And bits of chewed pencils and the oddest of things
There were leftover lunches and smelly old socks
Tiffins and bottles and old shoes in a box
There were library books and blackboards and charts
And a detailed diagram of a skeleton’s parts
We stuck it together with thumbtacks and glue
And it painted it over with red ink and blue
We sailed out with a cheer and a hip hip hooray
With a splish and a sploosh we were off on our way
Out on the sea that had just simply grown
Out on the ocean — off on our own!
No more homework or tests or surprise papers
We were off to have most adventurous capers
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So instead of good students we’re now excellent sailors
We’re pirates and fisherman and sometimes we’re whalers
We just got a letter by birdmail today
That said it’s still raining down our old school way!
(Venita Coelho is an author and screenwriter based in Goa)
A little girl with a paper boat. (Source: Getty Images)
