Adventures of Raghu - a wild wild night!

Tomorrow was Raghu’s last exam. 10 days of constant exams had Raghu waiting to get it all over. He had just finished reading his last chapter in Social Sciences and looked outside into the darkness through his room window. It was 11pm. Everybody at home was asleep except him. He went over to his window, opened the window shutters and breathed in the freshly scented night air. His mother had planted Raat ki Rani (‘Night Blooming Jasmine’) and Champa trees in the garden downstairs many years ago. Being close to his room, he loved breathing in the scent of these flowers.

He looked up at the sky, the moon was big and full, with not too many visible stars.

“I wonder if people actually go crazy on full moon nights? They say hospitals get many more emergency cases coming in on full moon nights you know.” said Raghu half to himself, half to Raghav who was reading a book on his bed. Raghu’s brother, Raghav, who shared the room with his brother, looked up from his book towards Raghu – “That’s just a big myth man, they’ve done studies and found there is no truth in this.”

Raghu leaned against the window railing with his head in his hands, quietly looking outside. Everything was so quiet, when suddenly he heard crickets chirping. They were a noisy bunch! ‘Crick, crick crick….’ “That’s one, two, three……”Raghu began counting. Raghav had stopped reading his book and looked at Raghu rather amused. “Hey Raghu, count the number of chirps the cricket makes in 25 seconds.” “Why?” said Raghu rather surprised at his brothers sudden interest. “Just Do it! I’m timing you.”

Raghu started counting and stopped when his brother told him the time was up. Raghav had a glow in his eyes, which was usually there when his brilliant mind had a piece of information that others didn’t know about. ”Do you know the temperature outside Raghu?” Raghu was really bewildered and a little annoyed. His brother seemed to have really lost it! “Look it up on the internet! How will I know?” said Raghu. “Well there's another way to find it.” Said Raghav. “Take the number of chirps you just counted and divide it by 3, then add 4 to it.” Raghu made the calculation. “That comes to 28.” Said Raghu, a little excited at what this number meant. “28 Raghu, is the temperature outside in Celsius” Raghu checked the laptop to find that the temperature outside was in fact 28 degrees Celsius. ”WOW! That’s so cool!” shouted Raghu. “Yes, people used this in the past to determine the outdoor temperature. There’s also a reason to it, which I’ll tell you another day.” Said Raghav as he got back to reading his book after the distraction.

Just as Raghu stood thinking of this fascinating discovery his brother had just told him of, he heard a long howl of a street dog. “I always feel like there are ghosts around when I hear dogs howl Raghav.

Do you think they’re howling because there are spirits nearby on the full moon night?” Raghav laughed. “You’ve read too many scary stories Raghu!! There is no such thing. Dogs have descended from wolves, and wolves used this as a technique to communicate with their herd and define their territory. That’s why dogs howl too, not because they saw some ghost!” Raghu smiled. “There are so many myths Raghav that sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s a myth and what’s a fact. I wonder why people create such myths Raghav?” Raghav smiled like the wise elder brother he was. “The eeriness has a certain interesting feel to it Raghu. Facts can be too scientific and boring for people, so they create myths about different happenings in nature which create interesting stories to tell!!”

As Raghu and Raghav were chatting, they didn’t notice when suddenly a bat flew into their room.

Raghu and Raghav saw the bat flying in the room and panicked. They started running around shouting and screeching - “Duck Raghu, otherwise he’ll hit your head!”………..”Aaaaaa” both boys were screaming so loud their mother heard the noise and came to their room. When she saw the bat, she told the boys to become still, not panic and closed the lights. Within a few minutes, the bat flew out and they shut their room window. “Boys, bats can see best in the dark and they are not blind as popular myth suggests. Also bats will not try to hit your head as people think, so don’t worry and panic so much next time! They’ll quietly fly out.” She sat a few minutes with the boys, heard Raghu’s stories of the night with much interest and told them to shut the lights and go to bed to be well prepared for the next days exam. “Goodnight mother” said Raghu as she began closing the door behind her,  “What a wild night it’s been!!!”

Know a little more:

Full moon myths and madness:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=8265957

Crickets and how their chirps determine the temperature:  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bring-science-home-cricket-temperature/

Why dogs howl at night?

http://dogcare.dailypuppy.com/myths-dogs-howling-1656.html

Bats: http://www.incrediblebats.com/batinfo.html