I once saw a newspaper story and photo of dead fish found in the desert with a caption written by the photographer that read: "Skies do not rain fish!" This caption reminded me of an incident that took place in Kuwait in 1952, that is 63 years ago, when my late friend Abdul Aziz Al-Monayye told me that one of his friends claimed that he had read an old book telling stories about the sky raining huge amounts of fish that filled all yards and roofs. "This is true," I told him, but he strongly refused to believe the story. "Yes, what your friend told you is absolutely true and skies might also rain oranges," I told my baffled friend.

Asking me how such things could be true, I explained that some hurricanes may pass by a certain lake full of fish and when its vortex columns touch the surface of the water, they suck up amounts of the fish into the sky, carrying them for certain distances and that they might later fall on the ground. "This is how skies can rain fish," I told him.

"Those hurricanes may pass by some orange fields and similarly carry oranges into the sky and then drop them on the ground, making the sky seem as if it is raining oranges," I added, and my late friend was convinced with my explanation. "In such cases, I think I can later on tell an untrue anecdote or joke claiming that some children were playing in a park in China when a hurricane passed, carried them away and dropped them somewhere else, making the sky seem as if it was raining CHILDREN," he concluded with a smile.

- Translated by Kuwait Times from Al-Anbaa

By Dr Saleh Al-Ojairi