ਬੱਦਲ

Baddal (ਬੱਦਲ), pronounced bud-dal with a short, doubled d sound in the middle, is the Punjabi word for a cloud. It is a masculine noun for the white or grey masses of water vapour seen in the sky. In Punjab, watching the baddal is a daily habit, because clouds carry the promise of rain.

Meaning

Punjabi dictionaries give ਬੱਦਲ as the direct equivalent of the English word cloud, and weather vocabulary lists do the same. One spelling point matters for learners: ਬਦਲ, written without the doubled mark, is a different word meaning change. The cloud word is baddal, with the addak that doubles the d. A sky full of cloud is described with the related word baddalvai, which vocabulary lists give for cloudiness and an overcast sky.

How is baddal used in everyday speech?

White, harmless clouds on a summer day are chitte baddal, and the dark clouds that gather before a storm are kale baddal. When the sky closes over completely, people say baddal chha gaye han, the clouds have spread across. Farmers look up at the kale baddal in the monsoon months and judge whether the meeh, the rain, is close. Children, meanwhile, are happy just to find shapes in the chitte baddal.

Do baddal always mean rain is coming?

No. Dark, low and heavy baddal in the monsoon often do bring rain, and that is why they get so much attention in the villages. Thin white baddal on a clear day usually bring nothing but shade for a few minutes. Punjabis read the colour, the height and the season together before they decide what a baddal is promising.