LAUGHTER IS SERIOUS, SAYS THE GIGGLING GURU
by Kumkum Ramchandani

“We must take laughter seriously,” deadpanned the giggling guru, Dr.Madan Kataria, during an evening session in Orangeville, Ontario, when about 60 people from all walks of life laughed themselves silly for two hours. The Mumbai-based founder of laughter therapy is targeting Canada as he feels that Canadians need to loosen up and guffaw much more than they do so at present.

“Life is a cosmic joke,” Dr. Kataria pointed out. He added that in today’s world where the media is full of gloomy news, people need to not only look at wars going on outside but the wars within their souls. “Laughter cannot solve your problems but it can give you the energy to face your problems, to look at life in a different light, a positive light,” he explained. Besides which the physical benefits of laughter have been cited innumerable times – massage of internal organs, increase in blood supply to the organs, relaxing of muscles, decrease in pain, relieving stress and depression, stimulation of the immune system.

Dr.Kataria’s therapy has caught on so well all over the world that today, after eight years of preaching his message, there are 2500 laughter clubs globally, from Dubai, Singapore, Japan and Australia to USA. Of these, 1400 are in India where Bangalore has the highest number with 106 clubs.

Dr.Kataria was your average general practitioner in Mumbai, doling out multicoloured pills for various ailments, when the laughter bug bit him. Unsatisfied with allopathy and its tendency to only treat symptoms, he dug deeper and deeper into the benefits of laughter. Initially, together with several like minded cronies, he would go daily to his local park where they would laugh uproariously at each other’s jokes much to the disgust of people passing by. One angry lady even threatened to sue the guffawers for disturbing the peace!

However, Dr.Kataria’s laughter therapy soon caught the fancy of health conscious Indians and clubs starting springing up all over the country.

In 1999, in the USA, a leading psychologist, Steve Wilson, and a mental health nurse, Karyn Buxman, joined the laughing doctor for a world tour. That was the inception of the laughter club movement outside India. In Rome today, one of the largest clubs brings together 70 people who bring huge amounts of food, get together and laugh. In Denmark, nine people have got together with the local phone company and they wake up together in the morning and laugh with each other over nine phone lines. It a great start to the day, the giggling guru insists.

Dr Kataria himself practises his own therapy each morning. For the last 8 years, he swears, he has caught not one cold or cough or suffered from a sore throat!

Laughter is simple, as people in Orangeville found out. Though initially, some of the more reserved in the audience felt a bit self conscious, by the middle of the session they were laughing the loudest and longest with tears streaming down their faces. “Fake it, fake it, until you make it!” urged the pink-cheeked GP from Punjab. “See how laughter has brought us together. Don’t we feel like a family?”

Sure enough, people were going around the room and hugging each other, laughing in each other’s faces, shrugging shoulders, punching each other, shaking hands and saying “thank you”. At one point people sat cross-legged in so called meditation till someone burst out laughing and then it wouldn’t stop! By the end of the session, everyone felt cleansed and rejuvenated. It was like going through an aerobics session but much more fun! Even the videographer couldn’t stop laughing, it was so contagious!

So what is laughter therapy exactly? It may seem like a bunch of people having fun and that is what it was initially till something happened. Dr. Kataria recounted the circumstances which led to the turning point.

“In 1997, a lady phoned me up and complained, “You know, Dr.Kataria, my husband goes to a laughter club every day and laughs his guts out but when he comes home he shouts at me all day. What is the point? Where is the spirit of laughter?” ”

Dr.Kataria realized that “one can crack 10,000 jokes but all the benefit can be nullified with one bout of anger”. So he decided to initiate a therapy which combined yoga, stretching, breathing, mental balance and laughter. Laughter was to become a way of life, a way of thinking, of joyfulness which is unconditional commitment to have fun. This would lead to a change in body chemistry, a change in one’s way of thinking and looking at life.

Today, laughter leaders are being trained all over the world to spread the message in a more scientific way. Dr.Kataria is so busy with his global commitments that his Mumbai practice has more or less dried up due to lack of time. “Some times I treat the watchman of my building and some other poor people just to keep in touch with my profession,” he says.

The pink-cheeked GP from Mumbai has come a long way today. He has travelled to almost every corner of the world. Someone asked him recently, “Which country do you think you would best like to live in?” His answer? “The whole world is my country. After all, laughter has no barriers, no language and no religion.”