- BOMBAY (Reuters) - For members
of India's laughter clubs, their mirth is no laughing matter but a passport
to healthy living.
-
- Loud cries of ``I am the happiest person in this world''
and screams of ``Ho ho, Ha ha ha'' rent the air Sunday morning as more
than 2,000 people celebrated ``World Laughter Day'' by laughing their guts
out at a public park in central Bombay.
-
- Donning odd-shaped foam caps and sporting T-shirts, the
revelers, some of them past their 70s, laughed without reason and swayed
to beats from a live band belting out popular Hindi numbers.
-
- Amused passersby showed how infectious laughter can be.
-
- ``Louder, still louder,'' called organizers from Laughter
Club International, exhorting the crowd to strain its vocal cords from
a makeshift stage.
-
- ``We want laughing competitions to be introduced in the
Olympics... Workers should begin work in factories by laughing for 15 to
20 minutes,'' said Madan Kataria, founder president of Laughter Club International.
-
- The club propagates ``Hasya Yoga'' or ``laughter Therapy,''
a derivative of yogic laughter, through 300 clubs in India, 60 of which
are in Bombay.
-
- The practice involves laughing in a group for 15-20 minutes
daily without resorting to jokes.
-
- The sessions begin with deep breathing and a ``Ho ho,
ha ha ha'' exercise. This is followed by a variety of non-stimulated laughter
called hearty laughter, silent laughter, lion laughter and more.
-
- Kataria, a practicing physician who developed the exercises,
says laughter is the antidote for stress-related disorders like high blood
pressure and heart disease.
-
- Converts to Kataria's mission say they are much happier
since they switched on to this therapy.
-
- ``It makes me feel fresh all day,'' said N.B. Pise, an
electrical engineer in his fifties and a religious practitioner of the
therapy for nearly two years.
-
- Kataria said the stress involved in present-day living
makes laughter an absolute necessity.
-
- ``The laughter club is no laughing matter. It is absolutely
essential for modern-day living,'' he said, adding his mission had begun
to attract inquiries from other countries too.
|
