By John B Monteiro
Mangaluru, Aug 11: “Laughter heals all wounds, and that's one thing that everybody shares. No matter what you're going through, it makes you forget about your problems. I think the world should keep laughing.” - Kevin Hart (b. 1979), American stand-up comedian, actor and producer.
The above title is provoked by a human interest story by Tadi Vidura published in The Hindu on August 3, 2019. The story titled ‘A simian pupil in a Kurnool school’ was about a female gray langur attending classes, along with the students, in a primary school. The story was supported by an adorable photo of the simian sitting next to the students.
This revived my memories of animals attending sessions at Bondel Laughter Club (BLC) founded and anchored by me for the last 17 years. It started with a bang and over time became skeletal, nomadic, a venue-shifting outfit with its sessions moving from maidan to maidan, which were being grabbed for construction or were simply getting encroached. Even the local gym benevolently hosted it until its participating members exited it. Meanwhile, Yoga became a craze while BLC ended up getting deserted.
Others shifted from nearby government housing colonies, Kudremukh Colony, Mescom Colony, on retirement to acquiring their own flats or houses. Monsoon was a challenge and we operated in the entrance lobby of Bondel Complex with the benign owners looking the other way.
Enters a Stray Dog
A stray dog which had made Bondel Complex its home used to join us in our sessions. Looking at half a dozen of us going through the different motions, the stray dog progressively positioned itself near the laughter-cracks and within a few days of its infiltration started emitting the sounds matching ours. It was adept at some of the more vocal laughter. It included the ‘Patiala Laughter’ named after Patiala Peg, the loudest and lustiest of the ten types of laughter. The laugh would wake up late risers within half a km of BLC venue. Then there was the ‘Crescendo Laughter’ wherein the volume of laughter keeps increasing from low to very high. Then there is the ‘Cocktail Laughter’ where one can laugh as she or he likes. It may be noted, the mix of laughter-cracks by sex is about 50/50. Interested to know how it works? Don’t
despair! Just Google - ‘Laughter Club Bondel’ on your devices.
The dog-association continued up until we moved to a 10-acre maidan, which the Housing Board complex neglected, it’s a nightmare for walkers during monsoons. But, the laughter-cracks are a stubborn lot, operating no matter sunshine or rain. On one fine day, in the end of the month of August, three cows evinced interest in our laughter session. Since we are averse to photo-shopping, here are two photos to bring the scene to the readers. In the first photo, one cow is apparently interested in what the laughter-cracks are enacting. The second cow, on the right, is deciding whether it should join in or not. In the second photo the cow on the left has voted, with its trotters, against joining in.
Vintage of Laughter
Finally, a bit on laughter itself, there is a vintage saying – ‘You laugh and the world laughs with you. You cry and you cry alone’. The Readers Digest has popularized two taglines: ‘Laughter is the best medicine’ and ‘He who laughs lasts’. This last statement has vintage roots and interpretations.
In November 1917, before Readers Digest came on the scene, the humour magazine ‘Judge’ printed a poem by W E Nesom titled ‘Perverted Proverbs’ that playfully modified adages. The fifth stanza was the following:
If laughter be an aid to health,
then logic of the strongest
Impels us to the cheerful thought
that he who laughs lasts longest.
He who laughs lasts
He who laughs - lasts