Born in a small village on Indo - Pakistan border, I was the youngest of eight children. Hailing from a farming background, my parents were simple village folk engrossed in the daily grind of a farm life. They never attended school and even my siblings were not interested in studying, but I was the odd one and showed a lot of academic spark which fulled my mother's dream that I should become a doctor. As medical facility was a rarity in the village, and one had to travel almost 15 miles to seek any kind of medical help, she hoped I would study medicine and return to the village to help the people.
In pursuance of her wish, I went to a boarding school and worked hard to get my medical degree. After graduation, I went to Mumbai to do my post- graduate studies in medicine. Completely lured by the glitz and glitterati of Mumbai, swanky cars and luxurious apartments, I too wanted to become rich and famous. I tried everything in my capacity to reach for the skies, but soon realized it was not that simple. My quest did not succeed and I slumped into a bout of depression. Life was tough and it was not easy to make money without any business experience. I was stressed and miserable. At that time, my mother visited Mumbai and was shocked to see my state. She said, "Madan, what is wrong? You don't look happy and you don't laugh and smile like you did in the village."
She was right. Somewhere in the midst of upward scramble, I had actually lost my laughter. The transition from an innocent village boy to a city doctor had seriously altered my persona. I knew I was in trouble. Having realized the enormity of the situation, I embarked on a new search -- and this time it was not money. It was to find my laughter - the key to happiness and joy.
Not content with being a practicing physician in a suburb in Mumbai, India, I launched a health magazine "My Doctor' to spread more awareness about good health among people.
It was in March 1995, while writing an article "Laughter -- The Best Medicine' for my journal, I stumbled on a rich repertoire of scientific work done on laughter as a therapy. On exploring further, I was amazed at the volume of documented studies that described at great length the many proven benefits of laughter on the human mind and body.
While going through the scientific literature on the benefits of laughter, I was profoundly inspired by the book "Anatomy of an Illness' written by Norman Cousins in which he described how he laughed his way back to health from Ankylosing Spondylitis, an incurable disease of the spine. The work of Dr. Lee Berk of Loma Linda University in California which showed that mirthful laughter reduces stress levels and has a positive effect on the immune system was also very rousing.
This set me thinking. Life in Mumbai was stressful. People hardly laughed. They were forever rushed and hassled to meet their needs and fulfill their dreams. Even I had turned dour and had lost my laughter to the daily rigors of my profession and the added burden of a publication. This was no joke. There was no time to laugh.
I believed laughter could improve health and cope with the stressors of modern living. I looked for ways to generate more laughter and help people in medical or personal crisis. I started joking and laughing with my patients and soon found that they recovered much faster as laughter kept them happy and positive.
The Origin
13th March, 1995, I got up at 4am and was pacing up and down in my living room when a sudden idea flashed through my mind: If laughter is so good, why not set up a Laughter Club. I was ecstatic and could hardly wait to implement the concept. Within three hours, I hurried to the public park where I used to go for my daily morning walk and tried to convince the regular morning walkers about the importance of laughter and to start a Laughter Club.
The expressions were predictable. They were aghast and actually thought I was crazy. They laughed at the idea and scoffed at the whole concept. But, I was unshakeable and did not give up. I managed to motivate 4 out of 400 people! And thus was born the first Laughter Club with just 5 people.
We met for half an hour every morning to laugh together much to the amusement of befuddled onlookers. In the beginning, the session began by someone telling a joke or narrating a humorous anecdote. Soon, people started enjoying the whole exercise and reported feeling much better after a laughter session of 20-30 minutes.
Bearing the initial ridicule and criticism, I firmly continued to explain the health benefits of laughter till gradually people became a little more receptive and showed a keen interest. The attendance started growing, and there were nearly 55 people by the end of the week. For ten days the routine continued with much vigor, after which we hit a snag. The stock of good jokes and stories ran out, and negative, hurtful and naughty jokes started to emerge. Reacting to offensive jokes, two participants complained that it would be better to close the club than to continue with such jokes.
Determined to keep the Laughter Club alive, I asked the club members to give me a day to resolve the crisis. That night, I kept trying to look for some way to laugh without jokes. Luckily, I laid my hands on a book "Emotions and Health', from Prevention Health Care Series (USA). While reading a chapter on humor and laughter, I was surprised to discover that the body cannot differentiate between real and fake laughter. It clearly revealed that if one cannot laugh, one should pretend to laugh. I also learnt that not only laughter, but a bodily expression of any motion, generates a similar emotion in the mind.
This was a breakthrough - I thought why not use laughter as an exercise.
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