(Sunday Telegraph, April 15, 2003)
Charlotte Cory joins in the Mumbai Laughter
“Ho-ho, ha-ha-ha.” This is serious. It is 7 o’clock
in the morning and I am standing beneath the Gateway to India on the quayside
in Mumbai with a huge circle of people all laughing fit to burst. I had spotted
this strange phenomenon on my first morning in the city, looking down from my
balcony in the Taj Mahal Hotel to watch the sun rising behind the great stone
archway built to commemorate the visit of George V and Queen Mary, in 1911.
When I asked the hotel reception what was going on, they explained that laughter
has become a very popular form of exercise and I would find groups doing it
every morning all over the city. All over the country too for, although laughter
clubs were started in Mumbai by a Dr Madan Kataria back in 1995, they have now
spread to most cities in India. Whenever India has a nuclear stand-off with
Pakistan, large groups muster to laugh in unison in the hope their laughter
explosions will diffuse the political tension.
This deserved closer examination. Having set my alarm clock
alarmingly early next morning, I joined joggers and dog walkers at first light
in the little rectangular park beneath the Gateway, wondering how to make contact
with the club. On the dot of 7, a man stepped forward, gave a loud laugh and
immediately a circle gathered around him, beckoning me to join in. There followed
a 20 minute set routine of vigorous laughing as Girdhar Peshawaria, the “anchor
person”, put us through our paces. My English inhibitions fled at the
first tee-hee. I, who usually shrink from anything resembling audience participation
or compulsory group activity, was soon giggling and chuckling for all I was
worth. Roaring and clawing the air like a lion, tittering politely behind my
knuckles at a cocktail party, guffawing into an imaginary mobile phone, laughing
silently with my mouth wide open or chortling noisily with it shut. Laughter
is contagious and it is unnerving to find myself laughing to order merely on
eye contact. When asked to add “an English laugh” to the club’s
repertoire gleaned over the years from visiting foreigners, I stuck my nose
in the air and hawked merrily like a constipated memsahib, much to their amusement
and my own astonishment.
The laughter was interspersed with deep breathing and stretching
exercises designed to flex every muscle in the body. The therapeutic power of
laughter is deeply rooted in ancient yogic, Hindu and Parsee texts but also
has a sound medical basis. Laughter sends endorphins pumping round the body
and helps control blood pressure by reducing the release of stress-related hormones.
It acts as a natural pain killer, helping people sleep and reducing depression.
By increasing lung capacity it can alleviate bronchitis and asthma and raise
oxygen levels in the blood, improving stamina in athletes, reducing snoring,
and making you look younger and developing self confidence. A group of American
cardiologists staying at the Taj Mahal Hotel, spotted – as I had done
– the laughter club from their balcony and hurried to join in, returning
next day to make a video to take back to their hospitals believing the 20 minute
ritual would be of great benefit to heart patients in the US.
The eye exercises particularly interested me. Although younger
than most of the group by thirty or forty years, I was the only one present
wearing spectacles. In Britain when our eyesight deteriorates we pay opticians
to provide stronger and stronger lenses. In India they exercise the eye muscles.
The session ended with participants calling out uplifting phrases: “East
or west, laughter is best”, “I am the happiest person in the world,
I am the healthiest person in the world”, “We are all members of
the laughter club”. After one last laugh, we solemnly bowed to the rising
sun and said a prayer.
At 7.20 am and without my usual shot of caffeine, I felt completely awake if
not mildly exhilarated. I can think of no nicer way to start the day and make
some friends. Wherever I go in India from now on, I shall seek out a local laughing
club. Meanwhile the Gateway of India Laughter Cub urged me to extend an invitation
to any Sunday Telegraph reader staying in Mumbai to join them at 7 am, Monday
to Saturday throughout the year. The more the merrier.
Fact file
Charlotte Cory stayed at the Taj
Mahal Hotel, Mumbai as a guest of Greaves
Travel, specialists in tailor-made travel in India (020 7487 9111) Girdhar
Peshawaria, anchor person of the Gateway of India Laughter Club can be contacted:
girdharp@hotmail.com
Telegraph Travel
April 2003
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