Dr. Kataria’s Laughter Yoga Diary

On 16th of December 2006, Mahduri and I visited the township of Nasik in western India. Nasik in Sanskrit means nose.

The town is named from the old mythological story when the nose of a big-nosed devil woman was chopped off because she was making mischief with villagers.

This small town has more than 32 laughter clubs and during an evening function I noted a trend which is spreading among laughter clubs throughout India. The women in each laughter club have adopted a particular color of sari dress that gives them a unique identity. I asked about this and was told that they wear their ‘colors’ during all important functions throughout the year.

I saw the same trend at All India Laughter Conference in Ooty this year.

Each club is free to choose the color they want to wear. The saris share common colors in the same way that the laughter club members share the same common values and practice the same laughter yoga exercises and breathing.

There is no compulsion to wear a particular color or uniform. Different clubs do different laughter exercises and each club has their own unique laughter session style. But there is still much in common – all laugh for no reason, all clap in a same way and chant ho ho ha ha ha, all say very good, very good, yeah!!

There is no uniformity there is unity. This is perhaps the signature strength of the laughter club movement. We do not want to put people in a box or follow any dogmatic ways of thinking. We want to allow people to be who they are and still be connected, not out of force but out of design.