Dr. Kataria’s Laughter Yoga Diary

Despite mismanagement, chaos, corruption and poverty, Indian people strike me as much happier than those I meet in many other countries. The reason is the very strong family system.When you visit small towns or villages in India people treat you like a god. There is a saying in India – “atithi devo bhava” – this means ‘the guest is like a god’, and they really do treat guests like gods.

After a year of traveling abroad the power of Indian hospitality was again highlighted when my wife Madhuri and I visited laughter club leader Mr. Bhandari for dinner at his home. On entering their home, they put a red mark on our foreheads with a few grains of rice and adorned us with garlands.

The Bhandari family’s two grand daughters sang a welcome song with words ‘you came to our house, we are very lucky, please come again.’

I was surprised to find that 18 members of the Bhandari family live in the same building. They meet everyday like a joint family though they are living on different floors. They all joined together in the preparation and enjoyment of dinner and they support each other in many ways. There was great feeling of a united family which is not often seen in other countries.

This reminded me of the welcomes that Merv Neal from Australia received and recounted when he visited a laughter club family in Baroda, India under the inter club exchange program last year.

Watch out for our international laughter club exchange program launching later this year. There are hundreds of Indian laughter club families waiting for guests to be treated like Gods.

To arrange homestay in India with a laughter club family please contact raj@laughteryoga.org including details of your laughter club.

Mahendra Shah from Ahmedabad, India was invited by Dr. Sushma Dugad to attend a Laughter Rally and public seminar in Nasik on 15th December 2006 which I attended.

I was extremely touched when Mahendra Shah said he was planning to stay in a hotel and was offered home stay by our laughter leader Dr. Sushma in Nasik.

I asked Mahendra Shah about his home stay experience. He started crying and said that he was treated with more love and kindness than he could have imagined. He was treated like a star and was taken to different laughter clubs every day where he was greeted with garlands, a Christmas cap and a warm shawl. In 3 days he visited 8 laughter clubs, one orphanage and 3 schools for laughter yoga sessions.

We are starting a world wide laughter exchange program and would like to see more and more experiences like this.