Not a laughing matter

That Deepak Chopra is to spirituality and what Baba Ramdev is to yoga, Dr Madan Kataria is to the laughter business. What started as an experiment in an Andheri-Lokhandwala park in March 1995 is now a global movement in 100 countries, and Kataria has laughter centres as far as the US, Germany and Australia. Kataria even takes his guffaws to mental health institutions and prisons. Beyond India's 10,000 laughter clubs, his movement has forayed into everything from laughter kirtans to laughter cruises. The 60-year-old Kataria has since moved his base to Bangalore, where he has set up a university for his trademarked Laughter Yoga, training people into becoming gibberish leaders, giving motivational talks and making people laugh across the world.

When the laughter guru, who suggested that the first Sunday of May be celebrated as World Laughter Day every year, answers calls on the phone, he breaks out into deep, rolling ha-ha-has. Not necessarily the sound of glee, Kataria's laughter is part hard-work and in equal parts genuine. Listen to it a few times, and it does crackle you up. Excerpts from an interview:

What's your typical day like? Do you laugh more than you talk?
(Laughs) My day starts at 4am. The first thing I do after opening my eyes is to smile and then laugh a little. Laughing is akin to recharging my batteries, without which my day doesn't start. Following this, I meditate, do pranayama yoga, then I laugh by myself for 40 minutes. I don't need a reason or a joke to get started laughing. It's like having a 'press' button and I start laughing. I also write articles about laughing and laughter yoga. At 7am, I go for a walk and at 7.30am, I take skype laughter calls. Following ablutions, I go to the University and start work, or if I'm travelling, then I give motivational talks. I meet people in the afternoon and then take skype calls again in the evening (laughs).
I laugh for about two-three hours every day. So perhaps I laugh more than I talk everyday (laughs). Mostly these are bouts of five-10 minutes of laughter, but over the day, they add up. Laughing too much causes my jaws to hurt (laughs). This happens often when I go for public seminars or presentations where people keep requesting me to join their groups and laugh with them.

How has laughing changed your life?
It has changed my life in many ways. Laughter has made my immune system stronger. I've never suffered from cough and cold in the last 20 years. This is the case with many regular laughers. Now, I can start laughing at anything, unlike earlier when I needed something really hilarious/funny to start laughing. But the biggest thing that has happened to me is that my attitude has changed. We all have difficulties and challenges in daily life. And while earlier, I used to constantly worry, now, I just laugh and tell myself that whatever is happening is happening for a good reason. I keep a positive mental attitude at all times. No matter what comes my way, I adjust my mind and try to laugh.

Do you ever cry or feel angry?
Of course. I cannot keep laughing 24/7 and I do experience all emotions. They say boys don't cry, but I did so when my mother passed away — that was no laughing matter. I find I have more compassion for people. Earlier, I would never cry at things that are beyond our control, say for instance the quake in Nepal. But now these things make me sad. Am much more sensitive to the pain of others now than I was before Laughter Yoga. I even get angry sometimes when at work people behave irresponsibly. At such times, I don't laugh but try to channelise the emotion in a positive way and sternly tell them not to do such things in the future. And people listen to me, because even they want to see me laugh (laughs).

Why is it difficult for people to laugh? Is there a difference between real and simulated laughter?
People don't know the meaning of laughter. Our laughter has been connected to reasoning and conditioning. Primarily, we don't have too many reasons for us to laugh. And then, the conditioning that serious people are more effective, has made matters worse. We believe that if the boss is serious, he'll get more work done and that employees will be serious and disciplined. Besides, if employees keeps laughing all the time, what are they getting paid for (laughs)? So, the attitude to understand laughter doesn't exist. Laughter has to be like a child's, it has to be playful.
Another important this is that we leave laughter to chance. In real life, when something funny happens, we laugh. But when we leave laughter to chance, it may or may not happen. This is why Laughter Yoga is important because we make a commitment to laugh, and in the process derive health benefits. Scientific studies have shown that the human mind cannot tell the difference between real laughter and laughter exercises, so the body still responds in the same manner.

You've established the Laughter Yoga University. Why was it important to do this?
The Laughter Yoga movement has spread to 100 countries. As the movement has grown, there has been a great demand for information and training in this field. At our University, we don't give people degrees so the university is not academic in that sense. But we do have our weekly programmes, such as teacher training, leader's training and master's training. These courses are chargeable and the profits from here are pooled into the Laughter Yoga Foundation, which has been set up for research into the field.

Laughter Yoga has many ventures from merchandise and DVDs to tours and kirtans. How do you manage all this without getting stressed?
(Laughs) I don't really manage anything. I let people do what they want to with Laughter Yoga. These are all my students' ideas — they develop these and I learn from them in the process. Just the other day, I received an email from a student in Italy who wants to do Aqua Laughter Yoga — laughing exercises in the swimming pool.
You must understand that while I got the idea of laughter, laughter itself is like air and water. I do have a trademark for Laughter Yoga but the idea cannot be controlled and made money out of.

What's your vision for Laughter Yoga?
Two weeks ago, I was in Tihar jail, I laughed with all the prisoners, who told me that, 'Doctorsaab, aap idhar hi reh jao' (Doctor, you should stay here in prison!) (laughs)! I plan to start going to prisons regularly. Every prison should have laughter yoga sessions, so that even if one has to go to jail, one can laugh about it (laughs).

On a bigger scale, I'd like to see a full-fledged Laughter Yoga University headquartered in Bangalore in the next 20 years. I've already purchased the land for it and will start building on it in six months. I'd also like to see every country to have Laughter Yoga centres and have 1 million laughter clubs across the world.

But before that, I'd like Laughter Yoga to contribute to world peace. Earlier, my mission was health and happiness through Laughter Yoga. These are the two things that people across the world don't have and struggle to get. We don't need things that are outside of us to make us happy. We need to be happy inside.