Laugh, laugh, and laugh to live

Laugh for the sake of laughing! When I was told that someone is to reach the office to teach us how to laugh for no reason, I was really dumbstruck. At first I felt it’s downright craziness to laugh for no reason, but heard my colleagues saying that it is a kind of yoga, the Laughter Yoga, which is practiced widely across the globe, Obviously, my curiosity increased and I was really looking forward to know how it would be and how can someone laugh without any reason, which is absolutely illogical to my sense. Laughing is undoubtedly good for body, but I felt no one can laugh without some humor, jokes or comedy. I truly believe laughter has to come from within, straight from your mind, and that’s possible only with a funny sight or an amusing story/incident, which would trigger the mind and tempt to laugh lungs out. But what if asked to laugh without any specific reason to mention, without any trigger to instigate the process? I felt it is almost impossible. So I was very much eager to know what the Laughter Guru is going to make us do. After hours of wait, there came our Guruji and I was surprised to the core seeing his outfits, especially those shoes. I've never seen anyone in my life yet, who can courageously wear such bright, flashy, and multi -coloured outfits in public, which almost made him look odd, and adding to my shock was the colour of his shoes, as he had different shoes on each of his legs, one white and the other black. I was not sure whether he did all these intentionally or not, but, to be frank, I burst in to laughter the moment I saw him, as he looked so clownish beyond words, and was laughing almost non-stop seeing us.

I felt he would have something to make us laugh, though I didn't have much interest in the ‘Yoga’ side of his session. The 30-45 minutes laughing session was filled with quite a few hilarious ‘exercises’ which our laughter professional said would help us relax amid our stressful work schedules. I am yet to figure out the ‘science’ behind those ‘exercises’ that I was taught, but I have to admit that I laughed a lot, really a lot that I my jaws started paining after sometime, but yet I was laughing nonstop till the end. I admit I laughed, I laughed like hell, and if you ask me why, I have no specific reason to mention. But I would say one thing. More than the ‘exercises’ and looks of our guru, what triggered laughter in me was the kind of funny things that I saw others were doing, especially those people with ‘serious looks’ and ‘fewer words’, who have never laughed so much yet (as far as I know). They were all serious till that very moment, but looked as laughing like crazy that I was so amazed to know how it happened. So more than looking at the guru, I was crazily looking at others and laughing my lungs out seeing them laughing deliriously out of nowhere. The amusingly crazy session ended with a thank you note and an invitation to attend another session the very next day.

Allurophobia?

Ask me the about the animal I hate the most and I wouldn't even take a second to start explaining how much I hate cats. Don’t jump in to an immediate conclusion that I am a firm believer of the so called omens and witchcraft which keeps saying cats are bad and they represent the evil. I am certainly not in to any such irrational beliefs, but I do have quite a few genuine reasons that provoke me hate cats, and the most important is that they are unhygienic and ill-mannered to the very core. They would peep in to any place they feel like, freely roam about here and there with absolute freedom, and still remain as the most unfaithful. When it comes to animals, although I am not a dog lover, I would say dogs are way far better than cats. Even though both are given a ‘human like’ consideration by most of the people around, I can surely say that dogs are much more faithful than cats, as I have always seen cats taking pretty good advantage of the good nature of human beings, where as dogs often remain loyal to us. Even more lovable are animals like cows and goats, but I really don’t have any sentiments towards cats. Even their looks are often so deceptive that at times after making up my mind to give a bit of food from my plate; I change my opinion at the last moment, seeing the cunning looks they have, which often makes me feel that they would pounce on to me the very next moment they complete the food. I hate them more when I see them in our mess hall, coming close to me slowly and rubbing their faces and bodies against my legs. We have a bizarrely shiny eyed black little cat, which looks more or less like the one of those much needed characters in the ghost stories that I have read in childhood. There is nothing worse than seeing it in the morning, coming close when I am having my breakfast.

Although there are many cat lovers in our hostel, who keep petting it, I just can’t fathom why people have so much love cats, which are the most detestable, just because of being so unhygienic with its fur falling constantly, making huge patches on its body. Of course, I am not as hardhearted as you think, and have the very innate human feelings. I do feel bad for it, and would keep wondering if it has any disease or how many more days will it survive, but I just hate seeing it walking straight in to our kitchen roaming around with pride, and sitting in the corner of the kitchen as if it’s entitled to monitor the people out there. Cat fur, I think, is the worst thing that our skin comes in contact with as it would trigger endless number of allergies which need prolonged medications. I think I needn't say any more strong reasons to hate cats.