The ‘DiCaprio crush’

I was reading the entertainment news today and happened to see a picture of the ‘matured looking’ Leonardo De Caprio, the teenage crush of many of my college mates. Call it my ignorance about movies and actors, but, the man who once had the looks of a classic ‘chocolate hero’ was looking tad different in the picture and it called to mind a few interesting memories from my college days and about my girl pals who swooned over him.

De Caprio and Titanic were the hottest and most talked topics in our college, and all my friends had a kind of hysterical crush on him, a crush on someone they've never met in life! For them, he was the most handsome on earth and Titanic was the perfect portrayal of eternal love. For me, Leonardo De Caprio was always on the list of those immature looking heroes who can never ever go beyond the edge of typical romantic films. Every one, except me, wanted to watch James Cameron's cinematic magnum opus, but it was that time of our academic year when we had classes back to back the whole day and couldn't spare even one hour. I really had no interest in the movie and all my friends were almost taken to surprise when I said this. I had read quite a bit about the ship and some of the stories related to it, and felt that the movie would be too much predictable to kill my spirits, and above all was the actor who was no way matching with my concepts of ‘handsome’. Seeing my cold reactions, my friends called me senseless and unromantic, but as always I used to turn a deaf ear to their unending De Caprio stories that used to take me to the edge of boredom. But even after trying so hard, the movie plan didn't work out due to the tight schedules of classes and exams, which resulted in a kind of mass gloominess among all my friends, especially on knowing that the movie would soon go from the nearest cinema hall. Their sadness was indefinable, but I was happy that I was finally saved from watching a movie with a story line that’s quite straight and predictable, containing absolutely no thrill and fun. To be frank, I like thrillers, but romantic movies are not generally my cup of tea. But the story took a different turn when the college management organized charity programme where they were planning to show the movie. I just couldn't take-in the fact that my teachers wanted to make me watch a movie that I would never think of watching, even if I am bored to death.

It was the day of the charity programme and the movie was planned for the afternoon session. I knew I would not be able to ‘save’ myself from my pals, and hence made up my mind to sacrifice my precious time for something that I was hardly interested in. When all my friends almost firmly fixed their eyes on the screen watching the ‘saga’ of true love, I couldn't help but hilariously laugh inside seeing their reactions and facial expressions. Some of them smiled, some blushed, some whispered to their friends, and some even cried their hearts off, and I was the only one in the hall giggling uncontrollably looking at all these amusing reactions.

I was, and I still am, not at all a huge movie buff or a loyal fan of those high-profile movie stars and socialites who keep filling in the Page 3 columns with spicy day today stories. Moreover, let it not be a secret that I have never succumbed to delusions and celebrity crushes like most of my pals, and have always felt those kinds of things don’t count much in life. Such crushes have almost never happened to me yet, as movies and stars would often leave the door steps of my mind the moment I stop watching them.

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.