On Laughter

One of my idols in life, the great Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh aka Osho, had once advised us to ‘Be a joke unto yourself.’ He had also said, that Buddha had once said, that we should ‘Be a light unto yourself.’ But then, according to Osho, what can one do with a light? Light a cigar?

Having started as a humor blogger, and usually getting comments in the brotherhood of ‘LOL and Hahahaha’ I actually find the prospect of writing this post very interesting. (Unfortunately, not hilarious.) During that time, my entire philosophy of writing was this- “if internally, a thought produces laughter in me then it must be funny.” A couple of years later, after a few personal upheavals when I looked at these posts with a straight face and realised how grandly I had wasted my hours constructing these ‘punches’, I felt disgusted with myself. The only thing that felt like a ‘punch’ then, was the blow on my self confidence.

What I do find funny though, about that phase was how grandly I promoted the blog. (Even something very unrelated as a radio community on orkut would have a post called- Check out my humor blog!) Also, as a writer who wanted to grow I decided that I must take inspiration from American and British sitcoms. How sad it was for me to not get their jokes at that time.

Nostalgia aside, laughter in my present life is incredibly hard to come by (maybe it is just my narcissism which wants to see people laugh than laugh myself). Still, if I were to prepare a list of things I find funny, then this would be it.

1. It is there in the cry of the enemy. (Making a comeback to an insult, this too me is the best form as you are laughing at the same person who once laughed at you.)
2. It is there in the shared sense of serendipitous connection from a friend. (The other day, I was talking to a friend online and we were both watching Mohra on Zee Cinema. I chuckled at how psychedelic it was.)
3. It is there in sarcasm, unexpected surprises, appropriate suggestive message in response to a suggestive message, and last but not the least- it is there in dreams of sunshine where life would not be so dark as it is now.

That is all.