THE LAUGHTER THERAPY
(I)
Every morning the ritual is the same, -
I say my prayers and take His name;
As I settle down to read the papers, –
About our politician’s famous ‘blame game’!
It is then I always hear, loud peals of laughter
from our adjacent park,
A man dedicated to laughter therapy,
With his loud guffaw and reverberating bark!
Trying to resolve this laughing mystery, -
I read several articles about Laughter Therapy!
(II)
Amongst all created things and living beings,
Man alone suffers deeply in his body, mind,
and soul;
With peals of laughter he must suppress his tears,
To balance this life and control!
Yet during those rare and supreme happy moments
of  life, -
Tears are seen to well-up in our eyes!
Laughter gets mingled with our tears, -
I wonder why? !
Perhaps laughter and tears are two sides,
Of the same coin of our worldly life!
While our lacrymal glands perform this feat, -
As laughter and tears join hands  to make this
life complete!
(III)
While hearty, non-ridiculing and connecting
laughter does provide,
Physiological, psychological and spiritual
benefits - on hindsight!
Laughter brings a twinkle in our eyes, destroying
our conservative reputation;
Improving our cardiovascular flexibility, increasing
our spiritual quotient!
Laughter like internal jogging, gives us an internal
massaging;
Performed both silently and rapidly beyond imagining!
Revitalizing those unexplored internal crannies –
all automatic!
Far better than all our know antibiotics!
Laughter a tranquilizer without side effects,
Releases our pent-up tension relaxing us instead!
(IV)
An optimist always laughs to forget, while a pessimist
forgets to laugh,
My man in the park is perhaps an optimist,
Who has embraced this  therapy as an art!
Or perhaps that man laughs daily at the frailties of a
meaningless life,
In this life of absurdities as he adapts himself to
survive!
This laughter therapy is a tranquilizer both healthy
and free,
Perhaps that man in the park is laughing at both you
and me!
Our life becomes a tragedy for those who only feel!
But a comedy of laughter, if you pause a while to think!
So let us try to make others laugh while we try to
control our tears,
Laughing is a healing process and drives away our
fears!
Let us make a New Year’s resolution, making laughter
our altruistic mission;
Coupled with a loving and caring heart all true, -
Let this  laughter as a therapy - benefit both me and
you!
-Raj Nandy
New Delhi
18 Dec 08
(The Physiologists say that when we cry,34 body muscles
are activated, but when we laugh only 17 muscles get activated!
Making laughter doubly beneficial!)