I grew up reading one of the BEST writers in the world, Pu La Deshpande. One of the major reasons I am proud to be a Marathi, is because I could read him. It is not only about his writing, he was also a complete personality. A performer at heart who was not only a great writer but also an amazing musician, harmonium player, actor, director, speaker, philanthropist and much more than that a clean hearted good human being who did not have a word ‘envy’ in his dictionary. But this article is not about him, its about what he gave me, a sense of humour.
Borrowing Chatur’s words from the Movie 3 idiots, to prove my point, I would say,
“Sense of humour hota sabhi ke paas hai…par sab chupa ke rakte hai…dikhata koi nai…”
Jokes are many times considered as abject. The so called intellectuals in society make it look ‘low grade’. And to add to it unfortunately today’s writers/performers are also taking it to lower levels by always dabbling with slapstick comedy and under the belt punches.
Because of this lacking pride, our sense of humour most of the times is in a ‘hidden mode’. We may not laugh in public because we feel we are not seen as intelligent. Not laughing in public is also ok provided we at least laugh within. If we are not doing that, we are actually making a joke of ourselves!
I do laugh inside when people say life is a not a joke, take it seriously. In fact I feel exactly reverse.
“Joke is life and never take your life seriously.”
I find laughing as a meditation. I get bored with serious meditation where we watch our soul like a police. Whenever that poor soul tries to go out, the police comes and grabs it. While laughing, there is no such policing.
Laughing is the best medicine and as you all know, only we humans are habitual to take medicines. So is the case with laughing. Animals never laugh. They don’t have a sense of humour. I have never seen a bird laughing at me nor do any cat laughs with you while watching a ‘Tom and Jerry’, neither do very small kids laugh. Kids start laughing when they develop expectations and they laugh when suddenly something happens which is not expected.
That is the science of a joke.
A joke happens mainly when something unexpected happens. Duryodhana fell inside the water and Draupadi laughed. Mahabharat happened not because she laughed, but because what she said while laughing. All of us should surely have a sense of humour but it should not come with the dirt from inside. A laugh should come with a clear heart.
A clean soul can only laugh and experience the divinity.
Even demons are seen to laugh but is not the sense of humour.
A Sense of Humour is a mood. You actually develop it when you start laughing at yourself and that is where it starts taking you to make sense of life.
If you have it, nothing like it. If you don’t, try to develop it.
It has to start with you. Start laughing about yourself. Don’t take anything seriously. Neither your success, nor your failure. Remember joke is life and never take your life seriously.
PS : Do take this article seriously. Don’t just laugh away from it. 🙂