Laugh or Cry

It's funny how so many of us love to cry - over split milk, over curdled milk, over cold milk, over hot milk, over all kinds of milk! As a child, we have to cry - to seek attention so we can get our quota of love and sustenance. But what is with us adults? We are forever finding a reason why we should not be happy. The boss sucks, the system is corrupt, people are not trustworthy, life has become too complicated - the list is never-ending. But we all have a funny bone - why do we not become adept at tickling it more often. I was not a very humorous person as a growing child, but somewhere in my teens, I began to see the funnier side of things. Funnily, my becoming an active sportsperson somewhere in my 8th class, had a connection with this. As I got used to winning AND losing matches, I realized that life was nothing but a yo-yo of emotions and situations. Some days you played brilliantly, some days you fell short of your own expectations. Some days you played your best, yet you lost. Other days, you were horribly under par, yet managed to win. Funny, no?

The other gift I got from the Arranger of Destinies (AoD, if such a thing exists) was a chance discovery of my most adorable writer - Sir P.G. Wodehouse. This was in the spring of 1975, when my University closed sine die and I had to take a forced vacation with my parents, who then lived in Guwahati, in Assam, India. With nothing much to do, I would go to the Air Force Library near my home (my dad spent all his working life as a diligent IAF serviceman) and browse for books. I chanced upon one of Sir PGW's books and brought it home. As I read it, I just could not stop laughing. I was hooked! I read as many as I could lay my hands on. The situations in every story or novel were ludicrous and unbelievable, but what fun to read :-). This was pure bliss for me. Whatever starchiness remained in me from younger years vanished like the smile of a well-fed man after sitting down on a three-legged chair. As the years went by, I just became more witty, less serious, more prone to poking fun at myself and at others, less prone to take small things to heart.

I have had tears in my eyes, but more often than not, I have had a smile on my face. I have doubled up and dropped to the floor laughing uncontrollably at jokes or funny situations. I might also be able to claim the World record for being the only sane human being to laugh (and infect others with the bug) at a condolence meeting! More about that some other time, but hey - life's choices are really very simple. You can choose to laugh more, or you can choose to cry more. The more you laugh, the more you want to laugh. I still remember reading this lovely quote, and it became one of my mottos in life: Laugh, and the world laughs with you. Cry, and you cry alone. What wisdom, and how pithily said!

Ok, then - just get up and find a funny thing to laugh at. The mirror might be a good place to start.