Awakening the kundalini of humour

Abstract

Byline: Harish. Shetty While conducting training sessions for judicial officers on mental health for the past three years I would always ask them a question: 'Why is it that they do not smile?' The reply I always got was that 'It will be misunderstood and trivialize such a responsible activity.' Not very long ago, when I was conducting a session for senior medical teachers in a reputed teaching hospital, an orthopaedic surgeon shared that he would never smile at a patient in pain as the latter would feel offended. My question to him was: 'If your close relative knocks at your door to seek help for some aches and pains, will you not greet him with a smile?' Humour and its brethren (i.e. smile/laughter/a naughty giggle) all contribute to healing. As the recipient feels better, the giver feels ecstatic. Humour is a lost art and the casualty of a fast-paced world. I believe that the day should begin with humour. As far as possible, I begin my day with laughter and it could be with anybody. Well, the auto rickshaw driver could be nudged by 'Chal Dhanno'. Many a time the drive is recklessly dangerous but the point is that the human connection is established. This bond is losing its shine as doctors have forgotten this basic need under the belt of effective molecules or therapies. Swaminath has made this point very effectively. I remember the session with a bunch of students in a hostel recently following the suicide of their colleague. As the session moved very seriously with tears and fears expressed, one little girl shared a joke sent through sms. Nervous smiles erupted and as I nodded a subtle sanction, more jokes flowed with no guilt or apprehension. Deeper sharing erupted and the kids moved ahead in their process of healing. In 1993, after the devastating earthquake at Latur (Maharashtra) we had organized a Manaswasthya Shibir-a mental health camp. This session was organized in the famous Neelkanteshwar temple at Killari which was also partially devastated. We had just began our 'funda' with our PTSD business, when the villagers cracked a joke on their own. As they continued, the session became hilarious and we fulfilled our agenda. The fantastic component was that the villagers set the agenda and the method of healing through their own cultural and mental processes. Most of my teachers have been grim, racking their brains to differentiate between the different types of delusions. Yet all of them were so different with a glass of whisky. I always wonder why they could never reveal this side as clinicians in their day-to-day life. Why were their chats with patients so formal, so cold, so clinical?The flesh and bones were dissected by a set of questions evolved by many OCPD clinicians. Sexual innuendos alone are not humour. And compart-mentalizing it during different times for self-conceived reasons is like going away from God-moving away from Mother Nature. As I smile at the cops on the road chatting away with my 'Lord Krishna' (the guy who drives me around), I was stopped by one. …