It is said that a smile can win hearts, peace and even nations. If this be the effect of a smile on another person encountered, then one can imagine the gratitude one can earn if one can make the other smile and laugh away the worries. Conversion of the smile to a frown is easier and the reverse in reality is a herculean task.
Similarly, laughing at other's mistakes and blunders is easy but laughing at oneself is difficult. It is in this context, that the legendary Khushwant Singh remarked that Indians have a poor sense of humour.
The much adored Charlie Chaplin said
" I always like walking in the rain, so no one can see me crying"
The iconic Chaplin also held humour very close to his heart that he ruled that
" A day without laughter is a day wasted"
Highlighting the courage involved in making a fool oneself to amuse others he said
It must be indeed be difficult for one to laugh at oneself. Yours truly made an attempt to laugh at one's own failure and must admit for the records of posterity that many futile attempts later, on a few occasions on being prodded to laugh managed a smile.
In fact, in the younger days we had the occasion to laugh our heads off on a digest titled "Laughter is the best medicine" - a sure recipe for the present day COVID warriors. Little did one know that this also was out of a quote of the iconic Chaplin who said
" Laughter is the tonic, the relief, the surcease for pain"
Bob Newhart went one step ahead to make it the mantra for survival itself when saying
" The only way to survive is to have a sense of humour"
The news that distilleries and bars will remain closed due to the lockdown could have a heart wrenching effect on the liqWuor addicts which is what the words of P G Wodehouse capture in these words,
" Freddie experienced the sort of abysmal soul-sadness
which afflicts one of Tolstoy's Russian peasants, when,
after putting in a heavy day's work strangling his father,
beating his wife, and dropping the baby into the city's reservoir,
he turns to the cupboards, only to find the vodka bottle empty"
Returning to Chaplin, he said
" At the end, life is a gag"
And what better way to conclude than to cite a typo error which is amusing where a vacancy notice read as under:
" A male sales girl is wanted"
Thus, H for Humour becomes the next life lesson in the A to Z series.
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