Ha Ha Hee Hee
Laugh out loud
Purva Grover

A sweet smile, a natural giggle, an innocent chuckle, a good ol’ belly laugh... On World Laughter Day today, resolve to fix a slot for these in your daily schedule

As kids, we would burst into giggles at the mere thought of biting into the gooey Mr Pop. As youngsters, the silliest of pranks played on teachers had us in splits. As adults, we need a day to remind us to laugh. Sad, but true, and perhaps, necessary, too. As we celebrate World Laughter Day today, we tell you how very simple and significant it is to fit in a dose of laughter in your stressed and humdrum average day. And yes, as we do that, we can’t help but raise a toast to all our Punjabi funny men who have tickled funny bones the world over.

Hearty matter

KEEPING a check on your cholesterol count can soon be history. Bid goodbye to popping pills and worrying over ailments by following the humour therapy. Yes, a hearty laugh ensures a healthy heart. Says Fortis’ director of cardiology, Dr Gurcharan Singh Kalra, "Stress is one of the most important causes of heart disease. Acute stress can increase the risk of a heart attack or blockage of arteries. Laughter definitely helps cut stress levels." As we laugh, our heart pumps faster leading to improved circulation. This delivers more oxygen to the brain and hence helps us think better.

Flip for fun

GONE are the days of saas bahu rona-dhona that left one with no other option than to crib, scream and eventually break the television set. The telly is indeed smilingly inviting now. Each day a new channel pops up with a funny offering. And then the re-runs of shows like Great Indian Laughter Challenge, Comedy Circus, Sarabhai vs. Sarabhai or Khicdi. You can laugh your way all through May by tuning in to Star Gold as they bring the best of comedy movies.

70 mm smiles

THESE may have started to revive the career of many fading Bollywood stars, but the multi-starrers did ensure giggles in between popcorn and cola. Golmaal, Heyy Baby, Dhol, Dhamaal, the list is long. Low budgets, debutant directors and funny themes taught us many things -- Tusshar Kapoor could act, Arshad was indeed the best and a jadu ki jhappi worked wonders. So, all you filmy junta, book yourself a ticket now!

Cheerful clubbing

DID you know that a laughter day and laughter club is a merry city medico’s brainwave? Says Dr Madan Kataria, founder of the laughter movement, "We are more successful than we were a few decades ago. At the same time, we are ten times more stressed out. Laughter exercises are the fastest way towards a positive mind. These help strengthen the immune system, fight depression and bring complete physical, spiritual, mental and social well-being." All you need to do is simply head to the neighbourhood park and join the jolly fellows.

Gymming no more

BEEP, beep goes the alarm at six each morning. Next, you are jogging at Sukhna or sweating it out on the treadmill. Did you know that 10-15 minutes of laughter burns 50 calories? We bet your gym instructor never told you that. Says VLCC centre’s clinical head Sarita Bhatnagar, "Laughter is like any other exercise. It involves the entire body and not just the jaw muscle." She explains the calorie-laughter equation, "When a person is resting, his metabolism is low. On laughing, the metabolism rises leading to calorie burning." So all you fitness freaks, skip the Diet Coke and laugh instead.

Jolly & beautiful

WANT to save yourself from spending umpteen hours and loads of moolah at a fancy spa or a hi-fi salon? Make sure to add a hearty laugh to your beauty regime. Haven’t you noticed the glow in your skin post-spending a good evening with friends? Says Cleopatra director Ritu Kolentine, "A jolly person has fewer fine lines, wrinkles and premature ageing troubles. A good laugh releases toxins and can help battle pigmentation and grey hair too."

WHAT is ulta-pulta and can send you into guffaws? Jestman Jaspal Bhatti, of course. The Flop Show guy is back on telly, this time judging funny men on Sab’s Comedy Ka King Kaun. And then there is the giggling Guggi, krazzy Khayali, witty Bhagwant Mann, comical Pratap Fauzdar and more tickling the funny bone on reality shows. And when talking funny men, can we ignore the world renowned Santa Banta duo? Their good ol’ jokes are indeed Punjab’s gift to the world. A whiff of Punjabiyat is all you need for a fun-filled day.

Masti ki paathshala
Anandita Gupta

Don’t let your child become a couch potato. There are many fun-filled activities on offer to make his vacation memorable

Forget complicated maps and figures, strict timetables and stricter teachers. Get over those heavy schoolbags, leaking water bottles and late school busses.

If you’re a kiddo, or a parent of one, your much-fantasised freedom is almost here. Parked right at your doorstep are the summer chuttis. Time to sleep till noon, giggle, chatter, hog, travel,learn`85 oops did we say ‘learn’ during vacations? Yup, with fancy summer workshops lined ahead, you can hardly resist picking up one. We pick n’ choose the fancy ones, with pretty pink ribbons attached:

Daredevils

Think rainwater buffeting against your face, making ripples as you row away in little boats, low-roofed tunnels and majestic scenery welcoming you as you pitch tents on a riverside. For adventureholics, Negi Sports Private Limited offers summer camps (5 nights, 6 days) from May 15 onwards. It involves rock climbing, rappelling, backpacking, and snow camping to Narkanda, Mashobra and Manali . Starting at Rs 5,000, these explorations include lessons in reading maps, finding directions, predicting weather, pitching tents, first-aid and survival skills. For kids who’d like to savour adventure with mummy-papa, Chandigarh Adventurers, Treks and Sports offers a four-day trip to Solang Valley.

If looking for an overall exposure, opt for Les Elfes, a two-week Swiss International Camp located in Verbier, Switzerland, offering adventure camping and language learning programmes to youngsters from 8 to18. Adventures range from paragliding to tubing, air-borne to water sports, rappelling and rock climbing to discovering the marine life at the Great Barrier and trekking to cabane that faces Mont Blanc. Language course, team building and leadership enhancing activities are a part of the course, costing Rs 50,000.

Filmi funda

IF it’s too hot to set your foot out of air-conditioned environs, indoor options galore. Commencing from May 20 to June 8 (10.30-1pm daily), Anu Vala’s Go Bananas workshop at Indira Holiday Home-24 offers phonetics and conversation skills development, filmmaking module for older kids, environmental awareness sessions, theatre and field visits to recording studios for Rs 2,200. Budding actors can clear the auditions by Anupam Kher’s Actor Prepares on June 2 and get enrolled for a three-month acting course for Rs 90,000! For inexpensive options, head to Manchtantra’s theatre workshop, focusing on voice exercises and emoting with facial gestures

Arty-crafty

St. Jute’s 10-day English Funshop from May 19 rolls out a punch of skills related to English language from calligraphy to debates. Join in by paying Rs 500. Kids Own-17 is holding a 10-day art and yoga workshop from May 25 (Rs 2,500). At Coveda Summer Workshops at Coveda, New Public School-18, budding musicians can learn to play instruments like guitar and flute from May 5 to June 5 by shelling out Rs 1,500. Delhi-based dancer Sushmita Ghosh will be teaching Kathak from May 19 to 23 for Rs 1,000. Here kids can create unique stories with picture prompts, posters and illustrations for Rs 800. Also here will be Anshu Sharma’s Theatre Workshop helping children explore their potential through creative expression.

Shake a leg

Swish and twirl at Varun Dance Studio’s Dance Marathon, a three-week-workshop for kids commencing on May 19. Learn jazz, hip-hop and Bollywood dance for Rs 2,000. Rock n’ Roll Academy-35 offers one-month dance workshop for hip- hop, salsa, jazz, semi-classical, ballroom, waltz and bhangra from June. One can learn guitar, casio and harmonium for Rs 2,000.

So go ahead and pack an adventure filled holiday for your little one!

Write to Renee

at lifestyletribune@gmail.com or Life Style, The Tribune, Sector 29-C, Chd

Shaila Sharma, Chandigarh

You must realise that we are social creatures and cannot survive in isolation. In our country living-in relations are still frowned upon. I suggest you calm down, think logically and weigh the pros and cons of your situation. Since you are already good friends, continue your friendship and see how you feel about each other after some time. Once you know how well you stand with each other, the relationship will move in the right direction. Make life simple for yourself instead of annoying your parents and others.

Anamika Mehta, Panchkula

Why are you feeling like the underdog? After all, they are your children too and you are both supposed to have an equal say in how to bring them up. The issue here does not seem to be only about raising kids, but about your relationship with your husband. Anyway your have to consider that your husband was brought up in this fashion and he is only doing what he thinks is best according to his thinking. The best thing you can do, is make some mental affirmations. Tell your husband in a roundabout way just to love the children and forget about teaching ways.

Preet, Chandigarh

Why must you be living this kind of a life? You should be completely enjoying yourself and feeling on top of the world. Stop playing the victim mode. It is easy to slip into negativity and loose touch with our inner self. We need to let go of our negative belief system and start trusting the Universe. It is your mental and emotional state that is making you behave like this. Remember fear is a lack of trust in God. Trust is the power within you that connects you to the Universal power. Pray for courage, strength and guidance. Trust in the higher source and also in yourself, it will give you confidence. Connect within. When you emit this confidence, people will naturally reach out to you.

First Day First Show
Hair raising!
Rajiv Kaplish

Mr. White Mr. Black: Avoidable

ALARM bells are ringing for Suniel Shetty and Arshad Warsi. Their films are flopping with unfailing regularity. They are confused. In desperation, they go to a soothsayer. He advises them to take a vow. To swap appearances in the next movie featuring both. While hirsute Arshad should have short hair, Shetty should sport a ponytail. Their prayers are soon answered. Director Deepak Shivdasani promises to help them fulfil their pledge and Mr White Mr Black is born.

Once the selection of the hairdos of the male protagonists is over, Shivdasani himself gets confused. He can’t decide whether he wants to reinvent the Charlie’s Angels franchise, or get inspiration from It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad World. Finally, he borrows some ideas from the two Hollywood blockbusters, a few from indigenous capers like Dhamaal and Dhol and churns out a slapdash slapstick. Horror of horrors, it even has a plot (if it can be called that).

Consider this: Hoshiarpur lad Gopi (Shetty) has come to Goa to trace childhood friend, Kishen (Warsi), take him back to their native place and hand him over a tiny piece of his (Kishen’s) ancestral land. But the small-town boy who has become a conman and cheats people with the help of his understudy, Babu (Atul Kale), is reluctant to return. Helping Gopi in his mission is Tanya (Anisha Khosla), daughter of the owner of K.G. Resorts. Even as the two are making efforts to persuade Kishen to go back home, three con girls led by Sandhya Mridul come to stay there. The desi Charlie’s Angels have stolen diamonds worth crores belonging to a goon, Ladla (Ashish Vidyarthi), who accidentally killed his mother and gets emotional whenever someone utters the word Ma. The don wants his diamonds back. Soon, everyone else in the resort will be after the precious stones.

And we will be after Shivdasani for thinking that we are a bunch of morons and will bear with his three-hour-long drivel. For imagining that we will drool over his oomph girls. No, Mr Director, Shetty and Warsi’s new hair styles neither redeem their reputations nor make your movie stylish. Worse, we tear our hair out at their clownish antics.

We are also outraged at your clumsy attempts to pass off three buxom beauties as sultry sirens. Since when has paunch become the new name for glamour ? It was also callous of you to have reduced the role of a talented actor like Sharat Saxena to a foolish cop who keeps getting confused over names. However, the treatment of the portrayals of Upasna Singh and Manoj Joshi is just. Hysterical and pathetic, they both needed to be cut to size.

But after the ‘hairy’ experience, we also go to the jyotishi of Shetty and Warsi and take a pledge — not to get a haircut till they hone their acting skills and do meaningful roles!

Starving for love?
Purva Grover

Loves me, loves me not… with cheese, without cheese

THE little black dress is hot. A coke can has 142 calories and a diet coke can just 1.3 calories. Warm water with honey and lemon is your new beverage. The track in the neighbourhood park is 1.5 km. So you are on a diet and everything scrumptious has transformed into sinful. Now imagine this, in the midst of your dieting regime.

Here, you are avoiding even the thoughts of chocolate sauce and there your partner gorges on hot chocolate fudge. What do you do? Break your partner’s neck, or resist and be brave? We suggest hang on and put your love to test. Yes, dieting is a lot more than a flat tummy. It’s about your loved one. How your partner reacts when you are on a diet is a clue to your relationship, says a new study. Let’s explore the food-love equation.

Meet Vikas-Gayatri, the wifey on diet for two months got full support from hubby. “He monitored my diet and never cribbed about what was cooked,” she smiles. So support helps keep the calorie count? Says city-based psychologist Simi Wariach, “It makes the resolve stronger.” And remember support does not necessarily mean joining in the diet. Says Wariach, “A pat on the back or appreciating the progress or the will power helps.”

But then, it sure can’t be easy to opt for salads and not desserts, when one is not dieting. Confesses Smriti, “I remember when we went out together during my boyfriend’s dieting days, he would order a salad and look at me innocently.” She adjusted for a month but not beyond. “He had tested my will power and now it was my chance to test his,” she adds. Aaah…that’s not true love! Says Fortis clinical nutritionist Sonia Gandhi, “Reasons for hostility vary from non-seriousness of the person on diet to some people trying to diet all round the year . One gets fed up.”

Sharing the diet plan is a good idea, but it’s not easy. Says Wariach, “A caring person will not test the partner by exposing him to goodies.” Says Gandhi, “Conflict during the dieting period speaks about the couple’s understanding.” So all you people on diet, go ahead and test the depth of your relationship!

Matka Chowk
Traffic self-help
Sreedhara Bhasin

I noticed something new the other day. The small car waiting at a red light in front of mine had a huge black and white sticker splashed all across the rear shield. It said – “Chhote bacche sher ka peecha nahin karte hain.” After looking at it idly for a while, I understood the message. On the same day I saw another one: “Drove it like you stole it.” I think this a new kind of creativity on the move. However, this gave me a brainwave. After all a lot of our so-called traffic anguish and trials can be much better managed with a lot of labelling and a little bit of psychoanalysis and subsequent adjustment.

If all the drivers touted their motto in broad daylight, driving would be tantamount to watching and responding. I can think of many labels that can adorn a lot of car body parts in our city. We can look at those that say: “Drive like the wind” and beware, or we can view the “I don’t stop for any body – not even for old folks and children,” and adjust our expectations. I can think of many such categories, that rightly expressed in words would make our city traffic a psychoanalyst’s delight. For example: “ I am aggressive and I like it that way.” Or maybe, “Overtaking from the wrong side is my birthright.” How about “I honk – just because I can” and “Get out my way because I have a bigger car and therefore I am better than you.”

Our old driver taught me a mantra: “Always watch out beta and save yourself. Driving is not about how you drive the vehicle. It is all about how you watch the traffic around you and how well you protect yourself.” Now that his prophecy is about to come true in our city, it would be a great source of reinforcement if we could see and tell.

(This column appears weekly)

If I were to play with creativity and compose these stickers, here are some I would:

• I invite death for I am young – or maybe, I invite death for I am unable to comprehend a connection between motion and impact.
• I do not stop at red lights for I don’t like the colour red.
• I believe in the equality of colours.
• Let there be light. Even better, let there be high beams.
• Margin of error has been marginalised.
• Helmets are only for gladiators
• I drive on the wrong side of the road because being right is boring.
• Since I drive on the road, it is mine.
• Don’t curse, I cannot hear you.
• We are al equal – in this madness.

This can be a true awakening! What better way to manage traffic than letting our creativity sergeant set things in order?

Incredible Naomi

Naomi Campbell’s skills as a model are incomparable, and now the supermodel’s batting skills on the sets of Ugly Betty where she hit the ball so hard that it actually broke the softball bat in half. In the series, she took part in a glittery team of Elle models playing against Mode magazine. “I was given a crash course in softball and at one point hit the ball so hard that it actually broke in half! I had a fantastic day on the set. The coach said he had never seen anyone pick up the game so quickly,” she was quoted. — ANI

Health Tip

Coccyx is the very end of the tailbone and its associated pain is called coccydynia. Injury is a common cause. It can be due to fracture of the coccyx or strain on the sacrococcygeal joint. Disc herniation also radiates pain. Women suffer pain during pregnancy or post-delivery.

Symptoms: Discomfort while sitting or lying down.

Treatment: A pillow or donut cushion relieves pressure. Massage pelvic muscles daily. Manipulation, external or internal helps. It takes just a few seconds for correction. Lie with face down, squeeze the buttocks and relax.

— Dr Ravinder Chadha