Give cry clubs a try

Sudhirendar Sharma

FORCED laughter is what I often get to hear during early hours of the day or late evenings from the neighbourhood park. Few tired home-makers and many retired employees squat together to muster laughter as a means to ‘unload’ their worries for good health. I often wonder if it makes them feel lighter, and post this daily ritual, if they are able to even sport a smile. There are a large number of laughter clubs, but there are any number of drooping faces all around. Does this form of yoga achieve anything beyond giving facial muscles some exercise?  

I would imagine that laughter clubs achieve only as much as comedy shows, providing no more than momentary balm to an aching soul. It does not permeate any further, as people continue to carry huge weight of worries on their shoulders. Failure to offload it has made society accumulate frustration, depression, anxiety, and anger. It is a fuse that can, and does, trigger massive explosions every now and then. 

I believe it is not forced laughter, but spontaneous flow of tears that can ease the stress of everyday life. 

It did work in the not-too distant past. Middle-aged movie buffs would reminisce the time when emotional family dramas would have viewers sobbing in the darkness of a cinema hall. Not anymore, as ‘wholesome’ movies have been replaced with wholesale products, with first week box office collections being the only indicator of success. A market economy has little room for sob stories.  

For the better part of the last hundred years, ever since Indian cinema came to life in 1912, Bollywood movies have helped millions of viewers drain excess tears to remain psychologically healthy. It is an act of emotional gratification, providing easy release to a gamut of emotions. Once you are done with it, you are again ready to face the vagaries of life. No wonder, emotional movies had been the biggest hits of commercial cinema, what with tragedy kings and queens — irresistible Dilip Kumar and quintessential Meena Kumari. At an immense personal cost, the actors proved that far from being a sign of weakness, shedding tears was, indeed, an act of strength. There is nothing quite as cathartic as a good cry!

Time has come to give ‘crying’ in public a chance, to help strengthen vulnerable souls, much like in Japan, where adults gather together to watch tear-jerkers, and cry in public as a way of releasing stress. Termed ‘rui-katsu’ (meaning tear-seeking), this new social phenomenon is spreading across that country, as most people have come to realise that only through a good old cry can one get the feeling of having a huge weight off their shoulders. Any takers?