EVERY afternoon, a continuous ripple of laughter rises like an orchestral crescendo through the glass windows of one of Delhi's largest hospitals.

The pitch of the laughter varies like jazz music on a free scale. A curious crowd gathers below in the under-nurtured garden. One new visitor believes the burst of laughter comes from a hideous asylum, where the mentally ill are going through electroshock therapy.

The reality is as far removed from that image as it could be. Perched on a rectangular carpet in a hospital hallway, a group of people cross their legs and raise their arms, looking almost as if they are at prayer. Through control of their breathing, they slowly stoke their energy up to the top of their spines. Storms seem to gather on their faces, and eventually they open their mouth and let go. This' is how they learn to laugh.

The man behind this show is Dr S C Sethi, a middle-aged pediatrician. He is Inspired by Norman Cousin's book Anatomy of Illness, which says the absence of laughter and of vitamin C are the two primary causes of illness.

I picked laughter because it is easy on the system," said Sethi. "I practised all by myself before encouraging the crowd to

laugh.''

Sethi arranges a daily gathering in the hospital from 3 to 4 pm. an unofficial club whose participants are mainly hospital employees. Laughing is part of their yoga curriculum.

"Initially it was not easy as people felt they were to put on a show, but when it became a regular exercise they were completely at ease," Sethi said.

In Delhi's public parks, people gather to laugh every morning and evening. Janakpuri, a residential pocket of west Delhi, regularly hosts an early morning laughing gathering. Participants come from all walks of life — doctors, government officials, school teachers, even security officers who have been taught to stiffen their face like granite for their job and find it difficult to relax and laugh.

"It's hard to believe that people who look morose the previous afternoon laugh so heartily and for so long." says J Kumar Arora, a retired senior civil servant and participant in the laugh-in.

Laughing is already a mass movement in many cities of western India. It may have originated in the Lokhandwala Park in Mumbai's Andheri suburb. where Dr Madan Kataria. a local physician, began a course

of laughter with a handful of people. The movement then crossed Thane Creek to tickle the sides of smaller and more sedate cities like fune. Nashik. Ahmednagar. Indore. Baroda and Ahmedabad.

'They were hesitant and shy about laughing in the open, but gradually they picked up the chorus," Kataria said.

Kataria said they initially believed no one other than a circus clown could make them laugh. He kept his sessions going with a stock of jokes heavily borrowed from the Reader's Digest. "Initially. I had to try hard to make people laugh but now no more, since people have realised the physical benefits of laughter."

Today they laugh almost at everything, wisecracks or shaggy dog stories, irreverent anecdotes and anti-climactic punchlines.

Today there are more than two dozen laughing clubs around Mumbai, with more than 3,000 participants. The membership is free. The clubs observe a somewhat strict protocol: men and women stand in parallel rows, like a co-educa-tional school during morning prayers. The tutor stands solemnly in front of the crowd before he keys them up to laugh. The laughter takes its course

through routine breaks for jokes and temporary letups when the participants feel the laughing is becoming too heavy on Uieir stomachs.

"That is only a small cost you pay to ease out your stress." says Kataria.

The Indian Yoga Institute, with 450 centres across the country, is responsible for bringing laughter into the hospital arid elsewhere. It circulates literature that says laughing helps the abdominal muscles flex and contract, giving a mild massage. "As you laugh, you inhale and exhale more deeply." says its brochure. "More oxygen, the vital force of existence, enters the body and toxins automatically get thrown out."

When the brain is at peace, it produces alpha waves at between seven and 13 cycles per second, which —- according to Aditya Kataria. a physician who enrolled in his namesake's laughing club at Lokhandwala, releases endorphins, the "feelgood hormones."

"These hormones lift up the ' spirits with optimism," he said. "When a person laughs, these hormones are released in plenty, thus making a person feel happy." ,

The writer is an Indian freelance journalist resident in Delhi.