My Dear, This is a Prelude

AS THE GLOWING orange ball slowly spluttered its way up through the Mumbai fog past India gate, I found a gang of locals slowly form a circle about me. They stretched their hands to the sky and exhaled, then started to stretch their torsos, loosened their necks. They stared at me as they went about their business. All of them. They inhaled and exhaled and proceeded to jump on the spot. A spritely elderly man yelled something in Hindi and they began to march clockwise with raised knees.

I was in the process of leaving the circle when a short wiry fellow, bones thatched together with twine, hit me and indicated that I should march too.

There was no reason for me to be in India, and such was the logic of my arrival - logical abandonment. I looked at the man seriously and raised a leg. We marched several laps and then changed direction, everyone a bizarre collection of swinging arms and onomatopoeic rhythm of stamping steps. Was this what I had actually come to expect of India? 

Perhaps.

The leader shouted something else and everyone stopped. They took deep breaths and then broke out into laughter. Were these people serious? I was thinking. And so started a series of breathing exercises; deep breaths and then slow exhalations of laughter outwards, shaking different body parts in the process.

The wiry Indian man beside me gave me a nudge and indicated that I should be doing the same as everyone else as I was also part of the circle.

And so I took a deep breath in. "Hahahahaha" I exhaled holding my right arm out in front of me, shaking it. I looked to the wiry man beside me as I did this and he nodded in approval.

"Okay" said the leader. He was serious. A man on a mission, but there was also a glint in his eye. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked to him.

The leader proceeded to clap three times with his hand above his head and then broke out into a fit of laughter such that he started to double over and had to brace his hands on his knees to remain upright.

I watched as the circle began to follow suit. First the overhead clapping, then the hysterical laughter. Some were faking it, some were completely out of control.

I looked around me and noticed that we had some on-lookers. The wiry man beside me noticed me doing this and shook his head. He reached skyward, clapped, then looked back at me before giving an exaggerated laugh. "HA! HA! HA! HA!" he said.

I nodded and reconfigured my stance as if to postulate that I now meant business. I raised my hands above my head and clapped, then let out a laugh: "Ha? Ha? Ha? Ha?" I said.

The wiry man was disappointed. He shook his head.

He inhaled deeply and clapped again. "HA! HA! HA! HA!" he explained, with extra emphasis on each 'HA'.

I performed the exercise again. "HA. HA. HA. HA" I said.

I looked to the wiry man for approval. He scrunched his lips together and bobbed his head from side to side as if indicating that I had shown some improvement.

We performed the exercise again, but this time together.

"HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" we let out in unison until we were both hunched forwards.

The wiry man straightened up and looked at me seriously. He nodded as he took his next breath and proceeded to clap. I did the same.

"HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!"

I started to understand the exercise. We looked at each other and smiled, then inhaled and clapped again. I learnt that laughter was better in unison, laughter was about letting yourself go. This time i decided to go for maximum volume. My lungs were bigger than his. I would destroy him with my laughter.

"HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!!!!" My laugh was a giant's and his was an ant's, only this time I did not stop laughing as I had intended to and neither did he. We both continued laughing uncontrollably, involuntarily. We laughed at each other and at ourselves. We laughed at the ridiculous exercise in which we were participating.

The Indian man smiled and petted me on the back. He indicated that I had now understood. I had been released. Self consciousness had departed.

I laughed as he laughed. We laughed together. We fanned each other's laughter flames. Soon the whole circle was engulfed in laughter, each one a catalyst for the other. I did not know these people but we were sharing one of the most amazing things there was and no words needed to be spoken.

Soon we were jumping around like kangaroos on the spot. "Australia!" said the guru. We laughed and jumped around like drunken idiots.

Next thing we were roaring at each other like lions and showing our claws. "Africa!" said the guru. "Raaarrr! Raaaarrrr!"

We followed the gurus lead as he squatted down to the ground and then frog leaped into the air. "Ribbit!" He said. "Frog!"

I was dying now. My lungs and chest were in pain. I wanted it to stop but I also wanted it to go on forever. I looked to the wiry man beside me, the old lady next to him, the guru, everyone else in the circle. When was the last time I had felt this much joy? I looked at their smiling faces and they looked at mine. I was welcome. We were one. Was it ridiculous? The fact that we had not spoken but had communicated more than could have ever been said?

The guy on the left had been my guru that day, my first in India.