There are very few moments of laughter in life today. Every being is so stressed that one does not pause even to laugh. One does not needs to sit and watch a television programme like `Laughter challenge’ to smile. One just needs to look around and see the little foibles of life, the people around and their activities. One aspect of every human being which really amuses me is our tendency to lean whenever an opportunity is available. My experience of this human trait goes back to my school days. I remember while going to school, I used to see people leaning on walls and reading the morning paper. Sometimes I would see a solitary Romeo on the bus stops leaning on a pole puffing out rings of smoke. The funniest moments used to be at the cinema theatre.
Those days   there were few theatres, hence every time a movie was released, people would stand long hours in the queue to get tickets. The queue would be straight to a certain distance and then slowly, it would snake towards the nearest wall for people to lean. Then there were the lean (no pun intended) men in the bus whom we would meet while commuting in buses. Those poor, hapless, lean men had no strength to stand straight and their strength would particularly drain on seeing a pretty lass. Slowly he would lean on the girl for support. One stare at him would make him stand erect and again after a few minutes he would come on you. But the best leaner has been my little brother.  Watching TV in those days was a time for family bonding. Thus, we would all sit to watch the programmes and my kid brother would sit in the middle. As he would watch, he would slowly lean on one of us. Thus, throughout the programme he would be moving like an upturned pendulum. The fact is, there’s enough humour around, just look around and laugh.

Reshma Parvez