Now, a varsity for laughter yoga

The much-awaited Laughter Yoga University proposed to be located in Chickballapur district will be up and running from March next year, laughter guru and founder of Laughter Club International Dr Madan Kataria said on Sunday.

 Speaking to reporters at the 9th annual convention of Bangalore Laughter Club, Dr Kataria said, “The delay is because Karnataka’s (land) conversion rules are very strict.

 But the project report will be out in three months and the university will start functioning by March.” The university, unlike conventional ones, will not offer any academic degrees. Instead, it aims to teach people how to get good health, joy and more laughter in their lives.

 It will have a department of joy, centre for holistic healing and integrated medicine, department of naturopathy, yogic sciences, etc.

 ‘City is Laughter Hub’

Dr Kataria called the city ‘the laughter hub of the world’.

 He said the city has 200 laughter clubs and no other city in the world has so many laughter clubs. “Bangalore has so many parks. They help to start more laughter clubs here. In less than 17 years, laughter yoga has spread to more than 72 countries. People feel the benefits instantly by laughing,” he said.

 A doctor by profession, Kataria started the Laughter Club International in 1995. The Bangalore chapter was started in 1998 by a retired Railway Service Commission member B K Satyanarayan. There are 2,200 clubs in India and 4,000 clubs all over the world.