The Laughing Indian

One thing is certain: when he calls you, you can’t put the phone down without bursting into laughter. He has just to walk into a gathering for people to start smiling.

Arya Pathria, who lives in San Jose, Calif., is known as Dr. Laugh, but for years he was a hard-boiled, serious engineer working in telecommunications with major companies like GT Labs, Bell Northern Research Lab and Sprint.

“My job was very stressful and in my last years at Sprint I discovered laughter to reduce my stress,” he recalls. He was introduced to the power of laughter by Madan Kataria, who started the School of Laughter Yoga in India and is the founder of the laughter club movement in India. A passionate convert to the benefits of laughter, Pathria now travels across the United States, expounding his new religion.

Through his organization, Laughaway, he has conducted hundreds of laughter workshops for burnt-out executives and stressed-out individuals. He’s taught people how to laugh for no reason at Rotary clubs, schools and even at Barnes and Noble, and was featured on “Weird Medicine” on the History channel on KPI TV.

“I go to schools to make children laugh, to senior citizen centers. I don’t like to make it into a business, because it will get stressful, like my job!” says Pathria. Corporations, however, compensate him for the workshops he conducts, and he donates that money to financing higher education for students in India.

Pathria, who turns 63 soon, has taken early retirement and spends his time as a volunteer in social work, but making people laugh is his passion. His goal is to make at least five people laugh every day, even if it’s via the telephone! So unsuspecting and obnoxious telemarketers who call him to tout their services, end up being sold something themselves – laughter!