An Indian Doctor’s Cure-All: Charlie Chaplin

In India, laughing is a serious matter. There are laughing clubs — groups who gather in parks for a collective guffaw to relieve the stresses of daily life.

Ashok Aswani goes one step further: He hands out free DVDs of Charlie Chaplin movies to patients as a cure for depression.

“This makes them feel better,” he says. “They enjoy it. The next visit, they ask for another movie.”

Aswani, 59, practices ayurveda, the traditional medical system widely used in India for thousands of years. He has a tiny walk-in clinic in the industrial town of Adipur, in the western state of Gujarat.

A wonderful NPR piece reported by Philip Reeves.

I think more Americans need to form and join laughing clubs. Seriously (grin).