By Rachana Mirpuri

In Manila a woman runs out of the house, shouting at the helper because she is stressed and late for a baby shower. When she comes home later, her husband will be out watching the soccer game with his pals and her sons will be playing X-Box live. Instead of spending time, she will go into her bedroom to watch downloaded American TV shows.  In Dubai a man will come home at 10 pm, relentlessly stressed about the money he has lost due to global recession. Instead of releasing that tension by being in the moment and connecting with his wife and daughters before they sleep, he will bury himself in his files and sit in front of his laptop instead.

Let’s face it – we are in real danger of losing that soul connection with our families, our neighbors and our friends. The advances in technology have been paradoxical – it has made communication easier, yet harder too.  These days you meet more people with their walls up than those with their hearts open. Adults are caught up in the rat race of money-making; glued to their Blackberries, they don’t have time for fun. Teenagers distract themselves with a number of entertainment options – Xbox 460, Archos mp4 players, DS-Lites, and the Internet. Life was simpler when we were young; hanging out in the gardens with our neighbors, climbing trees, playing games and giggling until the sun set. Our imaginations were vivid and interminable – it didn’t matter if we were Superman or a teacher, we just knew how to have fun with each other. We spent quality time with our parents and siblings, listening to their stories and laughing.

Bottom line is – are the good times and laughter with your loved ones, or the service you give to those who needs you, occurring often enough so that you won’t regret when it’s too late?  This is what Anand Chulani is trying to prevent.

“People killing, people dying, children hurt, you hear them crying, do you practice what you preach, would you turn the other cheek? Father, father, father help us, send some guidance from above…”

The band croons out the lyrics and bangs on the drums to Black Eyed Peas’ most popular song and Anand sings along passionately, dancing as if no one is watching. He knows he’s rhythmically-challenged but that doesn’t matter; to have a live music experience, being in the moment, bonding with those around him is one of his favorite ways to pass time. We sat down to begin our interview and within a few minutes, we were laughing. I’m not one to open up or let down my guard easily especially when meeting a person for the first time, but he deducted what my heart was about and got through. Generating laughter with people is his talent; creating that connection with us is his gift.

As a long-time successful standup comedian, a comedy sitcom writer in LA and a certified Anthony Robbins life coach, nobody else would have had the qualifications that Anand did to become the founding director of Laugh Out Loud (LOL) – Embracing the Power of Laughter. He has been hard at work touring schools and companies in major US cities and overseas to introduce the LOL method, teaching children and adults alike to make laughter their way of life. “When kids meet people now, the biggest fear is what others will think of them. But if you can learn to laugh at yourself, then who cares?”

The reason Anand is motivated to work with children – believing in their hearts, intelligence and creativity – and having a real desire of bringing out the best in them, stems from an experience he had in boarding school in England. He was just 12 years old when his teachers and peers voted him the least likely to succeed. Imagine that! Because of that environment, it was no wonder Anand found himself in the lowest classes, the lowest divisions, and was rejected from every university in England. But luckily, because he persevered, he got accepted at Georgetown University and graduated with honors four years later with a double degree in History & English. This time, he was voted one of the 15 Most Prominent students at his University. “It’s not like I suddenly got more brain cells; I thrived in an environment that brought out the best in me. So I want to do the same for the kids I come across.”

Anand and his brother spent most of their lives in boarding school in England as their father worked in Africa and their mother went back and forth. He spent a couple years in Hong Kong when he was very young and has continued to visit his grandmother and cousins over the years. “I’ve always had a soft spot for Hong Kong, there’s something about the people here and the city itself that makes me feel like home. I do stand-up here sometimes too.”

I had attended his standup show recently in Hong Kong at the Take Out comedy which I have to say was a success; Anand had the audience rolling in laughter from the moment he entered, donned in a pink pashmina shawl and gyrating his hips to ‘Chaiya Chaiya’, to the very end when he poked good-natured fun at an American heckler, calling him ‘Uncle’.  He has trained in comedy improvisation at the Groundlings in LA and Second City in Chicago, and opened for famous comedians Tom Jones, Martin Lawrence, Russell Peters and Borat.

In addition, this versatile persona’s list of accomplishments as a writer runs long – he has written for sitcoms on BBC such as Goodness Gracious Me, The Kumars at 42, the Simpsons and was the first Indian to write for an American TV show on FOX called ‘Life on a Stick’. It was an entertaining show with good ratings but it got canceled after one season much to Anand’s disappointment.

But they say things happen for the best, that God works in mysterious ways. When one door closes, another one opens. Lucky for Anand, and all these people he would soon reach out to, he opened himself to what the Universe would bring next for him. Here is when the story of his empowering role in the ingenious conception of Laugh Out Loud begins…

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You can read more about Laugh Out Loud at www.lolworld.net