Laughter- in its dissected form

Ha ha ha!He he he! Hi hi hi! Ho ho ho! When you try to denote the sound of the phenomenon called laughter, it's always very easy- just put any vowel after the word "h" , and it's done. In spite of this, describing the phenomenon is a sharply opposite to the sound itself. English language has an assortment of words to describe this simple thing-laugh, smile, smirk, giggle, chuckle and… well don't worry I am not here with the divine intention of enriching your vocabulary (ahm…actually I dunno any more synonyms and I have better works to do than to find those angelic words from that grotesque Roget's thesaurus.

Moving on from the vocabulary of English language, there's again myriad types of laughers found in day-to-day life. The range of these laughers is so colossal that it actually doesn't seem to have a range. I mean, each of us enjoy our share of laughter everyday (I hope), and not a single one is similar to the other. There are of course laughers of joy, laughers to please somebody (don't say me that you've never laughed at those distressing jokes of your boss. Teacher or may be your lover (!)), shy smiles of those newly married bride and grooms (huh…these are getting extinct like white elephants), close-up smiles of tooth paste advertisements (you can also find them in photographs and… and yeh…smile of sorrows (trust me they do exist).

The most pathetic experience I had with laughter occurred when I had the misfortune of attending an acting class. During my first year at senior school, I somehow found myself among the ones chosen for the play in the annual function. I was simply exhilarated with the fact and I substituted myself with the major character in every film I saw during that period. (Well I do not remember whether I saw Planet of the Apes during that period, if I had it's indeed very likely that I had even substitutes one of those ape-men with myself). However, my ecstasy with acting had a tragic death within few days after its birth when I graced the acting class with my presence. In the first class, the teacher (god knows what qualifications (!) he had) took the exquisite decision to attract his dear students in acting by starting with something jolly like laughter. Now, I am glad that I fail to remember most of his teachings, because if I had remembered, then I'd probably never present the world with a single normal laughter ever.

He had some weird rules like you have to show all your teeth in the upper jaw (as if we are monkeys) and produce a specific sound to express that you are utterly "happy". Who knows what his intentions were- to turn us into performers or to make evolution in the reverse way backwards. I can bet that in real life the"happy smile" was so pathetic that no body (excluding my honorable teacher of course) would be able to enact the whole process perfectly unless he was held at gunpoint and demanded to perform it to save his life.After the "happy" laughter the worse was yet to come. Hell struck me when he started to give me a special lesson of "devilish" laughter to suit my antagonist character in the play. Even now, whenever I think of that, I just lament that why nature hasn't identified all bad people to laugh with that"devilish laughter"-the world would surely have been a much easier place. The only logic I comprehended was that Mother Nature love actors and so she knew that it'd be really tough for them to imitate that laughter. However, my teacher wasn't so kind as the nature itself (obviously) and I had to try incessantly to curve my eyebrows like sine curves simultaneously while laughing. Until present day, the synchrony never occurred.

My precious experience with "laughter" ensued me to practice my personal laughers in front of the mirror. It really helps you know- if you take a fundamental training from me, you'll never regret of conducting the wrong smile at crucial times. Yet don't blame me if you have the same or similar experience I had in my acting class. Still you I should update you with the most captivating news. I have developed a special "alluring" smile to charm and entice any individual of the opposite sex. The only problem that needs to be solved is that neither my disciples nor me have been able to apply it except in front of the mirror.

By Kazi Priyanka

Poems

Loneliness

Have you ever thought, how loneliness would be?
I can tell you, it?s not so great, you see!
What stay alone when the best things in life are free?
Brothers, sisters, love: and a happy glee,
From your family.
Estrangement is sadness: it has another name,
For ?melancholy? is the same,
If you want to part from someone,
The excuse is very lame,
Bury the hatchet-after all, what is your end-game?
A lonely life is a ?bereaved? life, if life at all,
Reconcile with a friend; give him a call.
Don?t be so stubborn and don?t stand so tall
Otherwise, inevitably, you?re heading for a fall.
Life is short-lived; do not stay so reserved
Later, some time, you?ll regret the happy times
You so duly deserved.
It is not so much about your dignity,
So preserved,
As it is of your self-esteem, to conserve.

By Muzhtaba Tawkeer Islam

On a good note

I'm writing today, with Mr. Unnamed's article in mind, which came out in the last issue titled "Verses the World." for some reason, his situation slightly unnerved me, and I hope he is reading this today.

Compared to him, I have been brought up in very different circumstances. I lived in Bangladesh all my life and so did not really have to face racial discrimination ever. I can't imagine what it can do to a child's psyche to be treated differently, only because of skin colour. As a teacher of a class of ten-year olds I have to be very careful of certain children in my class. I notice sometimes that children can be very mean, probably because of the lack of proper guidance and just because they don't know any better. They are also prone to discriminate in various different ways, maybe because somebody is fat, or ugly, or from a different religion, or even because a child has divorced parents. It is shocking how strong their opinions of hatred can be, and it is quite a job trying to make them feel like they are all equal. Often I have to take them aside and give them one-to-one consultation.

It is unlucky for Mr. Unnamed that he had no one to soothe out his bad experiences. Maybe support from a parent or a teacher could have helped. What's gone is gone, however. The scars may remain, but he has to move on. We all have our battles in life, although they may not be similar to Mr. Unnamed's experiences. That is no reason for us to stop mingling with people. I am sure there are people around who will understand the way he feels, if only he were to give them a chance.

Mr. Unnamed, life is short, so why waste it on drugs? You obviously need to mingle with people to find out. Give life a better shot, instead of giving them to yourself! There are plenty of wonderful things to live for, if you can be optimistic for a while. In fact, why don't you try to do other stuff outside university? Like maybe you could go to play somewhere, tennis or swimming, you could learn a language, you could teach (the cash is good!); there are other more interesting things to do. It would get your mind off things and you could make a new start with people in a new surrounding! Try it...it might work!

By a well-wisher

The Mystery of Childbirth

A boy was assigned a paper on childbirth and asked his parents, "How was I born?"
"Well honey..." said the slightly prudish parent, "the stork brought you to us."
"Oh," said the boy. "Well, how did you and daddy get born?" he asked.
"Oh, the stork brought us too."
"Well how were grandpa and grandma born?" he persisted.
"Well darling, the stork brought them too!" said the parent, by now starting to squirm a little in the Lazy Boy recliner.
Several days later, the boy handed in his paper to the teacher who read with confusion the opening sentence:
"This report has been very difficult to write due to the fact that there hasn't been a natural childbirth in my family for three generations."

By Meher Nigar