Mumbai laughter club celebrates Independence Day

The city’s laughter club does not miss a single red letter day - they have celebrated Valentine’s Day, Laughter Day, Republic Day and today, on Aug 15 they marked Independence Day with special fervor. The laughter club members, along with

Priyadarshini Park

walkers and the

Malabar Hill

Citizens’ Forum, met at Priyadarshini Park early in the morning. Around 200 participants came dressed in Tricolour hues, sang patriotic songs and wished each other.

Coming together for a solemn purpose

The group first had a

flag-hoisting ceremony

. The event started with everyone singing Vande Mataram, this was followed by the unfurling of the national flag. They paid respects to it and saluted it. Next, everyone indulged in a round of patriotic songs. They sang ‘Jhanda Ooncha Rahe Hamara’ and a few other ones. To round up the event, was the laughter session. Says Kishore Kuvavala, “Our group has been celebrating both Republic Day and Independence Day for the last 20 years. Participants are from all communities and we all come together with a single purpose – to respect our national flag. Today, too we welcomed the 73rd year of Independence with so much joy. For those who did not know all the songs, we handed out pamphlets with the song words so they could all sing together.”
Since it was also Raksha Bandhan, after the session, the event people tied

rakhis

on the wrist. They all had a jalebi-fafda breakfast to wind things up.