(First published in our December 2008 issue)
There are two questions I used to be asked by journalists when they interviewed me as a cartoonist. The first question was: Do Indians have a sense of humour? This was asked in an earnest but mournful tone − We Indians don't have a sense of humour, do we? − as if the answer was utterly obvious: Of course we don't! We're a nation of grim-faced rationalists for whom humour and kinky sex are one and the same!
I would begin grinning even before they asked the question, because in my opinion, it was a bit ridiculous – we might as well ask, 'Are Indians human?' because humour is basic to the human condition. It has often been said that humans are the only creatures that laugh. Surely we are the only species to make that odd sound, somewhere between a scream and grunt, a cackle and shout, which we call laughter − and we are certainly the only species to dedicate so much of our resources to an entertainment industry.
The common explanation for why humans laugh is that laughing and smiling relieve stress. But this only leads to another question: Why do humans have such a disproportionate need for stress-relief? My own view is that we, unlike other animals, are conscious of the inevitability of death. That knowledge places such a terrible burden of fear on our nervous systems that evolution has provided us with a solution – a hyperactive funny bone. I am sure that, given the option, most of us would have preferred something more substantial − immortality, for instance! But we were not given such a choice. So, this is what we are stuck with: jokes, cartoons, comedians and cartoonists, in exchange for being conscious of our mortality.