You know me well enough to know I would never poke fun at the way someone speaks. So please don’t take it the wrong way when I urge you to read the following two lines – if you can – with an Indian accent. That’s the way I heard them and I don’t want to ruin the effect. (To parishioners of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church: think Father Johnson.)

Read the first one with a man’s voice:

“We love The Charlie.”

Read this one with a woman’s voice:

“He is The Charlie.”

The first speaker is talking about Charlie Chaplin.

The second is talking about her father, a man hundreds of people in a little town in India call “The Charlie Doctor.”

I guess I’d better explain.

I heard about “The Charlie Doctor” on National Public Radio while driving to work Thursday morning. I found the story fascinating for many reasons, not the least of which is I have a small figure of Charlie Chaplin standing in my office at the college. He’s been there for close to 20 years.

Someone gave him to me but I cannot recall who. I do remember he came with a little hook in the top of his bowler hat. That’s because he is a Hallmark Christmas ornament. I unscrewed the hook and stood him on my bookcase. He’s been there since.

I enjoy seeing him standing there but I’m not sure I ever could have explained why … until now. I think the story on NPR gave me the answer.

We’ve all heard “laughter is the best medicine” but at a small clinic in India, a healer named Ashok Aswani puts it to use. Instead of handing his patients a prescription – “take two of these and call me in the morning” – he hands them a Charlie Chaplin DVD.

Since most of the movies are silent films, there is no need to know English to enjoy them.

That reminds me of the opening line of one of my favorite songs, “Wooden Ships” by Crosby, Stills and Nash:

If you smile at me, I will understand, because that is something everybody, everywhere does in the same language.

A practitioner of ayurveda – a 5000 year old way of healing, and more importantly of living – Ashok Aswani sees laughing as a key ingredient in good health.

His “patients” agree. Not only do they come back for more Charlie Chaplin DVDs – which he dispenses free of charge – they’ve taken to forming “laughing clubs,” which means they simply get together during the day, often in a park, and laugh.

At first, I thought that sounds hard to do – to laugh on demand. But then I realized just saying “Charlie” puts a smile on my face.

In fact, as I drove along I tried to say “Charlie” without the corners of my mouth turning up. I couldn’t.

“Charles” I could say with a straight face.

Even “Ed”.

But not “Charlie”.

Saying the word “Charlie” makes me smile. Just as it does Katharine Hepburn in that one scene in the movie “The African Queen”.

They call Ashok Aswani “The Charlie Doctor” and that’s fine with him.

He says his own love affair with Charlie Chaplin began 40 years ago when he saw “The Gold Rush” – which he says he’s now seen about 200 times – but he credits the film “The Great Dictator” for inspiring him as a healer. It’s the first film in which Charlie Chaplin talks, and one thing he says is:

“We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery.”

I’m not sure everyone believes that. But Ashok Aswani does. And, so, he dispenses happiness.

And in doing so, he’s created somewhat of an epidemic, an epidemic of joy.

The NPR piece revealed another man in the same little town who some have taken to calling their “Charlie.”

But he’s not a doctor.

He’s a bus driver … a bus driver who makes people laugh.

For the past three days I’ve been thinking of all “The Charlies” in my life, past and present. There have been many.

No need for a list here. You know who you are.

Some of you have made me laugh so hard I’ve begged you to stop.

Some of you have made me laugh so much I’ve cried.

And some of you have made me laugh when I did not think I’d ever laugh again.

Recalling those times, I’m laughing right now. And feeling pretty good.

All I can say is Thank you.

Thank you, all.

You’ve made me healthy.

You are The Charlie for me.

About the Author

Ed Ackerman is the editor of the Pittston Sunday Dispatch. He can be reached at 602-0175.

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