Episode Details

Show: Laughter Therapy | Date: May 1, 2026 | Station: Radio Haanji 1674 AM | Listen: haanji.com.au

There are mornings when the world feels heavy — yesterday's arguments, today's worries, the endless scroll of news. And then there are mornings like this one. On May 1, 2026, Radio Haanji's beloved Laughter Therapy segment gave Melbourne and Sydney listeners something rare: a full half-hour where none of that mattered. Just the voices of children, a special guest from Haryana, traditional Punjabi boliyan, and a birthday that made the whole broadcast feel like a family celebration.

Laughter Therapy is one of Radio Haanji 1674 AM's most cherished daily segments — a community programme built on a simple but powerful idea: that laughter heals. The show's philosophy is direct and honest. Whatever stress, whatever anger you carried from yesterday, this segment invites you to set it down, just for a little while, and start your morning with joy. For the Punjabi and Hindi-speaking communities of Melbourne and Sydney, it has become a genuine ritual — a few minutes each morning where culture, humour, and warmth meet across the airwaves.

What makes the segment distinctive is its cast: children. The young callers who join each episode bring with them the kind of laughter that is completely unfiltered — jokes that are a little rough around the edges, riddles delivered with absolute confidence, and boliyan sung with the pride of someone who learned them from a grandmother. On May 1, that formula produced one of the season's most memorable episodes.

The episode's special adult guest was Harmeet Tuur, calling in from Haryana. His presence added a layer of cultural richness to the broadcast, particularly in a playful exchange with the hosts about the difference between a farm stay — the kind that well-off city visitors book for a "rural experience" — and simply going to visit your grandmother's house in the village. The joke landed beautifully because it touched something real: the way urban life has repackaged the everyday realities of rural Punjabi households as a luxury. Virk Sahib's quick wit in steering that exchange kept the segment alive with spontaneous energy.

The May 1 episode featured a string of traditional boliyan — the short, rhyming couplets that are one of the oldest forms of Punjabi folk expression. These are not just entertainments. They carry within them centuries of observation about family life, relationships, and the playful tensions between people who love each other. For the Punjabi diaspora listening in Australia, hearing boliyan on the radio is an act of cultural continuity — a thread connecting Melbourne mornings to village evenings thousands of kilometres away.

Mannat opened the boli segment with a warm, traditional verse about a brother and his bhabhi (sister-in-law) — a classic theme in Punjabi folk poetry that captures the gentle teasing and affection that defines that relationship. Shreya followed with a boli about a mutiyaar, the young Punjabi woman who appears throughout folk literature as spirited, self-possessed, and full of life. The imagery was vivid, the delivery confident.

Asis and Shreya then performed a joint boli — a playful back-and-forth about a husband and wife that drew on the comic tradition of dom