Kung fu, cockroaches and a little bit of clown magic.

Yes, business as usual .. another delightful day at hospital yesterday for Babydoll and me. We did bump into the Danger Lady of Cleaning, but we managed to chase her off with bubbles (she doesn't like them, for some reason, which is rather ironic, don't you think, since she walks around with a bucket of soapy water?) and we also went prepared with my newest artillery: two large rubbery swords. She did try to steal them, but fortunately the bubbles kept her at bay.

Strategic idiocy. That's what hospital clowning's all about, I think. And it does work wonders. Today, a brief lesson in kung fu was followed by a session of kallaripattu (those bendy swords really worked well for this). I figured people would work up an appetite after that, but for some reason, every time I try to serve up a nice dish of fried cockroach, everyone I offer it to seems to be a vegetarian.

The very best part of today, though, was right at the end when we were getting ready to leave. That's when we did the magic. No, we didn't pull a rabbit out of a hat. There was a mother who lifted her baby up and I think jostled his drip a little, so he started wailing. And I already had my flute in hand, so I went up and played softly for him, and Babydoll sang too. And guess what, he just stopped crying and went back to sleep!

It was just like magic and everyone looked most impressed. Then we blew kisses to everyone and whispered goodbyes and tiptoed out of the ward.

Video: Grease was the word.

Well I've been busy posting this video on all our Dr Clown sites - our blog, our Youtube account "drclownindia", our mailing lists, and finally I'm done, so now I can post it here too, in case you missed it! This is from our Clown show that we held in March this year. It was the opening number to our show, which was all about us clowns getting Saturday night fever.

Allow me to introduce everyone, cos we're not dressed in our usual clown clothes, we all got special party wear for the show.

Miss Rose is the lady in the silver dress and the blonde afro. Baby Doll is in pigtails and a pink dress. Crazy has a top hat. Bindaas wore harem pants and a sparkly waistcoat but of course also her trademark gypsy scarf. Bobo was in real clown couture, she had her bell-bot jumpsuit specially tailored for the occasion. Brushbuddha was the rocker with the green hair. And I tried to look like John Revolta so I wore a waistcoat and a tie.

It's a bit crazy and chaotic but that's how we are. We had a lot of fun and so did all the children!

Her name is Bhavani and she is a very naughty lady.

Yes. She was there again today. The cleaning lady in the blue sari. I kept calling her Lakshmi Amma until she finally confessed that her name is actually BHAVANI. I sang a special song for her then - "hey javaani, hey Bhavani! Ruk, meri raani! Ruk, Miss Bhavani!" But this did not stop her from stealing my banana. Yes. She is a naughty lady because she keeps picking my pockets! And she stole my banana! But I managed to steal it back. I don't mind her stealing things so much because she always gives them back. But then I can't use those things with the children because of our hygiene rules. And my plastic banana is one of my most valuable pieces of equipment. Sometimes it is my cell phone. Sometimes it is a microphone (in fact, today it was, when I sang a Tamil duet with Arun. We only managed to sing two words, "Appadi, poday, poday, poday!" because we didn't know the rest of the song, so to make up for the lack of words, we just sang those two words about a zillion times.)

Sometimes my banana is a gun and I use it to keep Lakshmi Amma, a.k.a. Bhavani, at bay. Fortunately she did not chase me with her mop today. But she made me mop two flagstones. I think I did a good job. I am getting better at it. I'm lucky to get free mop training from her. Soon I will be quite the expert. I think next time I will get myself a tiny little trainee mop. I've seen one in Dr Tonsils' house. But for some strange reason he uses it to spread oil on frying pans when he's making dosas. (Those are like Indian pancakes by the way).

Oh and there were lots of children today. Big ones too for a change. There was a boy Riyaz who was so tall he couldn't stand up or he'd give himself a free haircut from the fan. There was also a very long boy. Well his name was long it was Abijeetchakravorty. And there were some tiny little girls Pushpa and Amreen and there were even some bigger girls. Priyanka was there looking very sleepy but inspite of that she was very enthusiastic and so I designated her as my official Lakshmi Amma Lookout.

Usually a lot of the children are little toddlers but today they were mostly schoolchildren, bunking class to be in hospital and see the clowns! Bindaas and I had a lot of fun with them all. And we took Boing with us, on his observation session. He enjoyed it too and can't wait for his next session which is a practice session and then after that he can start clowning with us which will be very nice. We haven't had enough clowns to visit all our hospitals so once our apprentice clowns start clowning, we can go back and spread more sunshine in more places!

The only sad thing was that since I had recently had a snifferly nose, I decided it was better not to go into the ICU. And there were lots of children there. This is why I always tell people not to hug and kiss me, especially if they might have a cough or a cold. But people don't listen. They just want a hug from me and they don't think about the children. That's not right. Because then I can't go to the children. I feel very bad about that and the next person who hugs me with a cold is going to get a bonk on the head, that's what. I'm not usually into violence, but sometimes a clown's gotta do what a clown's gotta do.

And now I am very tired and waiting for my broccoli to finish steaming cos I need the nutrition. I don't know why but I get very very tired every time I go clowning. I think I need to lose some weight or grow younger. But I think I will have my energy back by next week just in time to go clowning again.

Oh, my brocolli's ready. Good bye.

I just like this picture so much.

Look I found another picture taken by that muscly man from Time Out Bangalooraloo. It's an old picture but I do love it.

Another hot and sweaty day.

This time it wasn't at the marathon, it was at hospital. I had these hot flushes all the way through. I hope it's not the menopause. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, hospital. Babydoll and I went to St. Philomena's, and our new friend The Clown With No Name came with us on a training session.

We didn't see many children today, but there were an awful lot of newborn babies and new mummies. I have analysed this since, and come to the conclusion that many people felt a need for closeness and intimacy after the Bombay terrorist attacks. And hence: lots of babies nine months later.

After we finished clowning with the children, The Clown With No Name waited for us outside, while Babydoll and I went into the maternity wards. We saw lots of lovely newly made babies and had tons of fun with the mummies. None of them were Egyptian. Babydoll had two new baby dolls of her own, so we had a little twin delivery and some tortuous breastfeeding, and I even got to do the circumcisions on her little twins. The mummies were quite delighted by all this, because I think they really related to it all!

We also bumped into the monster cleaning lady who loves us and hates us at the same time. She's always shouting at us in Tamil, telling us to get out and let her mop the floors, but then she really enjoys playing with us too. We mopped some of the floor for her till she chased us away. Babydoll jumped up on a chair and trembled with fear! I tried to escape by flying on the mop which had a very long wooden handle and looked a bit like a Hogwarts broom. However, I clearly do not have the knack for flying, so it didn't work. But we did manage to get away. After a while, she missed us, and came by to chase us some more and play games with us. I think she had a lovely day because we're probably the only people she can shout at and order around, and she got to be the star of the show. I can't wait to see her again next week.

So it was lovely as always but there was one sad thing I found out afterwards, that Babydoll met a lady out in the corridor, who had had a baby, but the baby died. That is a sad thing, indeed, and difficult even for a clown to face. It's easy to make people laugh and smile, but sometimes that's not our job. Sometimes the most important thing for us to do, is just to be there with someone and share their pain a little. I wish I had known, I would have gone to meet that lady. Next time I should keep my eyes and ears and heart more open so that I don't miss important things like this.

NEWS: I know not what it says - Eenadu

Here's a lovely article about me. I'm pretty sure it's a lovely article because the gentleman who wrote it was very nice. I have no idea what it says, though, because I cannot read the Telugu language. If you know what it says, please tell me!

My friend Rhea suggested that the top bit looks like a Before and After ad. I hope not. It could be an ad for a miraculous cure for poor eyesight. People would believe it because they would think that the person in the Before picture couldn't see properly to put her lipstick on.

But I don't think that's what it says.

This article is in a daily newspaper called Eenadu, it's the largest newspaper in Andhra Pradesh (that's the next door state to Karnataka. In case you're wondering what Karnataka is, that's the state of which Bangalore is the capital.)

NEWS: Run The Talk - Tulir Blog

My friends over at Tulir, the Centre for Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse, wrote a little something about me on their blog. It was them I was supposed to run for at the marathon, but by the time I finished with all the costume stuff and media people, the race was over :o( But never mind, because I went one round of the Kanteerva Stadium track, so I can say I did my bit of walking (I even tried running a few steps but then the clown shoes proved a problem!)

Paddy's pictures from the marathon

Here are two pictures my new friend Paddy took of me, over at the marathon last month!

By the way, if you want to copy these pix, please make sure you include the copyright ribbon at the bottom of the picture!

NEWS: Something to do with blessings and life - Eenadu

Mr. Adinarayana is a man of good taste. He likes clowns. Not only has he written this article about our Red Nose Ceremony, and filled it with lovely pictures of us, too! So many! But he's also writing another article about me, to go in the women's section of his newspaper.

I'm not exactly sure what the headline is but I know that it includes the words 'blessings' and 'life'. If you know what this article says, please tell me. It's written in Telugu, and is in the Eenadu newspaper.

Happy Nose Day!

Today we had our first Red Nose Ceremony! That's like a graduation party for our new clowns. I thought it would be more fun to have a special ceremony to celebrate the nosing of our new clowns. So we had speeches and clapping and certificates and cake. It was a lovely morning.

This is a picture of the lovely pineapple cake we had at our ceremony, and those are our new graduates cutting the cake.

And here are our new clowns. This is Bobette,

trying to get used to her new nose.

Next, here's Boing! More hair than face in this picture but he's in there somewhere! And that's King Joseph next to him. King Joseph is my very good friend and also the Technical Coordinator of the Alliance Francaise, where we work from. And behind King Joseph is a lovely No Smoking sign.
This chappie here is The Clown With No Name. He's hoping that one of these days he will find it, and intends to search all the hospital wards very thoroughly in case it's lying around there somewhere. And last, but definitely not least, is our baby-est clown, Fae! She's very sprinkly and glittery and I think she has flown down from Fairyland.

Yay! Four more clown hearts in the world.

NEWS: Fun Run with Cowboys and Clowns - Times of India

I'm feeling so touched reading what people have been writing about me. I feel so LOVED and that's a very nice feeling to feel. I hope when I go out clowning I'm getting other people to feel it too. The world needs more good feelings doesn't it?

Look in that picture, it's my friend the brave condom lady! In one of the articles I was reading, somebody said they were used condoms. Oh my! That's not true. I know because I asked her, and because they had a nice fresh rubbery smell, with a light bouquet of medicine.

Something borrowed, something orange!

Here are some pictures I've borrowed off my friend's blog, his name is Shujath Ulla Khan and if you want to see more marathon pictures just go to his blog. He won Sakkath Bangalorean #3. These are some pictures with me in them. I don't know who took them, but I guess it was a friend of his (thank you whoever you are):

In case you're wondering what I'm doing there, I was fanning him with my hat. It was a very hot day.

Here we are getting our giant cheques. I felt just like Man of The Match.

Mr Techie got some lovely pictures of us at the marathon!

Hello again! I just found one of my friends from yesterday's marathon, right here on blogspot. He has written some nice stuff and put up some lovely pictures of him and me and also the condom lady who came first! The three of us were the Sakkat Bangaloreans! I get happy memories when I look at these pictures! Wheee!

I was on TV last night!

Look! There I am! It was very nice to see myself from the outside!


I don't have the actual TV footage (from a station called TV 9) but here are some photographs we took of the TV set, while the footage was playing!

The first picture is of me just after I got my gigantic cheque, unfortunately I did not take a picture of when I was getting my bouquet and then my hat fell off. A little later in the programme, I popped up again, this time they were interviewing me.

NEWS: Bangaloreans Run For A Cause - Deccan Herald

Here's an article about the marathon, by someone from the Deccan Herald, and he wrote a bit about me! I remember this gentleman asking me how old I was! I told him that he shouldn't ask ladies their age. But he said that he was from the PRESS and that's why he had to press on to get this vital information from me. By the way, I'm only a TEENY bit older than Shah Rukh Khan.