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.