Chennai: As she watched the four clowns with red noses and large boots prance around the ward room, throwing imaginary balls in and out of people's ears, Varalakshmi had tears in her eyes. But for the first time in 24 hours, they were tears of laughter, not anxiety. "My baby has been having seizures and I have been here since Thursday evening. I haven't been able to stop crying since but watching the clowns has helped take my thoughts off everything else, at least for a few minutes," said Varalakshmi on Friday afternoon.
In another bed in the same ward at the Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children in Egmore, 11-year-old Shiva Harish from Puducherry, said he waits for Friday afternoons when the clowns come bursting through the doors. "There is no TV here. All day long, I sit and talk to the aunties here because I cannot play. But when I see the clown uncles coming, I make sure I don't step out because I don't want to miss the fun," said Harish, who has been in hospital for the past month because of a bone deformity in his legs that has left him without much strength.
As for the big-wigged clowns in question, who cause a flutter at the hospital every week — right from the security staffers who greet them at the entrance with wide grins to the ward attendants who can't stop smiling as the clowns perform — they are resident actors of Chennai's The Little Theatre (TLT), a not-for-profit theatre company for children.
"Hospital clowning is part of the TLT outreach programme," said Krishna Kumar (KK), artistic director of TLT. He and his fellow hospital clowns were trained in an intensive workshop by Hillary Chaplain, a master clown with the New York Goofs. "The first month of the outreach programme was funded by the Indian Coast Guard Eastern Command," said Aysha Rau, founder of TLT.
"Most of us who volunteer as hospital clowns are professional actors," said KK, who has acted in the film ‘Kadhalagi'. Another of the clowns, Abhishek Joseph George, has acted in ‘D'Monte Colony', while a third, Vikas Rao, was last seen in the film ‘Yennai Arindhaal'.
The group, which has been visiting the Egmore Hospital since June last year, has also begun volunteering at Kauvery Hospital in Alwarpet, where KK's wife and fellow clown Dr Rohini Rau is a general practitioner, making her the only "medical clown" in the group. The rest of them referred to as "hospital clowns".
World over, hospital clowning, or clown care, are programmes in healthcare facilities that involve visits from specially trained clowns. It has been shown to help in lifting the moods of patients and their families. The idea of hospital clowning started in the 1980s and has been catching on in hospitals in Australia, New Zealand, US, Canada, Israel and Europe.
Back at the Institute of Child Health, as the clowns wrap up their song, dance and honk routine and hop out of the ward to the next one, Varalakshmi runs behind the troupe and tugs at the shirt of one of the clowns. "Thank you," she says, and returns to her baby.