Compassionate Clowns : Day 1

22nd June 2019

My journey with Compassionate Clowns began a week before today, when I spoke to Harish over the phone and asked him if it was possible to intern with them on Saturdays as part of our community service. After listening to the requirements of our course, he agreed and asked us to meet him today, at his office. 

His office is situated in a peaceful and beautiful locality; the kind of place that shows you the true “Garden City” side of Bengaluru. We introduced ourselves, after which Harish told us about himself and how his journey led him to start Compassionate Clowns. He describes Compassionate Clowns as "a bunch of people who love cheering people by playing clowns in hospitals and spreading joy in the lives of others". He then proceeded to tell us what are the different things they do and, to help us understand further, we read a couple of reports written by previous interns. He then asked how many of us are willing to intern at CC and how many wanted to leave. We were 16 who showed up, and all 16 of us stayed back. 

We then proceeded to do an activity that helped us understand the importance of being empathetic towards ourselves. Very often, we are empathetic towards others, but when comes to us, we don’t do the same. Harish encouraged us to start an empathy journal, writing down all the times throughout the day when we were empathetic to ourselves. This activity was followed by another one in which we were made to understand how kids (we will be volunteering at St. Johns) are, how they perceive a particular situation and how we, as volunteers, should be able to connect with them. It showed us how much love, patience, and respect for their point of view, can be beneficial for both of us. 

With that we came to the end of our first day with CC. We went there not knowing exactly what to expect, but returned extremely happy and grateful to be part of an organisation that is doing something so beautiful, in a “hatke” way! ;)

Comments

  1. Lee24 June 2019 at 09:55

    I'm so proud of you Mannya. You should write more ����❤️

    ReplyDelete

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