Ten years ago, Sheetal Agarwal had stumbled upon a profession that she had never  heard of. During a retreat in Ahmedabad, she met someone who was a medical clown. Curious, Agarwal searched online, watched Patch Adams, and discovered that laughter could become a tool for healing. That moment changed the course of her life. “I was fascinated by the idea that you could walk into a hospital and make someone smile,” she recalls. “I always smiled as a defence mechanism because I was shy; this suddenly felt like my smile had a purpose.”

Born and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal, Agarwal grew up visiting old-age homes and children’s shelters every weekend. Those experiences planted the seeds of service, but she never imagined they would lead her to hospitals wearing a red clown nose. At the time, she considered herself an introvert and was working as a lecturer after studying Sociology and Social Anthropology. Determined to introduce medical clowning in India, she put out a Facebook post looking for volunteers. Thirty-three people responded. She approached the Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of NCT of Delhi for permission, researched the science behind medical clowning and entered a government children’s hospital with just five volunteers. “I always say dinosaurs were running in my stomach that day,” she recalls. “I was terrified. When we came out after five hours though, we could not stop smiling.”