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    This French story teller moves mountains to give you a right dose of Folk culture

    Synopsis

    Mireille Gehin, worked as a nurse and then as a teacher in a primary school. In 1996, she attended a workshop about on North American Indians.

    ET Bureau
    Limitless!!! Boundaries cease to exist for artists.

    Same sense emanates, when this French story teller -- Mireille Gehin narrates 'Tibetan epic of the King Gesar' in English, in India. Flanked by Indian musician Gurvinder Singh, playing harmonium and tabla, Ms Gehin, believes folktales are same in most of the countries, only settings differ.

    Her choicest tales comes from places as far as Alaska -- a U.S. state situated in the Northwest extremity of the America and on subjects as diminutive as Eskimos. Yes, you read it right. It's Eskimos only -- indigenous people traditionally inhabiting the Northern circumpolar region from Eastern Siberia, across Alaska, Canada, and Greenland.

    Quest for a subject takes her places, from Cosmopolitan - world Capital of fashion - Paris, to desserts, to snow clad Mountains to meet humanity, where new age tech hasn't laid its imprints yet. That's where Mireille finds solace. She does it to acquaint people to the world, knowing well, a few would prefer venturing out on those less privileged lands.

    Mireille feels that this way she is giving back something which had been forgotten, especially by the young generation.

    The Tibetian epic poem, she is set to narrate in Chandigarh -- "Alliance Francaise" on Friday, tells about the history of a child born with a superhuman strength. He is obliged to fight, by employing tricks against his uncle who wants to be King of Ling. When the child becomes king, he protects the kingdom from demons. A gorgeous narrative with a succession of mystical visions and extraordinary battles.

    Mireille worked as a nurse and then as a teacher in a primary school. In 1996 she attended a workshop about tales and stories of North American Indians. At the end of the week, all the participants were invited to tell a story in front of all. Mireille was the only volunteer and she enjoyed so much the experience that she turned into a professional storyteller.

    Since then, she has been telling stories from different parts of the world, including French regional tales. She loves making children as well as adults laugh.

    It's been more than 10 years that Mireille has been narrating the epic of the King Gesar. She was interested in the Tibetan culture and came across this epic thanks to a Rinpoche. She also read Alexandra David-Néel's "La vie surhumaine de Gesar de Ling" (The extraordinary life of King Gesar) as well as the translation by a German professor and the Ladhaki version of that epic. She has been working 3 years on the epic before narrating it to

    Eight years ago, while working on the epic, Mireille decided to go to Dharamsala to read some documents about it.

    A friend of hers had told her that if she ever had an opportunity to go to Laddakh she should seize it. Being so close to it, she went there and was amazed by the way people were telling and singing the epic in Laddakh. For the last 3 years, she spends few months a year in Laddakh and narrates the story in Leh but also remote villages.

    After telling the epic with a French marimba (percussion instrument) player and a Laddhaki Tibetan lute player, Mireille is now exploring new musical horizons with Gurvinder Singh. Their collaboration is exciting and rich as she loves Indian music. The musician didn't know the epic before meeting Mireille but he straight way understands the atmosphere and emotions of the different scenes and translates them into music.

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