The story so far…

Mona

She helped sick people as a nurse, taught tiny-tots as a teacher and now Mireille Gehin is happy being a storyteller for life.

In Chandigarh, on the invite of Alliance Française, Mireille begins the conversation by sharing how she loves to take people on a flight of fancy. “While in my previous jobs I helped people, now I make them dream,” she chuckles.

Storytelling has undergone a sea change from when Mireille was a kid. It was a family tradition then, parents or grandparents would tell tales. “But in last 45-50 years, this has seen an immense change. It is a new profession and well paid one at that. Now, storytellers are being treated on par with other artistes like theatre folks or musicians.”

Enjoying her first impressions of City Beautiful, she is happy that it is not as ‘loud’ as some of the other cities like Delhi or Mumbai and has ‘comfortable’ roads. And, she has brought along an epic tale of a Tibetan king.

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 chanced upon this epic. She 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 worked three years on the epic before making it her own and taking it to France, Germany, Italy and Israel.

“The epic poem tells the history of a child born with superhuman strength. He is obliged to fight, by employing tricks against his uncle who wants to be the King of Ling. When the child becomes the king, he protects the kingdom from demons. A gorgeous narrative that comes with a succession of mystical visions and extraordinary battles,” she tells more about King Gesar.

Are epic tales still relevant to modern, fast-paced life? “They are. King Gesar’s is a story of peace after war time. Peace, which is an essential requirement for everyone to grow and develop,” she insists. Much she is influenced by the Dalai Lama and his stance in maintaining peace despite challenges. In fact, so attached she is to Ladakh that since the last few years, she has been spending time in its pristine beauty. The connection is only growing deeper with time...

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Hear from her

On Friday, October 21, 7 pm the French storyteller Mireille Gehin will narrate in English the Tibetan epic of the King Gesar. On her side, the musician Gurvinder Singh will sing and play the harmonium. She has been telling stories from different parts of the world, including French regional tales. She loves making children as well as adults laugh.

On Friday, 7 pm, Alliance Française-36