Birbal and Emperor Akbar’s Barber
How Birbal went to heaven – and returned
Video not yet publicly available
This tale has been recorded and will be uploaded to the video gallery on 11th March, where it will be available to watch for free – together with many, many other tales.
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One of many folk tales of the Mughal emperor Akbar, and his wise and witty advisor Birbal.
I found the story (attributed to both Birbal and Nasruddin) in Ioan Tenner’s splendid resource This Reminds Me of a Story, 111 Teaching Stories of Nasreddin Hodja, the Wise Fool of the East (search within the document for “Filial Piety”).
And here is Tenner’s extensive Bibliography of Nasruddin story books and publications.
Here are more tales of Birbal.
Here are more tales of Nasruddin.
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The video clips here are all amateur quality, shot in various theatres or, as here, in my home studio.
Their intention is just to show the range of my storytelling and give a flavour of a live performance.
Permission is granted for use in non-commercial educational contexts.
The videos are © Richard Martin.
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For those who are teachers: Telling stories in the classroom: basing language teaching on storytelling