Draped in a black shawl, a red handbag dangling from her shoulder, Cecile Berrebi de Noailles stands up to shake hands and the cat peeping out from her bag greets me with a meow too!

Everywhere Cecile goes she takes Mandala, her one-year-old oriental Indian cat. The black-and-white cat has an international passport and an identification tag too! A year ago when Cecile came to Kalamandalam, she found two sick kittens, abandoned near bushes, she took them home and named Mandala and Tresure. But sadly Tresure didn’t survive. Mandala however, has seen France and all the countries her owner has travelled in the last one year.

Cecile, who came to Kochi to promote contemporary Western dance and ballet has conducted several workshops on Pilates and yoga too. “I believe in reincarnation and I believe I was a cat myself in my previous birth and that I knew Mandala for ages,” she says. “Indian mythology talks about animals being sacred but there are street dogs and stray cats everywhere in the city — some hurt while some with their rib cages visible, but all ignored. “I love India for its culture but I can’t digest things like superstition, arranged marriages, caste barriers, and the unhygienic way of life. People here often cast me peculiar looks. They’re probably thinking, ‘here comes the alien with a cat,’’ adds Cecile, while Mandala snuggles up to her.

“She understands me; I often speak to her in French. She eats with me, sleeps cuddled up next to me and when I pack my suitcase she knows it is time to travel and hides in my suitcase,” says Cecile stroking Mandala whom she calls her Indian ‘daughter.’ Cecile will be in Kochi till 18 September and has plans to go to Kottayam, Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi after this for various dance collaborations. And everywhere Cecile goes, the cat is sure to go behind.