Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on 21 June said implementation of GST will substantially benefit Odisha with the taxing point shifting from production base to consumption.

"Odisha will be hugely benefited as the taxing point will shift from production base to tax on consumption. As Odisha is a consuming state, tax revenue will be buoyant," Pradhan said at a GST outreach programme for oil industry stakeholders here.

The outreach programme was an initiative of the Union Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Department of Finance and Commercial Taxes of Odisha and Oil Industry Odisha.

A measure which will facilitate the tax base to expand, is a pro-reform measure and is juxtaposed with demonetisation, which is a radical reformative step, Pradhan said asking all to be part of this transition to a new tax system.

With specific reference to petroleum sector, Pradhan welcomed the transformative moment in the form of implementation and also highlighted the political unanimity on issues for entering into one nation, one market, one tax regime by reaching out to taxpayers.

The minister assured all taxpayers that he will appraise the competent forum about the concerns and apprehension of all stakeholders and expressed confidence that technological initiative will ensure successful implementation, while ushering in transparency and promote ease of doing business.

While motor spirit, high speed diesel, aviation turbine fuel, crude and natural gas are out of GST, all other petroleum products like superior kerosene oil, LPG, furnace oil, light diesel oil and lubricants will be covered by it, officials said.

Describing GST as a win-win situation for the country, participants said it will bring benefits to all stakeholders of industry, government and the consumer.

It will lower the cost of goods and services giving a boost to the economy and make products and services globally competitive, the said.

GST aims to make India a common market with common tax rates. It will remove economic barriers, thus paving way for an integrated economy at the national level, they noted.

The GST outreach programme was intended to bring all stakeholders, tax departments of the Centre and state governments and taxpayers under one common platform, a release said.

A presentation on various aspects of GST was made by Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Odisha, Saswat Mishra.

Issues relating to implementation of GST and concerns over the transition of tax regime were discussed, it said.

Chief Commissioner Central Excise, Customs and Service Tax, Bhubaneswar Zone, Rakesh Sharma replied to queries from participants. Pritish Bharat, CGM, IOC-Odisha delivered the welcome address. Also present was S K Mohanty, Joint Commissioner, Central Excise and Customs.

NDA presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday met BJP veterans LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, who were seen as contenders for the candidature.

He is scheduled to meet ailing former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Thursday.

BJP sources said Kovind (71) paid courtesy visit to the two leaders credited with playing a key role in the saffron party's growth.

He met Advani (89) in the evening and visited 83-year-old Joshi's residence earlier in the day.

There was talk about Advani and Joshi being considered by the BJP as its pick for the president's post.

While announcing Kovind's name, BJP chief Amit Shah had said the party had gone through a list of names before zeroing in on him. He had, however, declined to name other probables.

Fighters for the Islamic State group are targeting children in Mosul to prevent civilians from fleeing the city as Iraqi forces push into the last stronghold held in Iraq by the militants there, the United Nations said on Thursday.

The UN children's agency said it has documented a number of cases in which IS fighters killed the children of families trying to escape from neighbourhoods controlled by the militants.

“They are using children as a weapon of war to prevent people from fleeing,” said UNICEF's Iraq representative, Peter Hawkins. “This just highlights how indiscriminate and catastrophic this war is.”

Iraqi troops are slowly clearing the last pockets of IS fighters from Mosul's old city in an operation launched earlier this week. But an estimated 100,000 civilians packed into the dense terrain have slowed progress.

UNICEF said 1,075 Iraqi children have been killed and 1,130 wounded since IS militants overran nearly a third of Iraq in 2014.

In the past six months alone, violence in Iraq has killed 152 children and injured 255, it said. In addition, the agency said, more than 1 million children have had their educations put on hold by either militant rule or displacement.

Children have also been forced to take part in violence. UNICEF said at least 231 children under the age of 18 were recruited by IS and other armed groups.

“The country's future security and economic strength is determined by what is happening to its children today,” Hawkins said.

The fight to retake Mosul is estimated to have killed and injured thousands of civilians. The Iraqi government says more than 850,000 people have been forced from their homes by the operation, which was launched in October. On the city's west, entire blocks have been flattened by clashes, airstrikes and artillery fire.

Late yesterday, the al-Nuri Mosque and iconic leaning minaret in the Old City were destroyed. Iraqi and coalition officials said IS fighters blew up the landmarks. IS released a statement blaming a US airstrike. 

Crocked Chelsea winger Eden Hazard may be months away from returning to the football pitch, but isn't letting his injury bring him down in the summer break, as he is happy with his recovery and has got himself a special ‘summer haircut’.

Hazard uploaded a trio of images on his Twitter account with the caption, “Being driven around by my family, so can keep my foot up. Good progress as I have managed a summer haircut! #recovery #cfc”.

The 26-year-old winger broke his ankle while on international duty for Belgium earlier in June and was subsequently operated upon, with Chelsea releasing a statement that their star winger would be missing in action for a period of up to three months. 

While the initial diagnosis had been an August return for the mercurial winger, the Premier League champions’s statement pushed his return back to September, which would mean that Hazard would miss Chelsea’s opening games of the 2017-18 season.

After the operation, which was successful, Hazard had initially tweeted “Everything went well with my ankle operation, now I start the road to recovery! I will be stronger. Thank you for your support everyone!!"

Three militants were killed and an Army Major was injured on Thursday in a gunfight between the holed up militants and the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district.

The militants were killed in Kakapora area in a joint operation by the security forces including Rashtriya Rifles, Jammu and Kashmir Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), a police spokesman said.

"All the three slain militants belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit. Three weapons have been recovered from them," he said.

Police sources said an Army Major was also injured during the fierce exchange of gunfire. 

Following specific information about the presence of militants, security forces late on Wednesday evening surrounded the New Colony area.

As the security forces tightened the cordon, the hiding militants fired at them, triggering a gunfight.

"Searches are still going on but the firing has ended," the police spokesman said.

Three-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic is to play at the ATP tournament in Eastbourne, southern England, in preparation for the grass-court Grand Slam, it was announced.

It will be the first time the struggling Djokovic has played a grass-court event between the French Open and Wimbledon since 2010.

The 30-year-old Serb saw his French Open title defence come to a surprise halt with a straight sets quarter-final loss to the up-and-coming Dominic Thiem on the clay courts of Roland Garros earlier in June.

Now, following what was his quickest exit from the French Open in seven years, 12-time Grand Slam champion is to play Eastbourne, which runs from June 23-July 1 after accepting a main draw wildcard.

"This will be my first trip to Eastbourne, I have heard great things about the tournament," 12-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic said in a statement. "I am looking forward to fine tuning my grass court game there ahead of Wimbledon."

World No.4 Djokovic comes into the event as the tournament's top seed ahead of No.2 Gael Monfils and No.3 John Isner.

Originally a women's only event, Eastbourne has been expanded to include men's tennis as well and tournament director Gavin Fletcher said: "The quality of the men's and women's entries is already incredibly high, and the addition of Novak will take the event to an even higher level."

The WTA side of the tournament features seven of the world's top 10 female players including World No.1 Angelique Kerber, Karolina Pliskova (No.3), 2016 champion Dominika Cibulkova (No.6), 2009 champion Caroline Wozniacki (No.8), and Britain's world No.7 Johanna Konta.

Argentina and Paris Saint-Germain star Angel di Maria has been handed a hefty fine and a prison sentence over a charge of tax fraud of €1.3 million ($1.4 million), Spanish authorities announced.

According to a court document, Di Maria will pay around €2 million to the Spanish authorities after pleading guilty to two counts of fraud committed in 2012 and 2013 when he was a Real Madrid player.

Despite being handed a 16-month sentence, Di Maria will not go to prison as is normal in Spain for first offences for non-violent crimes carrying a sentence of less than two years.

Di Maria, 29, played for Madrid between 2010 and 2014, when he joined Manchester United. He then moved to PSG in 2015.

A host of football stars have run into trouble in Spain over suspected tax fraud related to image rights, with Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo summoned to appear in court on July 31 to answer four counts of tax evasion of €14.7 million.

Current Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has been accused by Spanish tax authorities of failing to declare €3.3 million during his time in charge of Madrid.

Di Maria is, like Ronaldo and Mourinho, a client of the Portuguese super agent Jorge Mendes, who himself has been summoned to appear before the court at Pozuelo de Alarcon, just outside Madrid, on June 27.

Eight-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt will run the 100 metres at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco on July 21, the event organisers announced.

The Jamaican sprinting legend is competing in his final season before retirement and will use the Monaco event as a warm-up for the world championships in London that start on August 5.

The world-record holder (9.58sec) won his first race of the year in Kingston earlier this in June in 10.03sec, and is also due to run in Ostrava on June 28.

Bolt, who has won three Olympic 100m-200m doubles, will only compete in the 100m for his farewell at the worlds.

The 30-year-old saw his tally of Olympic gold medals reduced from nine to eight earlier in 2017, when the Jamaican team were stripped of their 2008 4x100m medals after Nesta Carter's disqualification for doping.

Scottish star Andy Murray remains confident that he will be able to defend his Wimbledon title despite his first round loss in the ongoing Aegon Championships here.

Murray lost 6-7, 2-6 to World No.90 Jordan Thompson of Australia in the first round of the Aegon Championships at the Queen's Club here on Wednesday.

"Losing in the first round at Queen's Club doesn't mean I can't go on and do well at Wimbledon," Murray told BBC Sport. 

"It just means I've got a lot of work to do. Grass is a very different surface and can take time to adjust to, but I had plenty of time on the courts in the week before and was practicing well, so no excuses there," he added.

The defending champion at the All England Club, Murray's preparation has been dealt a major blow by this first round loss, more so as he has failed to reach the finals of any of the Grand Slam tournaments since his 2016 Wimbledon victory.

Only once in the past five years has he been beaten by a lower-ranked opponent and this defeat was all the more devastating because the hopelessly off-colour Murray believed he had put a difficult start to a year dogged with illness and injury behind him at the French Open.

"Conditions at Queen's might be playing slightly quicker than usual because of how warm it's been, so the court's a bit drier, which speeds it up. Again, I have enough experience to handle that," he said.

Thompson's best performance at a Grand Slam has been a second round finish in the 2017 Australian Open. He only has one career title, a doubles title with Thanasi Kokkinakis at the 2017 Brisbane International.

"He (Thompson) served well, I didn't return the first serve well enough, and my decision-making and movement on the grass can get better," he said. 

"Now, there is clearly a lot of work required. I need to get myself out there on the practice court," he added.

World football's governing body FIFA has confirmed that it has started disciplinary proceedings against Italian club Juventus over the transfer of French midfielder Paul Pogba while ruling the other involved club Manchester United innocent.

French midfielder Paul Pogba was transferred for a world record fee of £89 million ($112.2 million) in 2016. It has been alleged that FIFA's interest in the transfer could be related to the issue of third-party ownership. 

FIFA reportedly asked both clubs last month about those involved in the transfer. 

It has been alleged that Pogba's agent, Mino Raiola, earned €49 million ($54.61) from the deal.

"We can confirm that disciplinary proceedings have been opened against Juventus FC. We cannot comment further as proceedings are ongoing. We can confirm that no disciplinary proceedings have been opened against Manchester United," a FIFA spokesman was quoted as saying by the Telegraph on Tuesday.

FIFA is investigating whether the Italian champions breached third party ownership rules in their dealings with Raiola.

United insisted that they had done nothing wrong at the time, with a spokesman saying: "We don't comment on contracts, FIFA have had the documents since the transfer was completed last August."

Agents are permitted to act for two sides to a transfer, and three in exceptional circumstances, as long as all parties are aware of it and agree.

If Juventus are found guilty of wrongdoing, the Italian champions could be fined or handed a transfer ban.

The BCCI top brass had an inkling that all was not well but they were taken aback when they came to know that captain Virat Kohli and chief coach Anil Kumble were not in talking terms for the "last six months".

Another important thing that has come out in the open was that the Chief Advisory Committee, comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, also didn't straightaway give the green light to Kumble's extension.

"There had been reports that the CAC had okayed Kumble's extension. They had okayed his extension but with a rider.

They had said that Kumble should be retained provided all pending issues are resolved," a senior BCCI official, who was present in London during the whole episode, said.

Post the ICC Champions Trophy final, there were three separate meetings at the Indian team's hotel.

The first was where Kumble met the BCCI top brass and members of CAC followed by Kohli meeting them.

The last and the most "eventful" meeting was when Kohli and Kumble were made to sit across the table. The talks failed completely as there was no communication.

"The two had stopped talking to each other since December when the England Test series got over. There were problems but it was like shocking that the two didn't have any proper communication for the past six months. On Sunday evening after the final, they were made to sit across table and they both agreed that it's not working out."

When asked what was the problem, the source said: "When we spoke to Anil separately and specifically asked him if there's any problem, he said he has 'no problems with Virat'.

He was also told about the specific areas where Kohli has reservations about his functioning, while Anil said these were non-issues."

The official sounded helpless.

"Look, if one of the two protagonists feel that there are issues which seemed to be non-issue to the other one, only these two can then sort out. Once they sat across the table, both realised after coming out that it has gone beyond repair. Anil's tickets were booked for Barbados. His wife was also supposed to join him but he knew it was over," the official added.

Asked if he could be more specific, the official said: "Let's put it that Virat felt that Anil is entering an area which was his domain. For Anil, who has been a decorated player and an India captain, he has his own beliefs and ideas but the final call always stays with the captain," he said.

Popular Hollywood couple Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have reportedly hired a surrogate to have their third child.

According to sources, the deal will cost the couple $113,850, reports tmz.com. 

The pair made the decision after discovering that Kim suffered from placenta accreta — a condition that makes another pregnancy life-threatening.

The couple, who currently have daughter North and son Saint, have used an agency to source a surrogate and they will pay her the $45,000 in 10 monthly installments of $4,500.

Kim and Kanye are also required to deposit $68,850 with the agency.

"The surrogate is required to refrain from smoking, drinking and drugs during the pregnancy. She also agrees to restrict sexual activities in the weeks leading up to the pregnancy, including foregoing sexual intercourse for three weeks following embryo implantation," the source said.

"The surrogate cannot go in hot tubs or saunas, cannot handle or change cat litter, apply hair dye, drink more than one caffeinated beverage per day or eat raw fish," the source added.

Jihadists on Wednesday blew up Mosul's iconic leaning minaret and the adjacent mosque where their leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a "caliphate" in his only public appearance in 2014, an Iraqi commander said.

The Islamic State group swiftly issued a statement via its Amaq propaganda agency blaming a US strike.

"Our forces were advancing toward their targets deep in the Old City and when they got to within 50 metres (yards) of the Nuri mosque, Daesh (IS) committed another historical crime by blowing up the Nuri mosque and the Hadba" mosque, Staff Lieutenant General Abdulamir Yarallah, the overall commander of the Mosul offensive, said in a statement.

The destruction of two of Mosul's best-known landmarks comes on the fourth day of an Iraqi offensive backed by the US-led coalition on the Old City, where holdout jihadists are making a bloody last stand.

It adds to a long list of Iraqi heritage sites and monuments the jihadist organisation has destroyed in Iraq and Syria since Baghdadi created his "caliphate" straddling both countries, almost exactly three years ago. 

Three-time Wimbledon tennis champion Boris Becker has been declared bankrupt by a court in London.

The 49-year-old owed a firm of private bankers a large sum and the court registrar said there was not enough credible evidence that he could pay, BBC reported on Wednesday.

Becker's lawyers asked for a final chance to pay with the funds from remortgaging a property in Majorca.

Becker, now a coach and TV pundit for the BBC and other media, was not at the hearing in London.

Registrar Miss Christine Derrett said it was "with regret" that she came to the conclusion that he could not pay.

"I remember watching him play on Centre Court, which probably shows my age," she added.

The bankruptcy application was made by Arbuthnot Latham in connection with a debt owed to them for nearly two years.

In a statement, Becker said he was "surprised and disappointed" that Arbuthnot Latham had chosen to bring the proceedings against him.

"This order relates to one disputed loan which I was due to repay in full in one month's time," he said.

"It is disappointing that my request for today's hearing to be postponed until this time was refused. My earnings are well publicised and it is clear that I have the means to repay this debt.

"The value of the asset in question far exceeds the debt owed to Arbuthnot Latham."

Becker's lawyers had asked for another 28-day adjournment after saying that they expected the Majorca property deal to be completed in a month's time.

However, the registrar rejected the plea and said: "It is not often the case that a professional person has a judgment (debt) outstanding against them since October 2015. This is a historic debt.

"One has the impression of a man with his head in the sand."

Becker's advocate, John Briggs, said: "He is not a sophisticated individual when it comes to finances. I am asking for a real last chance for Mr Becker to come good. It has just taken longer than anticipated."

US stocks closed mixed as energy stocks declined broadly amid falling oil prices.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wednesday was down 57.11 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 21,410.03. The S&P 500 lost 1.42 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 2,435.61, Xinhua news agency reported. 

The Nasdaq Composite Index added 45.92 points, or 0.74 per cent, to 6,233.95.

Oil prices declined over 2 per cent on Wednesday on rising concerns about global oversupply. The stocks market was under pressure as the energy sector dropped over 1.6 per cent. 

On the economic front, total existing home sales climbed 1.1 per cent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.62 million in May from a downwardly revised 5.56 million in April, beating market consensus, according to the National Association of Realtors on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, investors were still digesting the latest Federal Reserve officials' remarks.

Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said on Tuesday the current low-rate environment was likely to remain for some time, adding that low rates handicap the central bank's ability to "offset negative shocks."

Meanwhile, Fed Vice Chair Stanley Fischer said that while the US and other nations have taken actions to strengthen their housing finance systems, more needs to be done to prevent a future crisis, according to CNBC.

The officials' words came in less than a week after the Fed raised its interest rates for the fourth time since December 2015.

Investors are overall skeptical the central bank will raise rates again in September. Market expectations for a September-hike are just 13 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool. 

Afew steps down Ghat number 24 in the bustling Yamuna Bazaar of Delhi, flows the river that was once the linchpin of the capital's urban life.

The deplorable state of the Yamuna is in strong juxtaposition to the holiness attached to it. Amid filth and waste floating over the edges of the ghats, the tranquil Yamuna presents a picture completely different from popular imagination. As one’s eyes wander from the Old Iron Bridge to the seemingly endless black waters of Yamuna, a boat unfailingly catches attention.

Nostalgic, a boatman narrates the gradual ruination of this vocation. "Almost every household in this community used to own a boat once. But that was back in the 1980s, when Jamuna Maiyya had clear water. Never did a year go by without fairs and bazaars being organised. Those were good times”, says Ganesh, who is a part-time swimming coach and Hindu priest.

When asked why he juggles between several trades, he innocently answers that there's a scarcity of regular customers, who want to enjoy a boat-ride along with touring Yamuna. For the boatmen along the ghats of the Yamuna, ferries are rare and income uncertain. Most of them take up multiple jobs to survive, the common ones being swimming coaching and construction site masonry.

Baksheesh Sachar, an AUD graduate and a research scholar at Centre For Civil Society, said, "The very reason of these dwindling livelihoods is the pollution in and around the river. Any kind of waste ~ industrial, domestic, agricultural ~ produced in Delhi, finds an end point in the Yamuna. There used to exist a time when everyone along the ghats had boats but today only a handful of inhabitants living along the Yamuna river own a boat. Even swimming competitions were organised, but now they seem impossible, given the state Yamuna is in."

The mallah community, which comprised traditional oarsmen, have now sought refuge in educating their children, rather than carrying forward the lineage in the face of a fickle trade.

Once on the ride, a fraillooking man whizzed past, with a make-shift plastic raft full of sticks of all lengths. That was Alibaba, resident of a slum basti nearby. As Ganesh jokingly referred to him as the "aquatic ragpicker", he mentioned that there are many like Alibaba, who rummage through the river for pieces of metal and other saleable material.

They look for coins and metallic murtisthat are immersed in the river, to sell to scrap dealers for a meagre price. The money they make everyday is insufficient for them to rise above a hand-to-mouth existence.

The naaviks, or boatmen, along the shore of the Yamuna also help the police retrieve dead bodies from the riverbed. Not only that, they rescue drowning people and animals.

One of the amateur swimmers said, "Just last night I saved a woman, who was attempting suicide. These cases are more common than you can imagine." Almost all children here are taught swimming once they reach the appropriate age. Many even choose to train others for a living.

The ghats are also objects of cinematic interest. Many boatmen engage in facilitating movie shootings along these ghats. Apart from ferrying crew and equipment, they also appear in documentaries and films about the Yamuna. Shyam, another rower, proudly boasts that he has featured in myriad "phillams".

He dreams of becoming a household name, when he gets his big break. He despairingly states, "My family has been residing here since 70-80 years. The boating tradition used to be a way of life for us. A large community lives here and almost every household had at least one boat. The melas were occasions of fun and frolic. Now if you look around, you would hardly see five or six boats." A large portion of boatowning families have sold their boats to boat enthusiasts, wood-scrap dealers and workers who make bridges.

Adjoining the polluted Yamuna is the crematorium Nigambodh Ghat. Elaborate funeral rites produce material that has to be disposed of in the Yamuna for spiritual reasons.

This is another area where the boatowning community comes in the picture.Visitors often travel away from the shallow end to a deeper mid-section, using boats. How often do they ply the waters then? Well, not too often. Ganesh said it is either for ritualistic purposes like murti-visarjan(idol immersion) or to row to the other side to an auspicious temple. The coin collectors have  make-shift rafts, which allow limited mobility.

Sometimes, he said, income from seasonal tourists covers up for the entire day, but such days are infrequent. He laughed when asked if he overcharged tourists.

The situation in other states is not as grim, where boatmen still find customers, but the ever-rising pollution and dwindling incomes are fast eroding the songs hummed by the boatmen around the Yamuna.

Our classical dance forms are intrinsically a powerful language of expression and communication.

The week gone by saw Sanchita Abrol, a young Kathak dancer and Gopika Varma, the renowned Mohiniyattam exponent, interpreting stories through their specific dance forms with absolute power and extreme sensitivity. Sanchita Abrol, the gifted disciple of Guru Shovna Narayan, presented Ghar ~ Prem ki Gaagar, based on a Dogri poem Ghar, by the renowned Dogri poet, author and Sahitya Akademi Awardee, late Group Captain Randhir Singh, popularly known as "Kunvar Viyogi" in the literary circles.

The Kathak presentation at the of Kingdom of Dreams, Gurgaon, equipped with world class theatre facilities, left its awe-inspiring impact from the very beginning, when the danseuse emerged on the stage from within, with the pictorial backdrop of home, the "Ghar", in the natural surroundings of greenery and trees blooming with flowers.

The magnificent backdrop kept changing according to the content and context of the poetry.

The theme of Love, with its interconnected physical and emotional aspects, was skillfully interpreted through the language of Kathak, where the intrinsic nature of love was portrayed through Kavittas, Tode, Tukde, Paran and Chakradar Tihais and Gat-Nikas, the traditional repertoire of Kathak, interspersed with the Dogri poem underlining the spiritual aspect embodied in the imagery of courage and sacrifice with the allegory of the insect that roams around the flame, knowing well that he would get burnt to ashes: "Jal Parwana mitti banata/Mitti se phir Deep. Isee vidhi se Deepak jalate hain ghar-ghar…".

The scintillating Tarana in Bageshri with the pathos of the poignant raga reiterated how the "heart always finds its home in love".

The music composed by Madho Prasad recapitulated "Love's philosophy", a poem by the classical English romantic poet Shelley.

The role of Sutradhar, performed by Ayushman Jamwal, could have worked better just as an introductory element. The impressive production was conceptualised, choreographed and directed by Sanchita in collaboration with the Kunvar Viyogi Memorial Trust, that aims at promoting young talents from the field of art.

This was Sanchita's second venture with the Dogri poetry after "Uttar Behini", a Dogri dance production was preceded by a documentary on the history and significance of river Devika in Indian mythology and Dogri literature; conceptualised, researched and directed by Sanchita herself.

Both the productions had meticulous inputs of music by Madho Prasad and costumes by designer Seerat Narindra.

* * *

Shapatham-Shapam in Mohiniyattam

The Kalaimamani and Kalashree awardee Mohiniyattam exponent Gopika Varma has reason to be the enchantress she is. She was initiated into Mohiniyattam at the age of 10 by her grandmother Vanaja Nair and was trained under Girija and Chandrika Kurup, both senior disciples of Kalyani Kutti Amma. Gopika was fortunate to learn Abhinaya from Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair and was fur ther groomed in Sopanam style under Kavalam Narayan Panikkar.

Gopika mesmerised the audience at the IIC auditor ium at the Bicentenary of Royal Rescript, Travancore, celebrated by the Institute of Social Sciences, Kerala.

Opening her recital with Chitranga, the conventional invocation to Ganapati, she presented "Shapatham- Shapam", written and composed by Kavalam Narayan Pannikar.

The powerful performance depicted the agony of two powerful women from the epic Mahabharata: "Shapatham", or pledge, of Draupadi and the "Shapam", or curse of Gandhari, the first one about the war of Kurukshetra and the other, its after effect. Draupadi, after the fulfilment of her Shapatham of smearing her hair with Duryodhana's blood, asks Krishna whether it was her victory or failure?

She remembers the entire story of how the worthy daughter of King Dhrupad was forced to become the "Charanadasi" servant of five husbands without asking her willingness; the unfortunate incident that caused the war when she laughed at Duryodhan tripping on water and antagonised him; how she was disrobed in the cour t of Kauravas when none of her five husbands came to her rescue before Krishna saved her.

Shapam was the tragic story of Gandhari, who was taken for a ride by Bhishma, to marry the blind king Dhritarashtra, how she got 100 sons, none of whom survived to perform her last rights. She curses Krishna to get a death like hers. Gopika's intense Abhinaya as both Draupadi and Gandhari, was intense and powerful.

The imaginativelycomposed music, using the base of Ragas like Sankarabharanam, Dwijawanti and Shivaranjani or the use of just the Tanpura or the percussions, evoked emotions that enhanced the mesmerising performance concluding with the poignant pathos of raga Revathi.