In a statement, the police says that it is not them but other agencies tasked with children’s affairs who have the say on the conformity and non-conformity of child performances.

The statement adds that they have neither intervened nor will intervene to control musical groups like Ashawari or artistic talents of children.

Of late, reports emerged that the young girl band hailing from the Medirigiriya area in Polonnaruwa, has been facing restrictions by authorities, who had prohibited them from engaging in public performances.

Camilla, the Queen Consort, presented the prize, and the author said it had been “an honour and a privilege” to be on the shortlist. Pop singer Dua Lipa was the star guest.

The prestigious £50,000 prize, for a single work of fiction published in the UK in English, also gives the other five writers on the shortlist £2,500 each.

The writer said he decided in 2009 to write “a ghost story where the dead could offer their perspective” after the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, “when there was a raging debate over how many civilians died and whose fault it was”.

Karunatilaka said as he accepted his prize: “My hope is that in the not too distant future… Sri Lanka has understood that these ideas of corruption and race-baiting and cronyism have not worked and will never work. “I hope it’s in print in 10 years… if it is, I hope it’s written in a Sri Lanka that learns from its stories, and that Seven Moons will be in the fantasy section of the bookshop, next to the dragons, the unicorns and will not be mistaken for realism or political satire.”

The opening of the book sets the slightly absurd tone. It starts in the afterlife, which turns out to be bureaucratic and banal. It then flips back and forth between the underworld and the real world during the Sri Lankan civil war in 1990 as Maali Almeida tries to work out who killed him – and why.

Shehan Karunatilaka says the book has been in his head for 10 years and goodness his brain must have been busy. But he struggled to find an international publisher.

The Seven Moons of Maali is Karunatilaka’s second novel, having previously won awards including the Commonwealth Book Prize for his debut book Chinaman, which was called the “second best cricket book of all time” by cricketers’ almanac Wisden.

Born in 1975, the writer has also worked as an advertising copywriter, and his songs, scripts and stories have been published in Rolling Stone, GQ and National Geographic.

He is the second Sri Lankan-born author to win the prize, following Michael Ondaatje for The English Patient (1992).

(Excerpts : BBC)

Jacqueline’s lawyers had moved her bail plea following which Additional Sessions Judge Shailender Malik had asked the Enforcement Directorate to file a reply and granted her interim bail plea till then. The Enforcement Directorate had filed a supplementary charge sheet before the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court in the Rs 200 crores naming her as an accused.

On August 31, Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh took cognizance of the second supplementary charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), and had asked Jacqueline Fernandez to appear before the court on September 26.
The ED’s charge sheet had mentioned that Jacqueline consciously chose to overlook Chandrashekhar’s criminal past and continued to indulge in financial transactions with him and both were working in collusion. The ED alleged in the chargesheet, “From the statements recorded, it is evident that she (Fernandez) consciously chose to overlook his (Chandrasekar) criminal past and continued to indulge in financial transactions with him. Not only she but her family members and friends have benefited out of the relationship financially.”

Jacqueline was summoned by the ED several times but was named as an accused for the first time in the supplementary charge sheet. The earlier charge sheet and a supplementary charge sheet of the ED did not mention her as an accused.

In her response to the freezing of her assets by the ED, Jacqueline had stated that she is a victim of manipulation.

(TOI)

The song, released under the T-series label, is sung by Yohani, Jubin Nautiyal & Surya Ragunnathan with music by Tanishk Bagchi and Chamath Sangeeth.

The visuals feature Bollywood stars – Ajay Devgan, Sidharth Malhotra and Nora Fatehi.

The video has already garnered over 2 million views in just a little over 4 hours.