Potpourri!

Shoaib Akhtar, the fiery pacer from Rawalpindi, has been banned from playing international cricket for a period of five years by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) . The latest ban could potentially end Shoaib's stellar international career which has always been eclipsed by controversies and disciplinary breaches.

The latest ban was handed down after Shoaib turned down a retainership from the PCB and openly criticized the PCB for not offering him a national contract. The pacer was already on probation period for two years after hitting Mohammad Asif with a bat just before the Twenty 20 world cup. Controversies aside, Shoaib's career was also marred by injuries. He frequently suffered injuries during the course of a match which severely hampered his team's bowling arsenal.

However when he was at his peak, Shoaib was often unplayable. He consistently clocked over 90 mph and proved to be a menace for the opposition ranks. The Rawalpindi express was instrumental in Pakistan reaching the 1999 world cup finals, where they ultimately lost to the all conquering Aussies.

He has vowed to appeal against the ban. But irrespective of the verdict, he will always be remembered as a genuine entertainer who brought joy to the spectators.

DAY 2:

Dotabetta Peak and Pykara Dam :

After an exiting first day, we got ready for the second day, wishing it to be the same as previous one. It was very cold in the morning. The geysers at the hotel didn’t work in some rooms, so the people there had no options left except to take bath in cold water. Everyone feared it, but it was Aashik (ATM) to be the first person to do it. Ooh!!! Hmmm…. he is more than a cave man, that time. The others followed him. It was the 3^rd of March, to be precise it was Kaushik’s (Cow) birthday. We then started to Dotabetta peak, which is the highest peak in south India, and it was just 18 km from our hotel. It took around half an hour to reach the place. We had to take the stairs at the parking area to reach the peak. It was very cold out there; better wear a sweater when you visit this place. We had to warm up ourselves by eating groundnuts packed with masala. It costs just 10 bucks; in fact it tasted very good. We were dumbstruck by the beauty of the nature when seen from the peak. In simple words, it was awesome. The peak stood proud and tall above all.

We experienced little breezes, and just felt that we were integrated with it. At one view, we saw just green trees and plants covering the whole ground. It was very pleasant to watch the valley beneath, a dam adding to it. In another view, we saw nothing as the whole area was fog-bound. That was something similar to a feel, when you walk over clouds. Another way lead us a few steps from the peak (different from the entrance), where we had a chance of getting a better view of the valley. The valley was very deep; barricades stopped us from falling into it. There was a telescope at the peak which zoomed in the inner parts of the city and even conoor too. The same time we shared fun with each other. Me and gujako were involved in mocking few girls. Those girls were from north India for sure, and many looked too good. One among them was too beautiful and sexy too!!! We also had fun pairing vidyazhini with an old man. Alas! It was time that we had to leave. We returned to our vehicles. We disclosed the cake we bought for cow there. We sung a birthday song and he cut his cake. The moment was great when we all shared the cake and ATM was doing his sprouting business with the 7 up there. We left the place with our hearts back at the place and with those girls.

We then headed towards the Pykara dam, whereon the way we stopped for few minutes to see the 7 mile island, a famous shooting spot. The ticket per person was Rs-2 / at Pykara. We had to walk around 2 kms to reach the exact place from the main road. The place was very quite and just looked great. Though there was not enough water at the place, it still looked spirited. Me, navaneeth (nathari),bladezz, mappi and gujako covered more area just to get awesome pictures of us. Meanwhile powder B was having great time and fun with few white sheep’s which were grazing there. He earned a name from us just for being with them for few minutes. It’s always great fun when it comes to mocking powder B. It got late and we had to leave the place. On returning gujako found his new friend, a female sheep, and he was just singing “Baba White sheep, have you wool” at it. I didn’t know whether the sheep sung the second line “Yes sir, yes sir 3 bags full”, when I saw the same sheep following gujako where all he went. It was fun and entertaining when gujako started to drive those sheep’s to the main road. We then started to our next destination WAYANAD which is in kerala. Wayanad is 100 kms from Ooty or an three an half hours drive from Ooty. The travel was interesting as we crossed only tall trees all the way. Kishore was thankful to his driver, as he drove very slowly and carefully at the turns ensuring that he didn’t vomit. (Kishore always vomits when he is in travel to a hill station, as he is allergic to it). In contrary, everyone in our vehicle felt like vomiting and it was priyanka who broke out first. On the way to Wayanad, we stopped near a valley like region wherein we spotted wild horses. Me, gujako and bladezz had just enough time to get closer to those horses to take few snaps of them. Finally we reached Wayanad at around 7 in the evening. We checked into the Isaacs Regency Hotel. The hotel was very good. We had our dinner there. We then conducted a small badminton tournament and the participants were Navaneeth, Srikanth (Flute), Nataraj (Nutti), Emerson (Bison), Mappi, Bladezz, Gujako, Powder B, Rajasekar (Vanduttu) and me. Nutti emerged as the winner in the end. Sahaya and Vidyazhini played a exhibition match. We ended our day with this as it was late in the night.

The second day was just great with the fun we had and we were tired that we had to sleep.

Click below to view....

Day1, .... ,Day 3, Day 4, How we escaped Death!!