040- A New Magazine in Hyderabad, and Suicide Lake

Serious Competition for WOW-Hyderabad
Yesterday I had a hectic day and had only one hour to browse at Abids. I went there in the afternoon, an unusual time for me, and looked around for about one hour. I came across a city magazine, a new one that looked like another city magazine ‘WOW Hyderabad’ finally has some serious competition.

The new magazine was ‘040’, a Hyderabad edition of ‘080’ of Bangalore, a glossy and slick magazine. It was a ‘Special Edition’ of January 2008. I wonder how I missed it in the stands. Anyway, the magazine was good to look at but content wise it wasn’t so impressive. It has to think up of something really creative and good to beat ‘WOW Hyderabad’ in the circulation game.

I really don’t think any one in Hyderabad would shell out Rs 50 for a magazine that is all about Hyderabad. Price wise too it is not reader-friendly. It appears like the new magazine with a 'Special Edition' is testing the waters of Hyderabad before taking the plunge.

Suicide Lake
Speaking of waters it is always easy( at least for me) to tell when there is a suicide in the Hussain Sagar. One, there is a traffic jam on the Tank Bund. Two, you come across people who have hankies to their noses. The traffic jams are caused by curios people haphazardly parking their vehicles on the Tank Bund road, and rushing to take a look at the body that has been fished out of the murky waters.

On Saturday evening another body was pulled out from the lake. It was a man, face a mess so it was difficult to tell the age. It was a gory sight, watching the cops take down the details of the body. Police vehicles were parked nearby to register a case and take away the body. The expression on the faces of the hardened cops also showed that death is always unpleasant for everyone. Some women who had come to spend a quiet evening on the Tank Bund looked positively ill having accidentally spotted the body.

The Hussain Sagar Lake is a picturesque place where many people gather in the evenings to enjoy the sight of the vast stretch of the lake’s waters. It is also a place some people come to jump into those very waters and kill themselves. Being a regular on that road I can say I come across at least one case of suicidal drowning every month.