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Fortune Katriya Turns Eight
Even though I quit advertising long back, as a former adman I still look at advertisements and hoardings like my life depended on it. That was how I came to know last week that Fortune Katriya hotel had completed eight years of existence. I had almost forgotten the hotel existed. There are reasons for this though one being, out of sight, out of mind. Hotel FK, if you’ve been there (I haven’t been), is located somewhere inside a lane in the Somajiguda area. It appears to me like they’ve built it in such a manner that only those who really want to stay/eat at the hotel can look at it. Anyway, I am surprised eight years have passed without me stepping into it or even looking at it.

However, according to the hoarding, Fortune Katriya, as part of its eighth anniversary celebrations, has some special offers which go something like this: Max Wine at Rs 88, Max Wine & Dine at Rs 888, and Max Luxury at Rs 8888. Nothing’s suggested on the hoarding about how long this offer lasts and if one is inclined to check it out, I’d suggest searching for the hotel first.

Two More 'Eat and Run' places in Musheerabad
While on the subject of hotels I am getting the impression though not on the scale of Jubilee Hills, Musheerabad too is witnessing a kind of mushrooming of eating joints. Barely a month has passed after Grand Crown opened than two (yes, two) new eating joints are making an appearance in my neighbourhood. One is ‘Hotel Sandhya’ which is smaller than the lobby of some hotels I’ve been so and gives the impression that it isn’t some kind of a place where you spend hours over your food. You just eat and run. The other joint, more of a Irani, is in the cellar of a building almost opposite Hotel Sandhya across the road. A banner informed that chai and a few snacks are what the place offers.

Hyderabad Gets an Afternoon Newspaper
Hyderabad now has a new afternoon English newspaper called ‘Post Noon’ that is described as Hyderabad’s ‘First Compact Afternoon Newspaper’ of ‘Scribble Media’ from the Jagati Publications stable. On Thursday I saw several copies of the tabloid size paper at the newsstands and bought a copy. It was the launch issue so it is better to give it time before it develops a style. It is too early to say how the paper is though in appearance it is quite impressive. I wanted to check out the Sunday issue but couldn’t because I was out of town the whole day. But I am glad there’s another paper to read.

Er…
Sometime back in a recent post I’ve sort of jumped the gun about the reopening of ‘MR Books’ store at Abids. It seems they just opened the shutters on the day I happened to see it and got the impression that it was reopening. I was disappointed to learn that the store remains closed and not very likely to reopen in the near future. Sad.