Jul 28, 2025, Monday, 8 AM I am not in the best of health but I have to write. Am trying to be consistent. And since I couldnt write yesterday, it had to be done. Also, if I dont write now, I will not be able to and that means I will have to skip. And that’s not happening.
So, lets go.
As always, some sections that I will talk within.
Oh, and listening to this. On loop.
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💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week
PS: As always, these are not in any order.
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a/ Anshika + the muscle to ship. Read this. See this. And I wish I could show you a 100 things that AK shipped in the last few days. I need that energy around me. The kid has been so good with juggling all balls the last two weeks. It’s incredible. She’s eating healthy, going to the gym, showing up and all that.
That’s it. Nothing more to say.
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b/ Session at IIM Mumbai Took a session for some folks at IIM Mumbai. These folks are from some MSME board and this was a continuation learning program for them. I didnt really enjoy taking the session but I think it was interesting for them. I could see that they were engaged. Just that it was tough to get folks to open up and talk.
Also, I realised that I love teaching. And for more than anything else, the questions that come my way are the ones that I cherish more than anything else. This slide from Vishal Khandelwal on Dr Feynman defines the why and how…
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I need to find more opportunities to teach. But then I dont want to not work either. So, the conundrum. Sigh.
But I would love to teach nonetheless. Come on, universe.
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c/ Chatter on longevity Since I got myself a FOXO membership, I’ve been reading and thinking about longevity. Plus I read this long piece on Bryan Johnosn. And this online chatter on twitter. See twotweets.
It’s incredible that all it took was one person to literally spawn so much chatter. It’s probably these unreasonable people that move moutains and push us forward.
I need to learn how to become unreasonable like that. Any clues anyone?
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d/ Poker Have put about 2000 bucks on online poker the last few days.
More than anything, I find it insanely enjoyable. If there was no chase of largeness or greatness, I would just do this! I’ve played micro stakes cash games and some micro stakes tourneys. I continue to suck at cash games. In tourneys, I’ve got to ITM a few times.
Oh, I also trained a chat on chatGPT into becoming my poker coach. No, its not helping. Cos I’ve lost most of the 2K I had put in : D
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e/ Events Wrote this on Twitter. Reproducing it here with minor edits.
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Overshare coming. I’ve had one of the most transcendental moments of my life.
Last time I felt like that, it was in 2021 and I was en route to the Everest Base Camp. The sight of the sun rising from behind the clouds, mountains, early in the morning left me awe struck.
Coming back.
I normally dont cry. I escape. If I have to, I walk in the rain.
But today, since I woke up, I’ve cried twice. Both to the music of ARR. I dont know if it’s caused it or it was the last straw on the camel’s back. You know, causation or correlation. A lot’s been happening lately, and just say whatever is happening is not routine for me, and I know a lot is bubbled inside of me.
So, this happened as I stepped out of the shower. I had put on some music. And the algorithm of YT played ARR’s Berklee piece. And it played Kun Faya Kun.
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The first time, I was listening to the aalap about Ali (see from 6:28 for about a minute). The aalap is followed by one of the greatest lines ever written about spirituality, bhakti, devotion, submission, ask, request or whatever you want call it.
It goes, “mujh pe karam sarkar tera, araz tujhe, karde mujhe, mujh se hi riha”
This “mujh se hi riha” is like the epitome of self-actualisation. I dont know if I will ever be there. But in those few seconds I didn’t have pain, didn’t have a want, dint have a worry, dint even probably have a self. I was probably what they call “the one”. I will never know.
The second time was when YT played Vande Mataram after a bit. And this happened around the lines, “tu hi zindagi hai, tu hi meri mohabbat hai, tere hi pairo me jannat hai, tu hi dil, tu hi jaa” etc.
This time, the lines were not important. Important was the way the two performers looked at ARR.
See this first.
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These ladies looked at him not once, but probably for all the time they shared the stage.
In their eyes and body language, and the entire being, I saw awe, devotion, respect, want, love, submission and everything else that you can imagine. All for ARR.
When I was growing up, I’ve always wanted to have that North Star to submit to. To guide me home. Or a large super nova to suck me towards it (astronomy nerds, please tell me what is the strongest force that pulls you? Black holes? Supernovas?). Never found one.
Rather, I took comfort in many many stars, all shining bright, and I navigated through those. I still do. I am glad and grateful that I have many folks who’ve agreed to be my guiding lights. You know, shoulders of giants. I am nothing without them. I would have never seen what I’ve seen if I didnt have their shoulders to stand on.
And as I grow up and start to think about the meaning of life and the universe and my life of potential (jiska aachar bhi nahi dal raha) etc etc, I realised that I have this insane need to help others see the light.
I dont know why. I dont know if I am capable. I dont know if I am good. I dont know what it even means.
But that. Phew. Glad I wrote.
Oh, and no I dont think I let out 100%. I will need more such sessions. I dont know when it would happen next time. The last one was almost 4 years ago when I was in a different funk (life’s much better now and I am thankful for that). But I know I need at least one more such outpouring.
And yes, I am ok. 100% there. I haven’t lost it. I still want to make a billion dollars (should upgrade to trillion) and impact the lives of a billion people. And I still want chaand taare and all that (thanks, SRK, Abhijeet and others).
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f/ long term games C read TNKS and reminded me about the thank you page.
And it stuck me that the page dates back to 2013 or 2012 or something. And even though it’s been 10+ years, I am still in touch with a lot of those folks that I’ve credited in the book! Talk about long-term games. Naval would be proud of me.
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g/ Gravity Crew. Mrs Mohan. Anna and others. Recently, Anna’s son got married. And the team from Gravity went to attend the wedding. While I was aware of it and had seen some pics, I was amazed to see a pic of Mrs Mohan and Anna on Roshan Abbas’ insta!
I have nothig but fond memories of the kindness of Mrs Mohan while I was there. She operated with grace, took care of the entire mad house and was one of the glues that kept the “greatest force known to mankind” ticking.
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h/ what ChatGPT / Claude thinks about me. The other day, I asked some LLMs what they thought about me. Here’s what they had to say. Here – Claude. Perplexity.
I am embedding a few things…
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i/ the second screen So, I use a second screen at home. And I think, the additional monitor is game changer. To a point that I am thinking that I will get another monitor (so, two extra screens).
But then, I dont work from home. Or may be I will start to work from home? Actually, the thing is, more than work or home or screens, I dont want to be tethered. I dont want my things to end up owning me. So, I want to take a hard look and rethink. The easy answer is to avoid attachment in case I have to leave. But the investment and the thinking that goes alongside.
I would like to post the following photo on the blog. This is the homepage of a website. 100% marks for the copy. Thanks to Nimchan for letting me know about this. I love that my community tells me about things that I need to know about.
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🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by?
Book 2 – no action. I will not drop this. I know I am gonna be busy I think I love the feeling of writing things. So that.
PS: Dropped 2025 Plan a few weeks ago. This is after probably 10 years that I dont have an yearly plan!
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☑️ What did I get done last week?
This is a one-line report on progress I made on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.
Health
Meru
C4E
Brand SG
People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
Book2
Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)
Health. No action. I will give myself a -1 on this. I am starting a new regimen from today. Let’s see how is the next week.
Meru. Was busy. But I dont think I moved the needle as much as I would have liked to. -1.
C4E. No action from my side. 0.
Brand SG. No action. And no action does not mean 0. It means a -1.
People. No action on this. I’d say 0.
Book 2. Lol! -1
Shauk. I started with poker. So a step in the direction. But a 0.
So the overall score is -4 yet again for this week.
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📊 The tracker from the last week
I did not fill this in this week. So, no updates here. Not even sharing the blank one.
About Bryan Johnson and pursuit of immortality. Here. Oh, I want to do such long-form, deep-dive interviews. May be on The Optimist’s Manifesto?
This from DHH on life and death. Here. A quote from in it, “That life is long enough if you spend it well, but spending it well requires embracing life’s shortness.”
This from Jason. Here. On craft. On fulfillment. On meaning.
This is not a read per se but I see this video often.
This tweet from Erik. Here. I love this line, “My favorite relationship advice is to do whatever it takes to become more secure and positive-sum.”
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🧠 Reminders from last week
This section captures things that I want to not forget. I add those to SG’s Office. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates.
So, I’ve been skipping this for the last few weeks. I am skipping this week as well. Havent had the time TBH to work on this. Again, this week is tough but I will get to it soon.
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🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?
Numb.
This went past by too fast. There was a lot of work and very very long days at Meru. Need to find a way to streamline those.
Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Blur, Fast, Uncool, Disappeared, Experience, Grind, Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.
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— Phew! Lemme know what you think. See you around.
Oh, and this too shall pass!
PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. The previous editions are here: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (missed), 16, 17 (missed), 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (missed), 23, 24 (missed), 25, 26, 27, 28, 29
PPS: Please do point typos. Grammarly is not working well and I don’t have energy to cut paste edit this in some other spell check thing.
PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.
I normally start writing this on a Friday evening. And by Saturday I have a vague draft in my head. And then by Sunday I polish it. Today, I am sitting on this at 7:15 PM on a Sunday. So, I will not be able to do reviews and edits. And thus, if you spot any errors or bugs, you know what / who to blame.
Also, this week has been the fastest since the beginning of time. Days blurred into each other and it came to a point where I lost track. I wanted to take a breather on the saturday (very unlike me) and I planned for it. But I couldnt. So, I havent had the time to reflect.
I discovered this at a Starbucks. Far cry from the world of Terence where says, and I quote…
Parker’s a young kid, pretty good on the sax, gets up to play at a cutting session, and he fucks it up. And Jones nearly decapitates him for it. And he’s laughed off stage. But the next morning, what does he do? He practices. And he practices, and he practices with one goal in mind: Never too be laughed at again. And a year later he goes back to the Reno and he steps up on that stage and he plays the best motherfucking solo the world has ever heard. So imagine if Jones just said “Well, that’s okay Charlie. That was alright. Good job.” Then Charlie thinks to himself “Well, shit. I did do a pretty good job.” End of story. No Bird. That, to me, is an absolute tragedy. But that’s just what the world wants now. People wonder why jazz is dying. I’ll tell you, man – and every Starbucks “jazz” album just proves my point, really – there are no two words in the English language more harmful than “good job”.
Anyhow. I heard it. And I love it. And here it is for your viewing / listening pleasure.
💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week
PS: As always, these are not in any order.
1/ The F1 Film I am yet to watch this film. VG has told me to see this a 100 times and I havent been able to find time to do so.
Each person I talk to seems to be raving about it. And I havent had the time to see the film. Let’s see when.
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2/ The #TNKS film Staying on films, its a well known secret that I want #tnks to be adapted into a film.
I’ve even written a script. I shopped it around a bit and I realised that no one is as interested in it as I thought they would be. Plus I didnt want to invest time, energy or effort into chasing and pushing. So, the project went on a backburner.
But lately, with AI, I think it may be possible!
Naman and Vishal have taken my bait to accept it as a challenge and work on it. They’ve even made a teaser. See the teaser here.
What do you think?
I’ve given them a 6 month window to see if we can make a film out of this. The best case scenario? We would have a film. The worst case? They would learn.
So that.
Ready. Fire. Aim. FTW!
3/ Walking has been a challenge. I have said this multiple times and I say it again. Mumbai and India is not built for walking. I know people who do it despite the dust, heat, strays, traffic and all that. And no, I am not those people.
While in a different country, I can easily get 10-12K steps in. Here, despite all the concious effort, I cant get more than 6-7K.
I know folks in Bangalore and Pune and Goa and the hills find it easy. But again, I am not there and I dont see myself there either in the forseable future.
But then I want to be fit and till I snap out of my slumber to start lifting weights, I need to start walking. Any tips / ideas anyone?
4/ Figo Mag Balram showed me a copy of this magazine (see it here – Figo Collective) that a couple of people put out. Love it.
Reminded me that I’ve wanted to create something tangible that people can touch and feel and play around with. Brought me to another point that I told C while walking around. People who chase one singular passion all their lives end up creating things that move you so much that you start questioning the meaning of your life and all that. Just that while you are in the questioning zone, you are comparing your life of a generalist who’s going wiht the flow with someone who’s chased things with a singular passion!
I have three images for this. Here.
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5/ AI experiments I tried to learn n8n and I found myself struggling with it. And, its not a great feeling. to bes honest, I dont want to learn how to code but I want to be able to take advantage of things. Especially these tools that are now lot more accessbile to us. The things that enable us to do more!
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6/ Speed and Urgency Life is anything but predictable. So, sooner you do things, better it is. And I am unable to rally people around me to run with a certain speed. Even when I push for things, I’ve seen that I am unable to bring about a change. I need to learn how to be more convincing.
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7/ Writing Cohort As part of Meru, been running something for active seniors where am assisting them in writing their biographies. I have one person right now and its a brilliant place to be. Each interaction teaches me new things, makes me challenge my existing notions and at the same time enriches the repotoire of my awwareness.
One of the lessons from a session was to not hoard books. I was told that since there’s only little time, you will probably not re-read some of your favorites and thus its better to give those away and help people discover your favorites.
Today, I met Parth for lunch and gave him a couple of books.
Oh, fun fact, when I met him, I told him that I was once fascinated by Kurutoga pencils and I could see on the Amazon page that I bought one in 2018!
PS: In case any of you wants your elders to write their biographies, please let me know.
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8/ Health. Multiple concerns. More spots. More headspace. Seem to be forgetting a lot. See this. Unable to control what I eat. Wont talk more.
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9/ Personal Brand I have to find a way to build my personal brand. I think in the times we are alive it has to be in shape of video. And may be text. For someone who’s hated his face all his life, this is a tough one.
With Adulting, I have started to release some of my words. I need to now accelerate it. I want to start doing things like MFM where they routinely get to talk to interesting people. I have the machinery and the meachnism and all that to manage the release. I just need to shoot!
Come on, Mr Garg!
Maybe I will ready fire aim at this and record some. The only times I have is towards the evening, post office hours. I want to cram in workout, reading, experiments and all that in it. I will have to find a way to record these too. Adding to my TDL for the week.
I will save you the effort of clicking. From wikipedia…
The book’s title was inspired by a saying Haji Ali shared with Mortenson: “The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family…”
The point is, recurring games with recurring people.
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📷 Some Photos from the week gone by
Here are some photos from week 29. The one I want to post on this blog is…
Source: Twitter
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🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by?
Book 2 ISTG I want to pick this again. I dont know how. I have way too many things happening to think about this. May be I will drop this as well?
PS: Dropped 2025 Plan a few weeks ago.
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☑️ What did I get done last week?
This is a one-line report on progress I made on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.
PS: I have skipped this for the last few weeks. I HAD to bring it back this week. So, things that I work on (in order) are…
Health
Meru
C4E
Brand SG
People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
Book2
Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)
Health. No action. And I’ve not had the best last few days. I will give myself a -1 on this.
Meru. Moved the needle a bit. However it is not enough. I need to do more. I will give myself a -1.
C4E. No action from my side. But things seem to be ok there. All credits to folks at C4E. So, a 0.
Brand SG. No action. HAVE TO PUT IN A LOT MORE EFFORT HERE. At this time, I will give myself a -1.
People. No action on this. I’d say 0.
Book 2. Lol! -1
Shauk. Nothing. So, a 0.
So the overall score is -4 for this week. Need to buckle up.
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📊 The tracker from the last week
I missed this last few weeks. This past week I have been deliberate in filling this in. Here we go…
The first couple of days were good. I slept well and had great recovery. And then life happened. And then work took over. And then it went downhill. I’ve also had many more days in the red / yellow zone compared over others!
2/ Naval on Arena. He says, “So the right way to learn is to actually go do something, and when you’re doing it, you figure something out about how it should be done.”
3/ From Sahil Bloom -A very useful list of things that you could immediately act upon, especially if you are young.
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🧠 Reminders from last week
This section captures things that I want to not forget. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates. I will also add these to SG’s Office.
Skipping this week as well. I will get back to this next week.
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🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?
Blur.
This went past by too fast. There was a lot of work and very very long days at Meru. Need to find a way to streamline those.
Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Fast, Uncool, Disappeared, Experience, Grind, Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.
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— Phew! Lemme know what you think. See you around.
Oh, and this too shall pass!
PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. The previous editions are here: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (missed), 16, 17 (missed), 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (missed), 23, 24 (missed), 25, 26, 27, 28
PPS: Please do point typos. Grammarly is not working well and I don’t have energy to cut paste edit this in some other spell check thing.
PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.
I am writing this on a Monday (and not on a weekend). In an attempt to ensure that there’s continuity. I really want to be consistent and even if I am late by a day, I want to be der aaye, durust aaye.
Also, this will be a little different from other weeks – simply because I am short on time. I have given myself a 25-minute window to talk about this. And I will lean on to my notes.
💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week
PS: As always, these are not in any order. And for this week, not in any particular structure either.
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A/ The best and the worst of humans and our behavior is visible not in our day to day. But in adversity. And on flights. The entitlement, rudeness, want to cut queues and all that.
While on it, I want to mention that EVERYone MUST see Love Actually. And this scene. The monologue is probably one of the best pieces of writing ever. I wish I could write like this. Hats off, Richard. Oh, fun fact. Richard Curtis also wrote Notting Hill, apart from other stellar films.
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B/ I havent used my laptop at all in the last few days. To a point that am making typos and having a tough time type. Which is ok, tbh. But still. I can’t even remember how I start my day. I dont know the apps I open on a day to day basis. I dont remember the bookmarks that I want to open each day. I dont know which shortcuts do what. Grrrr.
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C/ Remarkable is not remarkable at all. Saw a couple of people use it. And I was not impressed. I liked the form factor and the thinness and everything. But I dont like it enough to buy. I love the e-ink. I love the conversations that it can start. But I dont find the utility and price point marriage to be a good one.
Here’s the thing. This is one of those products that I wouldn’t buy even if I had the money.
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D/ Each time I am abroad, I think to myself, why am I not living in a different country? I know the world is talking about how India is the future and all that. But I also know that I want to experience another life in an alien environment.
And, I know that I am firmly on ground, in India for another 24 months at least (if not forever) but I really have to be not here for a few years.
To be honest, it will remain a want from what I can think of.
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E/ Walked an average of 10K steps over the last week. Ate in moderation (I think). Sleep was all over the place. And I still gained weight!
Recovery over the last week. Steps from the week gone by.
So, I would say it was a pretty good week in terms of effort. But outcome was zilch.
Oh, and I need to lose like 25 KGs.
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F/ Need to become a lot more atmanirhbar This trip I realized that the ones you can count on, even despite their assurances, will not come thru.
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G/ Paid for quality and reliability. I was working on a project and I realized that if you pay for quality and reliability, you may end up making less but you would sleep better and you would be happier.
I thus need to ensure that I find a way to pay top dollar to top talent and then get them to do top work. And while they do that, add the layer of reliability in that. And life can be good.
The only challenge would be when the outcome and quality is subjective, as it happens a lot in the kind of work I do. So that needs to be seen. Let’s see when and how.
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H/ Projects business Realised yet again the goods and the bads of the life spent working in a projects business. Will probably do an adulting podcast with AK on this.
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I/ Filmmaking and AI AI can now help do films FAR faster and maybe this is the time to scale up that piece. At least the TNKS bit.
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I/ The want of Apple’s AirPods. God knows how long I’ve wanted to get myself a paid of AirPods. And God knows how tough the last few months have been. And thus I havent been able to get myself one. And I dont know when this toughness will end. So that.
Reminds me of that old-age Mumbai adage – how do you know you are doing well? You start to live towards the South and start to occupy large spaces. On the other hand, am moving northward and moving to smaller spaces.
So that.
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J/ Tesla in India Tesla is opening their showroom on the 15th. And I am not invited. Sigh. Must work hard to get to a place where I am invited to better parties.
This is a one-line report on things I got done on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.
This week I dont want to update this. I didnt really do anything tbh.
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📊 The tracker from the last week
No tracker this week. I will be back next week.
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📖 Interesting Reads from the last week
No reads.
I will be back next week.
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🧠 Reminders from last week
This section captures things that I want to not forget. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates. I will also add these to SG’s Office.
Skipping this week. I will get back to this in the week of 14th July.
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🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?
Fast.
That’s the world I would use for the last week.
This was probably one of the fastest weeks of my life.
Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Uncool, Disappeared, Experience, Grind, Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.
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— Phew! Lemme know what you think. See you around.
Oh, and this too shall pass!
PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. The previous editions are here: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (missed), 16, 17 (missed), 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (missed), 23, 24 (missed), 25, 26, 27
PPS: Please do point typos. Grammarly is not working well and I don’t have energy to cut paste edit this in some other spell check thing.
PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.
Morning! Of afternoon. Or evening. Or whatever time you read this at.
This week and the next week’s edition will be not as detailed as I would like them to be. I am on the road and may not be able to carve time to reflect on how I spent time. But an edition nonetheless. You know, progress > perfection. So, yay!
So, the H2 of 2025 is here.
This has been one of the most “interesting” years.
Interesting from multiple lenses. Exciting. Challenging. Full of changes. One of the rare years when I didnt do my regular yearly plans. But then I went with the flow and learnt a lot. I even saw a large change in my personality and decision making (you know, from people person to ideas person). I am sure there is more.
While I want to write about this year, today is not the time and here is not the place. Right now I want to publish this weekly note.
Oh, I am listening to this as I write. By Twin Strings and Raghav Chaitanya.
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Ok, lets go!
💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week
PS: As always, these are not in any order.
1/ Mann Ko Bhaya to Accha, Na Bhaya to Aur Bhi Achcha I saw this first as a status message of Hareesh Sir. And then I read more about it and reaslised that this is by Harivansh Rai Bachchan. Salute to both the men.
Over time I have started to try and internalise this. And I think I am successful to some extent. And it has been one of the most liberating ways to live life. I no longer think about the good or the bad. I think of things without attaching any emotion. Guruji from Vipassana would be proud.
Of course I am yet to build that in to daily practise but I try on a day to day basis. And I am lot more about not attaching the emotion and outcome.
PS: Lol, Mr Garg. See point #9.
Oh, if Marcus was the kinds to write Hindi poetry, he would’ve probably written this.
Any how.
The point is, mann ko bhaya to accha, na bhaya to aur bhi achcha.
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2/ From Chaand Taare to Kutumb If you’d had met me a few years ago and asked me what my trip in life was, I would have said…
Saari daulat saari taaqat Saari duniya par hukumat
If you live under the rock, this is from this song. And if you dont know, in one of the shots in this track, SRK is actually passing by what would eventually become Mannat.
But lately, my want of taaqat and hukumat has changed to…
Sai itna dijiye, jaame kutumb samaay, main bhookha naa rahoon, sadhu na bhookha jaaye
This is by Kabir. And this has been the cornerstone of my life and decision making in a while.
This implies that rather than having all of it, I want enough to take care of myself and my village. This also indirectly implies that I will reduce my wants (not needs) and I will try and help my people to do more.
Oh, and this epiphany happened when I was meeting AP. More on our interaction in a bit (point #8). But this is what defines me now.
Make of it what you will.
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3/ Its expensive to be poor I read this somewhere once that its expensive to be poor and I have now seen this in action. If you are rich, you can “buy” time and use that to do whatever.
Here’s an example – say you have to travel between Mumbai and Delhi. The poor (aka middle class) will probably take the train and invest 15-18 hours for this. If you are better off, say me, you would take a 2-hour flight. You may spend another couple of hours to reach the airport and check-in and all that.
Just because you can afford the flight, you saved 13 hours.
Now, thats where the imagination of most people will end.
Indulge me a bit more.
Imagine you were uber-rich. I am talking SRK level rich. You could take a private plane and save another two hours.
And then if you are even more rich, say Ambani rich, you can question the very reason of travel and call whoever you want to, to, to your place and save all the time.
Now, extrapolate that for everything. Food you eat, healthcare you have access to, people you meet, education you get, opportunties that come to you, access to private deals and everything else.
Get the drift?
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4/ Posture I’ve realised that I need to fix my posture.
I have this lingering pain in my back all the time. I think I can blame it on sitting hunched over my laptop for like 42 years. I really want to fix this.
So, from today on, I will ensure that my back is ALWAYS stuck to a support structure. Or it is straight. As I write this, my lower back hurts and I have some giving me a backrub!
And as I edit this, my back is hurting but I am resting it against a backrest at a cafe that is blasting AC air on my face at 18 degrees. Wow!
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5/ WSOP WSOP is on as we speak.
I REALLY want to get the ME Bracelet some day. And I know that I dont have a lot of time left. A, age. And B, AI. I mean its probably a matter of time (unless already) before AI-enabled and coached people come in and with superhuman intelligence start to whoop asses of poker players.
In fact, it would be interesting to see KidPoker take on some AI bots. Has this been tried? Adding to my #todo
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6/ Aadmi Ka Zeher by Srilal Shukla. It’s after a while that I’ve read a whodunnit.
Looking forward to a Jeffery Archer that I took from Ankit last week.
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7/ How to write your autobiography As part of learning more about active seniors (for Meru), I’ve been running tiny experiements.
This week I started with a small one – to help active seniors write their autobiographies.
Now, this is tough.
For a simple reason – I have not lived the experiences they have. Plus I know that I am not the most effective communicator. And I know that I have not helped other write an autobiography. Yes I have ghostwritten a few. Yes I’ve written a lot of books. But I have never “taught” anyone to write an autobiography.
So, lets see how that adds up.
But then, this a also new thing that am trying and I am very very excited about it! I’ve had one session so far. Let’s see how the next one goes.
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8/ Akanksha Pandey (AP) I know of AP for a while now.
I first met her to see if we can work together. At the time we couldnt make it work. But she is one of the smartest young people I know. And I had to stay in touch. And we did.
So, I met her in the last week. And I realised that AP’s great IRL as well! Here are some notes from our meeting…
I asked her to look at “couples” like [Bonnie + Clyde], [Shilpa Shetty +Raj Kundra], [Donna + Harvey] and others. The point? Large things get built when you are with someone for long and have shared madness for things.
The Godfather and his principles of living life – loyalty, frienship, winning people.
I know these links without nuance and context wont be of much use to people reading this but I wanted to share here. And I am sure there’s a lot more but these are what I recall from the top of my head (and from my notes). Maybe some day I will edit this and add more.
But meeting AP has to be one of the highlight of the week so far.
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9/ Respect This week, two of my fav kids crossed lines.
In two independent places. At two different times. Now this is a tough one to write and I will not. But I want to catalog it here. More on my echochamber. Also see point #1.
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10/ Deepak Ravindran (DR) Lemme start with a disclaimer. I dont know DR personally.
However, he’s recently started a new startup (Kirana Pro) and it’s been all over the news. But this post is not about that. This is about how he’s running his personal brand. You just can NOT miss it. The corner of the internet I spend time at, I get to see and hear a lot about him. A lot means, A LOT.
And naturally, like most people I am enamored by and want to get to know, I followed him across socials. And then I reached his WA group where he and his buddies chat with each other.
And, O.M.G.!
The group opened up another dimension in the brain. A lot of chatter there is techbros nerding over the new things. I am unable to understand a lot of things there but the rare things I can fathom, I love it. Each post there is a lesson (to a point that a lot of saves in the photos from this week are from his group). Each chatter there is about building (some are delusional as well, but well…).
Ok, the point is, I need to surround myself with more people like that.
Made me think hard. To a point that my head hurt. Or may it did cos I was on a long flight. Lol.
I dont know what my myth is. But I know what my myth is not. And that’s a good place to start. I need to now work towards finding it.
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🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by?
Book 2 No action. I am thinking, should I drop this?
What do you think? PLEASE let me know.
PS: Dropped 2025 Plan a few weeks ago.
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☑️ What did I get done last week?
This is a one-line report on things I got done on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.
I may not have a lot to add this week (and the next) but here is a report nonetheless.
At this point, the following things are important to me and these are IN ORDER.
Health
Meru
C4E
Brand SG
People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
Book2
Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)
Health. No action. 0.
Meru. Same as last week. Tried to move the needle. But not as much as I would have wanted to. So, a 0.
C4E. No action. 0. Next week on, I will remove this from this tracker.
Brand SG. No action. 0.
People. No action on this either. I’d say 0.
Book 2. Lol! -1
Shauk. Nothing. So, a 0.
So the overall score is -1 for this week, like it has been for the last 2 weeks.
Trends from the previous weeks: -1, -1, 3, 0, -4, 0, -4, -5, -5, -3, -2, -1 The max I can get is 7 in a week. Let’s see when I get to it.
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📊 The tracker from the last week
This is the tracker for the last week.
All the amber is becuase I am on the road.
The week was better in terms of steps, sleep, food and recovery. But was terrible in terms of mood. Hope the coming week is better.
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📖 Interesting Reads from the last week
No large inputs here. I did read a few things but I dont have the time to update those. I will get back to this section once am back on ground.
In the meantime, the best place to get these updates is via my TIL WA group. It is inspired by Sunanda’s fabulous book, TIL, and on this WhatsApp group, I aim to post VERY VERY VERY frequently. Like MULTIPLE times a day. About things personal (rants, overshares, thoughts etc), what I read, what I want to think about, what I need help on etc. Join here.
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🧠 Reminders from last week
This section captures things that I want to not forget. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates. I will also add these to SG’s Office.
I will skip this section this and the next week. I will get back to this in the week of 14th July.
From previous weeks, here are things that I want to remember. And no, this may not be a comprehensive list. In categories…
Long term
Professional pool / snooker / poker. No action.
Health
Kitchen setup (incomplete)
Gym membership (incomplete)
C4E things (Will stop tracking these)
C4E Base
Design
Borderless agency
Adding films
Shauk / Personal
Use of money to buy time – doing this already.
Better dressed – lol
Find love – lol!
Demand more from life
Speak better!
Money (adding this on Jun 29)
Passive income
In case you know me, lemme know if I have missed something.
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🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?
Uncool.
That’s the world I would use for the last week. Wont talk too much here but it was not the coolest week. The good thing is that this happened after a long long time!
Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Disappeared, Experience, Grind, Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.
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— Phew! Lemme know what you think. See you around.
Oh, and this too shall pass!
PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. The previous editions are here: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (missed), 16, 17 (missed), 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (missed), 23, 24 (missed), 25, 26
PPS: Please do point typos. Grammarly is not working well and I don’t have energy to cut paste edit this in some other spell check thing.
PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.
