Category: Weekly Notes

Wk 21-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes, thoughts, reflections and everything else from Week 21 of 2025.

May 24
3:4p PM, Jamjar
Updated at 8 AM, May 26th at DN Nagar.

The week gone by was a super fast one. Naman and Vishal were around and that meant I was lot more busy with them. Reinforced the belief that you can either work or manage life. I mean, am sure there are people that manage homes and lives and all that. But I know I can’t. So that.

Ok enough of prelude. Let’s get going.

Let’s go!

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

A/ Self-Image
Lemme start with the biggest, the deepest thing in my head and heart: my self-image.

Context – I was talking to somebody last week and I realized that I think that I am doing the worst in my friend and social circle. In terms of money, life, work, societal goals etc etc.

And this means that my self-image is really really bad. And like all problems that I need to solve, I need to work on it.

Now I don’t know how to do it but I want to make a note in this weekly update. And I want to reflect on that during the coming week. Let’s see how I do that.

B/ Photo on the internet
Continuing on the self-image thing, it is one of the large reasons why I didnt put my photo on the internet.

But, I now have many photos on the internet. On places like Linkedin and Twitter. And people are commenting left, right and centre. And that’s not cool. And I need to fix it. So that.

And no, I am not linking to those. Go find out!

B.1/ Personal brand
HIGH TIME I WORK ON MY DISTRIBUTION AND PERSONAL BRAND. COME ON AK! And AK, Happy birthday!

C/ C4E People
My people are stronger than I had imagined them to be. For context, at C4E, we have a tough client and I was of the opinion that we must let go of that client. Not worth the effort. But my team said they will manage. And they seem to be managing. So, yay!

D/ Push ups
I talked about pushups last week. I am glad to report that I continued for a few days. I’ve missed it over the last 2-3 days but I am mostly been thinking about it. So that’s cool.

I will eventually get to a point where I can do 100 push-ups in one go. Adding this to yet another life goal. Lol!

E/ Google IO / io
I saw the keynotes from Google IO. Loved that I am almost at the peak of my life at this time and I get to live and do great things.

I also saw the announcement by Sam and Jony about Open AI and io. And I want to scream in the void. There’s so much to do in life and we are fighting over religion. Sigh.

Thing is, when I saw the video, epiphany dawned onto me that they are actually talking about building things that will impact the way the world lives and works. Lemme give an example. When Apple made the iPhone with a touchscreen, I am sure they weren’t the first ones to make a phone with a touchscreen. But they definitely were the ones to show people what they wanted and marketed that well. To a point that people started to demand that. And other companies had to innovate to stay relevant. And that pursuit of relevance made these companies chase innovation and that chase of innovation gave a larger mass actual access to a better life.

Same thing with Tesla. Tesla wasn’t the first one to make electric cars but the marketing and communication around it made the entire world open up to the ideas of electric cars. And that forced every other car manufacturer to chase it. And that made the dream the reality.

So, that is the kind of impact that you need to have rather than doing delivery of groceries in 10 minutes. You build something that shifts how people live and operate. And then you talk about it. And then you enable. That’s something I want to work on!

Oh, and while I do that, I want to make money. To be able to do more things!

Makes sense?

F/ Mr Beast at a Billion Dollars
This seems to have not got its due because of all the other news from the last week (AI, Cannes etc). The fact that one-person from a non-celebrity, non-sports background is a billionaire is a remarkable thing. This gives me a lot of hope!

G/ Madhushala by Harivansh Rai Bachcchan
One of my favorite poems of all times. I dont know why am talking about them here but I listen to these often.

मेरे शव पर वह रोये, हो जिसके आंसू में हाला
आह भरे वो, जो हो सुरिभत मदिरा पी कर मतवाला,
दे मुझको वो कान्धा जिनके पग मद डगमग होते हों
और जलूं उस ठौर जहां पर कभी रही हो मधुशाला।।८३।

और चिता पर जाये उंढेला पात्र न घ्रित का, पर प्याला
कंठ बंधे अंगूर लता में मध्य न जल हो, पर हाला,
प्राण प्रिये यदि श्राध करो तुम मेरा तो ऐसे करना
पीने वालों को बुलवा कऱ खुलवा देना मधुशाला।।८४।

Also, related, see, these lines from Zakir. I dont want no one to come when I die (I want to die alone – caretakers of my will, please take note) but these lines ring home.

H/ Cheerleader of action
I was talking to someone the other day and I happened to mention that I am the biggest cheerleader of action. Lemme elaborate.

So there are people say they will do things and they’ve been saying it for 100 years. And then there are some people who actually do things. They move forward. Even if its an inch at a time.

I have this solid belief that I ought to support the ones who actually do things.

Often you would find people who fake and all that. But their actions show their true intent. You know, words > action and if you have to make a mistake, I love folks who err on the side of action.

Oh, this also correlates to that adage – “God helps those who help themselves”.

This tenet seems to have percolated in each thing I do and each action I’ve taken. I want to mention Roohi here. The kid has the tenacity of a warrior. She is taking action all the time!

Phew!

I/ Issac John of Ivory
Got connected to Issac John. He’s one of the founders at Ivory. The chat with him was one of the most hearywarming and interesting ever. I wish I am like him when I grow up.

J/ Baarish is here!
Yay!

K/ Khosla Ka Ghosla (and films)
Lemme talk about this in a tad more detail.

In the week gone by, I spent some time thinking about the medium of films. And I realised that we need to be a player in that.

Plus, I saw Khoslsa Ka Ghosla on Saturday at Balram‘s Secret Cinema Screenings. Revisited the ride of emotions that I get each time I see it. Made me reflect on a lot of things. Here are some…

Watching films is a communal experience that I am not sure I get the value of. In fact, I dont get the value of watching anything when you are in a group. No films. No sports. Nothing. And I know I am wrong. Because nations have been built, battles have been fought, planets have been conquered on the back these communal experiences. People meet ideas as these experience. People meet people. And most importantly, people meet inspiration. And these experience, people and inspiration makes people create magic. 

Coming to me, I am not fan of these. Simply because I am not the consuming kinds. Not passively. I want to be an active player in the dance of the universe around me. I want to not just have the front row seat, but actually build that seat! 

Ok, I am getting into the rant zone. Will skip.

Oh, I did meet Balram to talk about films and all that. Was a very very interesting meeting. Let’s see where it goes. Wish I was like him! I wont say more here.

L/ Saw a Working Man, A Jason Statham Film.
I love him!
I ended up seeing 2 films in the week!
Must fix this.

M/ Mario
Been watching Mario run videos on YT. And its the most therapeutic thing ever. Here is one for your viewing pleasure.

So that was from the week!
Phew!

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from week 21.

I quite like some of the photos that have some lessons. I wish I could upload those here.

And no, this does not have my photos 😉

🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by? And the next week!

Book 2
No update. Again, please stay patient. I shall get back to this soon.

PS: Dropped 2025 Plan a few weeks ago.

☑️ What did I get done this week?

I will give 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.

At this point, the following things are important to me (I know too many but…) and these are IN ORDER.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health. Didnt sleep well most of this week. Ate a lot of food that I shouldnt (not calling it Kachra, thanks J). Did a few pushups but that was that. A solid -1. Lol!

On this, addendum. When people realise that I am not well (when they see my tweets etc), they reach out to ask me how am doing. And I dont know how to reply to them. It gets awkward. Maybe going forward, I will not update my health conversations on public forums?

Meru. Was an ok week. Met a few people. Moved the needle. But still far from where I’d like to be. A 0.

C4E. Better than the last week. Cash flow remains a problem. This output for Foxo is kickass. I dont want to say -1. And I dont want to say +1. So a 0.

Brand SG. No action on this either. But some action. So a 0.

People. No action on this. I’d say 0.

Book 2. Lol!
-1

Shauk. Saw a couple of films. Met some new people. Not the best. But will have it 0.

So the overall score is -3 for this week.

Trends from the previous weeks: 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.

📊 The tracker from the last week

Looked at all the days I’ve missed 🙁

Must fix.

📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

I didnt read as much during the week. But I used my downtime to get some reading done. Here are some…

  1. Pritesh Jain’s Blog (on Punit’s Recommendation)
  2. This post by Balram
  3. PG’s new essay on good writing
  4. This tweet from Dharmesh Ba.
  5. This tweet from Hemant about taste, instinct and risks. Do read.
  6. Rick Rubin on The Way of Code. Probably the most impactful thing I read in the last week. This deserves a long discussion. I dont know when.
  7. This essay about Sarvam.

🧠 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.

Here are things from the past few weeks that I want to remember. And no, this may not be a comprehensive list. In categories.

  1. Long term
    • Professional pool / snooker / poker – no action. I dont think this would see any action anytime soon.
  2. Health
    • Kitchen setup (incomplete)
    • Gym membership (incomplete)
  3. C4E things (I will stop tracking these things and have C do these)
    • C4E Base
    • Design
    • Borderless agency
    • Adding films
  4. Shauk / Personal
    • Use of money to buy time – doing this already.
    • Better dressed – lol
    • Find love – lol!
    • Demand more from life
    • Speak better!

In case you know me, lemme know if I have missed something.

🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Busy for nothing.
I was busy for nothing. I had family over and thus I was busy for nothing specific.

Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

—
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

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.

PPPPPS: I “wrote” some part of this post using voice to text. Can yout spot what part?

Wk 20-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes, thoughts, reflections and everything else from Week 20 of 2025.

Adding additional content (Saurabh Garg) for SEO ;P

May 18
6:34 AM

I started writing this yesterday at a Starbucks and then life happened and I moved along. And then I am back in the morning today to get this done. Oh, and I am listening to this as I write this.

Let’s go!

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

A/ TDL Accountabiltiy Group
I have joined a WA group of some folks who post their daily todo list. And then at the end of the day, check on things they’ve done. I am starting it today. Made my list. And let’s see where it goes.

Here’s the list from day 1…

B/ Lessons from Hareesh Tibrewala
I will make a seperate page on this, tbh. I get to learn so much from him that I curse myself for not being with him sooner.

Here are some lessons from this week alone…

  1. Any team member, how so ever bad their sitaution be, if they dont contrinbute to the team, they are better removed. Of course you must have empathy and support and everything else. But you need to think team first. This also echos with the idea people vs people people thing that I read elsewhere. Also, see point C.
  2. Ask for accountability. As a leader of a team, my only job is to ask for accountabilility. Everything else follows from there on. All you need to is ask “what” and “why” and enable your people to deliver on those.
  3. Stop sharam. He asked us to focus on the outcome and leave behind the sharam and all that. This also coupled with this video from Gary Vee. Must be more shameless when seeking work. In fact this is one of those earliest things that Suvi taught me – never ask for work from friends and family. And I will have to unlearn it. I will have to learn the skill to seek work. One life, man!

C/ Idea People vs People People
This is the biggest lesson from the week gone by. And thanks to Thej for sharing this link. While the context and meaning is tad different in this piece, I am taking away something else altoghter. Which is as follows.

I know that the world is a tansient place. This too shall pass. And I know that in grand scheme of things, all pursuits are purposeless and with our lifespans in double-digits, whatever we may do, as a collective, will all not amount to much. You know, Pale Blue Dot.

At the same time, I also know that the journey is all we have (thanks, Naval). I thus try to invest all my time, attention and energy in to being present in the phase of journey I am in.

Wait, I am rambled.

The point is, I can either work towards caring for people or for caring for ideas. All my life, I have cared for people, at the risk of reputation, work, money etc. However after I read the post, I have made this mental switch where I will focus on ideas. No, I will not stop caring for people. But I will become a lot more ideas oriented.

D/ Start with Hi
This is the greatest life hack in the world.

All the things you ever want and ever seek are on the other side of a simple hi. If you make a goal to say hi to 10 strnagers everyday, you would be unbeatable. Reminds me of this talk by Jia Jiang.

Thanks to AD for this.

E/ Reflections from a Life Coaching Call
A person from MDI is taking up coaching as a profession. She wanted to complete her hours and to help her, I spoke to her.

While I spoke, a lot of things came out. I am listing those here.

  1. I am in flux. A lot is changing about me – work, age, emotions etc etc
  2. Deep down, I have become a stoic. Mostly. I still have a long way to go.
  3. I am not motivated by money or anything. But by access.
  4. In life, most things happen in tandem. If I am doing well at one part of life, I am doing ok at most parts.

F/ 15504 Steps
I made a bet that I will average 12K steps per day in 2025. As of today (day 137), I have averaged about 7500 steps per day. And if I have to get to an average of 12K, I need to do 15504 everyday for the rest of 228 days of the year.

Looks tough. But I know that we would hit the baarish mausam soon and I am hopeful that would help.

G/ I need a faster laptop
Even though this is a “new” machine (I use a M1 that got for a colleague and I took it from her when she moved on), it has started to give me trouble.

H/ Toughest thing first
I was talking to C abotu something yesterday. I told her that if you have a task list, start with the toughest one (not the longest one). The one that you are dreading the most. Do it. And the dopamine you get from that, take it to the second toughest. And so on and so forth.

I/ 5 pushups
Inspired by Shruti, I did 5 pushups today! If I can do this for a week, I will get into the habit. Someone inspire me!

In fact, I will stay on this thread. This week, I was talking to Mihir about how we need to change our identity as that of a “healthy person” and then build a life around it. And then I reaslied that it may be easier said than done.

I am gonna make tiny changes in the way I operate. And that means I will not eat anything crappy and I will walk (lol) and I will be more disciplined with food and I…

Lol!

J/ Parallels between C4E and CS
Yesterday, I recorded a solocast and I drew parallels between CS and C4E. Ambition, Aim, Resources, Team, Strategy, Execution and all that. And I realisesd that sports team, armies, event teams etc etc can become very effective tools to deliver lessons to people.

K/ Excuse as a roadblock 
One of the biggest lessons I “gave” out to NG and VM is that they need to stop hiding behind an excuse.

Heres the back story…

I gave them a small project to work on, and when they were working on it, they came back to me saying they didn’t have the footage for that product. They told me this after 3 days, and it took me 3 days to know that the project is not moving forward.

Essentially, they were hiding behind an excuse to get their work done. Which is not something that we can live with because we are a small company. In life, I think we could either have excuses or progress.

L/ C4E – Past.
While wandering thru Roam, was looking at my notes and spotted this email I wrote to a friend in 2017 about how I look at C4E as a business. As of today, 8, 9 years have since passed and nothing seems to have changed. Except that we are no longer an events agency. And that’s a good thing and a bad thing! Anyhow, in case you want to read, ask for access. 

M/ Here are other things that dont fall in any category.

  1. I am still looking for someone to join me at Meru. See this post. And this one.
  2. The time has come for the kids to go back. I hope they learnt a few things while they were here.
  3. I want to start some mini-IPs that are clones of Sofar Sounds, TED talks, My Next Guest etc.
  4. I am mindfucked with all the garmi all around me and I dont know what do about it.
  5. I see the importance of having a large group of friends – at work and elsewhere. I’ve been shy about it and I want to get good at it. If you are reading this, how do you make new friends? Especially when you are in early 40s.
  6. I want to get memberships at all exclusive and boujee places like Soho, MCA, Quorum etc. I dont know if I will even go to these places but I want to have the option of going!
  7. Made a tiny investment (~1 lakh) in a friend’s startup. Its a tiny number but this is my attempt to show my confidence in the friend.

So that was from the week!
Phew!

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from the week 20.

I thought I had clicked a lot more. But clearly I was wrong.

🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by? And the next week!

2025 Plan and Book 2

I have dropped the plan.

On book2, despite multiple attempts, I’ve not been able to make any progress. And no, I dont want to let go of that. If you are reading this, please stay patient. Let’s see when I am back.

☑️ What did I get done this week?

I will give 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.

At this point, the following things are important to me (I know too many but…) and these are IN ORDER.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health. I’d say I would give myself a 0. I didnt work out but I was mindful of what I ate. The week saw me struggle with garmi but I think I was ok more or less.
So, 0.

Meru. Not so good week. I moved things but I am not happy with the progress. Two critical tasks that I had to do – website and hiring – are open. And that means this was a step back. I will give myself a -1.
So, a -1.

C4E. No action from me. In fact, I saw the team struggling in my absence. C is doing what she can but we are not moving. So another -1.
So, a -1

Brand SG. No action on this either. But some action. So a 0.
0.

People. No action on this. Last week I had a lot of friends and family. This week nothing.
So, a 1

Book 2. Sigh!
-1

Shauk. 0 action. And thus a -1.
So, -1

So the overall score is 0 for this week.

Trends from the previous weeks: -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.

📊 The tracker from the last week

Tracked most days! So that’s a win. Here’s the tracker…

Lemme know what you see.

📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

I spent a lot of time reading and reflecting. In fact, I would say that this was a good week when it comes to reading. Here are some pieces…

  1. Utsav on Taste. Link.
  2. Vivek and Molly on People over Ideas.
  3. This conversation between Jony Ive and Collision.
  4. Seth on systems.
  5. The “other” Saurabh Garg on How to Start a Startup.
  6. This post on X that talks about how Qatar happened to become what it has become.
  7. Someone compiled Kunal Shah’s content. Here’s the list. Since this is a compilation, this will not attract as much attention as a scarce piece would. Go figure why!
  8. This thread (old but worth it’s weight).

I had thought I would have more than 8 things to share!

🧠 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.

Here are things from the past few weeks that I want to remember. And no, this may not be a comprehensive list. In categories.

  1. Long term
    • Professional pool / snooker / poker – no action.
  2. Health
    • Kitchen setup (incomplete)
    • Gym membership (incomplete)
  3. C4E things (I will stop tracking these things and have C do these)
    • C4E Base
    • Design
    • Borderless agency
    • Adding films
  4. Shauk / Personal
    • Use of money to buy time – on this!
    • Better dressed – lol
    • Find love – lol!
    • Demand more from life
    • Speak better!

In case you know me, lemme know if I have missed something.

🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Regular.
It was a regular week with regular work and regular things and regular inputs and outputs.

Oh and in the previous weeks, it’s been Getting back to action. Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

—
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

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.

Wk 19-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes, thoughts and reflections from the 19th week of 2025.

5:40 AM, May the 13th.
Tuesday. This is that weekly review that never went out.

If not for AA. Thanks, AA. I am grateful that I have folks like here that push me towards consistency.

Thing is, like most weeks, I started writing this on a Saturday, I wrote some and then I thought I would write the rest on a Sunday. And then I had to spend the day with someone, solving their crisis and Sunday went in a jiffy. I then pushed this for a Monday morning. But then that never happened. Cos Monday Monday’d with a million calls.

But here I am.
With the review.
Lets see where we go.

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

1/ Looking for an EA / Helper / Business Analyst / Whatever you may want to call it.
At Meru, I am looking for someone to work very closely with me and make things happen. At C4E, many people have played that role – from SJ2 to SJ to CM to AK to Bri and many more in the middle. Each of these people has hopefully learnt a lot from me. In exchange, I paid them whatever I could. And then I took their help in getting things done.

At Meru, I need someone like that. I would like to run faster and thus I need this person. If you know someone who’s ok with an 8 lakh kind of CTC, is in Mumbai and is willing to wrk with me closely, please recommend.

Do read this post as well.

PS: While UTMs are great for marketers, I hate them!

2/ The India-Pakistan War
I wish I had more time to write on this. But I have to write this…

In one line, despite WHATEVER happens, am not on the side of war. Or on the side of nationalist boundaries. I know a lot of close friends and connections are cheering and rooting for military action that India took. I know there are rational reasons for that. I know we shouldn’t be aggressed up on. I know innocent lives were lost and they have to be avenged. I know I am a great fan of Mahabharata, that literally is about the greatest war of all times.

I also know that I am not the greatest fan of MK and yet I love his lesson on non-violence.

And yet I am not for war.

I wish I had the words to talk about why the war is a bad idea for everyone, everything. I wish more folks exercised restraint. I wish there was dialogue.

I would park this by sharing this.

3/ Kids in Mumbai
NG and VM are here for a few days. Krishna was here for a couple of days. And I am trying to spend time with them. And as a result, I am wasting time. I am being irregular with my updates. I am spending more time outdoors. I am not doing these reviews. I am scrambling at the last minute to get things done.

I need to learn how to manage time better.

The other good thing that am loving is that I have two young boys willing to listen to me. Wait, I have an idea! How about I give them my letters and have them discuss?

Point aside, I need to find a way to become better with my time.

3.1/ Hosted a Mini CSS
While people were / are here, AK hosted an evening full of music and conversations.

I have two videos from there. I am not uploading them here. But I am willing to share with whoever asks. Here’s the link.

4/ Voice Training
I talked about how I want to be better spoken. I chatted with Riya. And now, I have got Sonu Sir to give me some homework. And it’s similar to what Riya told me. And I know that I wont be able to do it. Sigh!

Apart from this, I saw a DastanGoi performance by Sikander Khan. It was good and could’ve been better. I am super inspired to do more to support more artists.

5/ Got Paras Chopra’s Book
Yet to read it fully but love his work and I am excited that he’s poured his ideas in a book. Also see this deck.

If you point out three mistakes in this post, I will gift you a copy ;P

6/ “The world was made by people who gave a shit”
I dont know where I read this first (I suspect, some tweet by Toby) but I have been thinking a lot about this. At work. At personal life. At everything else. I really want to be the person who gives a shit.

Contrast this to how we are trained and taught at India. Jugaad. Chalta hai. Need to fix this!

Next time you see me saying “koi baat nahi”, please tell me about it and I will fix it.

7/ Antler Next 100
Like I spoke last week, Antler released their Next 100 report. We at C4E got together and chatted on it. Lots of lessons for me. Need to convert those into action. AK, if you are reading this – do your thing.

8/ AI Experiments
I have been thinking if I should go do somethings with AI by myself. In the last few years I have not done anything by myself. I have only got things done. Which has served me well, TBH. I learnt the art of delegating, I groomed some folks and overall we are at a net positive.

However with AI, I have this FOMO like I had with Crypto and Web 3. So, I want to give in and do something by myself. Just that I dont know if I have the time to do this. I mean there are more urgent battles to fight – Meru, C4E. And there are other Shauqs (of book2, poker, pool, films etc.).

Or may be I can take one of the battles and use AI to ship something?

TBH, I dont know what I would do. Let’s see.

9/ Brain Games
I’ve been playing Peak, Lumosity and Elevate lately.

I dont know if these make a difference to anyone’s life but I do play these. I like the idea of challenging myself.

I used to play these long ago and it’s interesting to see that I am not doing as well as I did 3-4 years ago. Maybe I will get used to those games and become better? Or maybe these games actually work? Who knows!

Anyone has any experience here?

10/ Clean My Notes
I take a lot of notes. And in the last 2-3 weeks I have not organized those. I need to work on that. So I will do a time block and do that. #sgtodo

So that was from the week!
Phew!

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from the week gone by.

I loved that I was at the beach almost everyday this past week!

🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by? And the next week!

2025 Plan and Book 2

Both haven’t happened. I will drop the 2025 plan.

On book 2, I have hit a random roadblock. I will unclog it. You will hear about the next steps on the update for Week 20.

☑️ What did I get done this week?

I will give 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.

At this point, the following things are important to me (I know too many but…) and these are IN ORDER.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health. Last week was a tad better. I ate better. I still need to go to a skin doctor and the Foxo thing. But I was better. I will give myself a 0.
So, 0 there.

Meru. Good week. My co-founder was traveling and I had the baton. I think we moved the needle on most things. So that’s cool. A 0, tbh. I will give a 1 when we see progress.
So, a 1.

C4E. Some action. Again, I dont want to track this. Letting C handle the kitchen.
So, a 0.

Brand SG. AK has been releasing some of our conversations. I am sure it’s helping in some way. So, this is not really -1 this week. And no, it’s not even a +1 either. So, 0.
0.

People. I think +1. I was surrounded by friends and strangers and love and inspiration and all that.
So, a 1

Book 2. No action. For almost a month now!
-1

Shauk. Apart from mini CSS, no action on this. I didnt play pool, I didnt play poker. I didnt travel. Etc etc.
So, -1

So the overall score is 0 for this week.

Trends from the previous weeks: -4, -5, -5, -3, -2, -1
The max I can get is 7 in a week. Let’s see when I get to it.

📊 The tracker from the last week

I havent been filling the tracker properly.

Nevertheless, here’s it.

Lemme know what you see.

📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

I didn’t have a lot of time to read or reflect in the last week. But of the few things I read, here are some links…

  1. Paras Chopra’s slide deck. Link
  2. Shaan VP on Taste. Link. Staying on taste, I have bookmarked this by Utsav but yet to read. Taste has infact become a recurring conversation in my head.
  3. Shaan VP on Creativity. Link
  4. AK on her graduation. Link

I know I should read more, reflect more and write more!

🧠 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.

Here are things from the past few weeks that I want to remember. And no, this may not be a comprehensive list. In categories.

  1. Long term
    • Professional pool / snooker / poker – no action.
  2. Health
    • Kitchen setup (incomplete)
    • Gym membership (incomplete)
  3. C4E things (I will stop tracking these things and have C do these)
    • C4E Base
    • Design
    • Borderless agency
  4. Shauk / Personal
    • Better dressed – lol
    • Use of money to buy time – on this!
    • Find love – lol!
    • Demand more from life
    • Adding this – speak better!

In case you know me, lemme know if I have missed something.

🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Slack.
I am taking it easy. I need to do more. I need to remind myself that the day I dont work, I dont eat that day. Need someone or something to push me more to make me work harder and smarter. I am merely leaning on my people and I know they are working for themselves and at best, for us. But not for me. So I need to move my ass.

Come on, universe.

Oh and in the previous weeks, it’s been Getting back to action. Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

—
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

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.

PPPPS: I had almost skipped this. But thanks to AA, I wrote this. I am glad. I need more cheerleaders like her in my life. Will try and find them!

Wk 18-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes, thoughts and reflections from the 18th week of 2025.

9:38 AM,
May 3,
Starbucks, Versova

I am back to my spot at Starbucks. Most days I get this, cos I come at 8 AM. Listening to this as I write this. The one before this was this.

So, lets get going with it.

Before anything, a couple of things.

After I wrote the 16th week note, some people (notably, Pavithra) mentioned that they like that version compared to the structured one that I’ve been writing over the last few weeks.

Second, I want to retain the review. As much is this note for the world, it’s for me as well. So that.

So, this week on, I will do the unfiltered, stream of conscious thoughts first and then the review. Lemme know what you think.

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

A/ Travel
Each time I go out to travel, I sort of get derailed. This is the reason why I decided that I will not travel at whims this year.

However, the moh of meeting M got the better of me (btw, it was her birthday on the 2nd). And even though I was with her for a week or so, after the trip, I have gone rogue. I am not working as much. I am not eating well. I am not keeping a schedule. I am not tracking things as well.

But then, I love being on the road.

So, I will have to find a way to manage work and travel. In fact as we go along and Meru picks speed, time will become even more critical. And that means I will have to find a balance.

Lets see how I do this.

B/ Snooker / Pool
The biggest epiphany of the week gone by was that I realized I could still play a sport at professional level. I just need to find a way and structure it.

For the uninitiated, one of the oldest secret dreams of mine has to been to play some sport at a professional level. And the other, win the WSOP ME.

So this epiphany gives me a hope that I could get to both those! Just that I wont be able to pick this up for some years, to be honest. At this time, the priority is something else. But I will keep this “dream” alive and get back to it.

Oh, reminds me – my Everest dream and billion dollars dream. Sigh!

C/ Course on Camera
I finally recorded a course on camera. For Meru.

I don’t like it, to be honest. I hate seeing myself on camera or on a screen. And I hate that you charge to give the gift of your knowledge.

But I know its important. And needed. And it will help people. Plus its for a larger cause. So that.

And now that I have broken my course virginity, I need to get better at it. I even reached out to Riya to help me better with my voice. She told that I will have to invest 30 odd minutes everyday. I know it will be tough. I will anyway try and get better at it.

If you’ve seen me on camera, please do give me feedback on how I can improve.

D/ Diet Coke!
I restarted with Diet Coke. And, I LOVE IT!

I had some Coke Zero at BKK but I didnt like it at all. This one, I love!

Since I restarted, I am averaging more than 4 a day. I know its a lot. I will bring it down to more acceptable levels. Let’s see when and how.

PS: This is temporary. I will quit it again. On June 1. Marking on my calendar.

E/ Weekly chat with my people
Instituted a weekly chat thing with my people where I will try and be a more active participant in their lives.

For me, most of these people are work people. I tried to do this with friends (stole this idea from Hareesh Sir) but none of my friends showed any interest.

PS: I know that most people like solid boundaries between work and personal life. I dont. And I know some of my people at work may want these boundaries. And I am ok.

F/ Shilpa Desai
Met Shilpa for a brunch.
And realized that I need to invest as much as I can in finding more incredible people like her that I can be around.

The intent with these is to learn from them.

While a meeting may not give me deep insights about work and life and all that, the way they conduct themselves teaches a lot. For example, Shilpa is ALWAYS ahead of time. She doesnt touch her phone when she’s with anyone. She doesnt take notes per se but she remember things.

So that. If I ever get to work on Party of 9, I will want her on the first one.

G/ SO
Made some progress on this.
Early days.
Lets see where this goes.

H/ Twitter
Ever since I took it “pro” only, my frequency of tweets has gone down.

Not a good thing. Twitter has been my number 1 expression medium and goto place for a long time now. I’ve met some of my closest friends there (Hello, Krishna)! And I dont like that my usage of it has reduced.

I will try and fix it.

Thing is, its tough for me to filter out my stream of thoughts. And thus when I publish on twitter now, am thinking about what to write. And by the time, I’ve thought of it, the moment is gone!

I/ Language
I have promised Seema (from Starbucks) that I will work on improving my language.

Blame it on my background in events and growing up in Jamna Paar, I use very rough language and I use a lot of cuss words and I want to change that. No, no one minds in this day and age. But I want to practice self-control.

The promise is that I will only use that language that I can use in front of my parents.

Next time you see me use coarse language, please point out.

J/ Water Fast for 48 hours
I am writing this on a Saturday. My plan is to only have water, coffee or Diet Coke today and tomorrow. Or maybe Kombucha. Let’s see how this goes.

Update from Sunday. I couldn’t do this on Saturday. Will try on Sunday (today). It’s 8:35 AM and I am yet to eat anything. I am sipping on to coffee with butter.

K/ Naptick
This is the labour of love of two people who I REALLY care for.
V is one.
The other is in stealth.

I’ve known about this since the idea came into being. And now they seem to be ready to ship to the world. And that’s incredible! Love when people I love do great things!

PS: On this, C4E was an early partner to the team. A large part of work was done by Pavithra and team at CoLab.

L/ Read Antler’s Next 100 Report
Got a lot of ideas.
Made my people read it.
Got them to spot ideas.
Will jam with them and see how it can help them.

M/ House
I think I am done with the current place I live at. Multiple reasons. The biggest one being unreasonable neighbors. My landlord is brilliant but the neighbors, meh!

I need to find a new one.
And I need to also figure the money situation for that. So that.

Related: I have some stress on the money front. The thing is, for the last 10 years, I have not been able to get out of this funk. And I dont know what to do. I will not lie here, it does take a toll. However I think I am lucky that I can manage. As Vanita says, I am a survivor. More on private notes.

N/ The Psychology of Human Misjudgment
This talk by Charlie is among the best that I’ve ever seen.

I want to initiate a project C4E has rolled out a project where we invite someone to build this into a video (using AI tools) that is palatable for young people, in India.

C posted about this on linkedIn.
Any of you wants to take a shot?

O/ C4E started a new project with AD
AD and I have been partners at Podium. And when we decided that we want to not continue with it, we parted ways.

Ofc, we remained friends. If nothing, the friendship grew stronger!

So, when he came to me a few days ago seeking help for a project around personal branding, I had to jump in! Put him in touch with C and FV for it. Hope it works out!

That’s about it from the week.

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from the week gone by.

Lemme know which ones do you like.

🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by? And the next week!

2025 Plan and Book 2

Both seemed to have been derailed.

And I concede. I accept that I will probably skip plan for 2025.

I will however restart book2.
I will use Miro and a wall of my house to get it done.
Next week, you will see some action.
If you don’t, PLEASE hold me accountable.
cc Pradeep 😀

☑️ What did I get done this week?

I will give 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.

At this point, the following things are important to me (I know too many but…) and these are IN ORDER.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health. It has been a terrible few days with health. I will fix it from here on. Today’s fast could be the starting point.
So, -1 there.

Meru. Made some good progress, to be honest. I am not entirely happy but I like where we are. So thats good. However I will still give myself a 0.
So, a 0.

C4E. No action. In fact, I may stop tracking this altogether in a few weeks.
So, a 0.

Brand SG. No action on this either. I did record some podcasts with AK, but I am nowhere close to where I want to be. So, I will continue to be harsh on myself and give myself a -1.
-1.

People. I am tempted to give myself a +1 for choosing M and fam over work and other things. But I dont want to be “kissi ke itne pass” that I forget others. I can also give another +1 for burying an old hatchet. But again, I will be harsh.
So, a 0

Book 2. No action. For almost a month now. 🙁
-1

Shauk. No large action here either.
So, -1

So the overall score is -4 for this week.

Trends from the previous weeks: -5, -5, -3, -2, -1
The max I can get is 7 in a week. Let’s see when I get to it.

📊 The tracker from the last week

I havent been filling the tracker.
I got back to it properly on 1 May.
It wont have a lot but here’s a screenshot.

Please tell me what you notice.

Oh, I’ve made it private.
Why?
Well, I have started to add more context to it that I may not want to share in public. If you still want access to it, please let me know.

📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

I didn’t have a lot of time to read or reflect in the last week. So I will skip this.

🧠 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.

Here are things from the past few weeks that I want to remember. And no, this may not be a comprehensive list. In categories.

  1. Long term
    • Professional pool / snooker / poker
  2. Health
    • Kitchen setup (incomplete)
    • Gym membership (incomplete)
  3. C4E things (I will stop tracking these things and have C do these)
    • C4E Base
    • Design
    • Borderless agency
  4. Shauk / Personal
    • Better dressed
    • Use of money to buy time
    • Find love
    • Demand more from life

In case you know me, lemme know if I have missed something.

🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Getting back to action.

Like I said, each time I travel, I go down the slope of inaction. I am trying to get back to action.

In the previous weeks, it’s been Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

—

Phew!
I missed last week and it’s good to have written this.
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)

Wk 16-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes, thoughts and reflections from the 16th week of 2025.

Wrote this on my way from BKK to BOM. On board 6E1052.

This is the weekly review, after about 10 days. I missed the last week cos I was on the road. I could’ve written, to be honest, but I didn’t want to. Call it my laziness or procrastination but I did not write, even though I could have squeezed time to do so.

I was gonna miss this week too, cos, well, travelling again. But then I didn’t want to miss it two times in a row and thus here’s a note. 

And no, this will not follow the regular review template that I had come to appreciate and build over the last few weeks. I can use that but I wanted to get back to freeform writing without any plan or thought and dump things! 

So, over the last few days (since the 13th), I’ve read nothing, written nothing, saw no TED talks (not even Naval’s podcast). I worked very little (like 4 hours, maybe in the last week), slept little, and walked a bit (I averaged 10K steps (less than 13K planned). Oh, I ate a lot, and realised some things while I was at it. And I will talk about those here. 

Let’s go!

A/ Am still a boy who loves boy games (like pool, poker etc.) and am not even good at it. 

This epiphany happened to me while I was playing pool with VG at a posh-ish watering hole (The Sitting Room, or The Corner Cafe or something). 

It was late in the evening and patrons were having their beers and chatting and all that. I was playing pool and out of nowhere, it dawned onto me that I love these boy games – you know, Poker, Pool, Counter Strike and all that. And no, I am not good at any of those. I am just about average on my best day and subpar on most. And yet I love those games. Am far from Dude Perfect but I would love to be one of those boys. Maybe I’d pick one of these things and go all-in on that? Maybe Poker? It has revenue opportunity too, if I become better. Just that I don’t have the talent or the mental discipline to play like a pro or even a pro-am. The only way I would do well would be deliberate practice and that will need money and time. So, at this time, maybe not. Maybe when I am “retired” 😀

But the epiphany was helpful to have. I knew it deep down but it was good to see its surface. 

Oh, and no, I don’t like to watch sports. I am more interested in being an active participant. Maybe this is why folks invest in fantasy leagues? 

B/ Coke 

I had a LOT of Coke Zero.
Not Diet. Zero. 
And I didnt like it. But I had a lot of it, in absence of anything else. I could have had coconut water but you can only have so much of it. And I didnt want to have beer or anything alcoholic. 

BTW, this is worth mentioning because I hadn’t had a coke since Dec 2024. About 4 months. And I am the kind to shower in coke! 

And here’s my resolve. I will not have soda while I am in India. Lol. 

C/ I can’t take good photos. 

Here are some that I would like to flaunt. 

But I wish they were better. Maybe I need to hire someone to teach me how to take better photos. Or maybe I should find an editor and get that person to edit whatever I click. 

Any thoughts on this? 

D/ I need to work on my health.

I was at this market night with some 15 people and some kids. They took a photo of the group (I am not in it – I escaped ;)).

When I saw the photo, I realised that the only person closest to being healthy in that group was Vivek. And to be honest, he too needs some work around the edges. And it was scary and eye-opening. 

Not that the eye hasn’t opened in the past. Not that I haven’t had these health epiphanies. But the thing is, it’s high time. I am 42 and I can see old age screwing up with me. Plus, my skin seems to be giving in and I need to cure it, lest it fucks with my already tiny self esteem. So that. 

Oh, I spotted an incident in the flight and realised how inadequate we are to handle anything medical while in flight. So, I will also take a first aid course and carry the basics with me in the flight. #sgTodo

E/ The resolve to make more money is more stronger. 

Enough said. 

I need to do whatever I can to make money. Of course I want to stay within the boundaries of my ethos, values and principles.

I also need to work hard to get another passport. And I need to be able to have money in various countries. With Meru, this plan would probably get pushed by a few years but I have to find a way to live out of the country for a few years, if not for good. 

Oh, its funny that what I’ve wanted from life has not changed since I was a child – money, health, experiences etc etc 

F/ Was off Social Media 

I was only on email, slack and linkedin. And that too as less as I could. 

I was not on the news, twitter, instagram or anything else. I am glad to report that I was mostly successful at it.

To be honest, I did see some posts when some work required me to (but I was logged off). But that was that. I think that’s one #win from the trip. 

Now that I am gonna be back on social, I will make the shift and use it only for work. Made the announcement already. And I will not have social apps on my primary phone. I will get a new phone where I will have these apps. 

G/ Garmi

I just can’t do garmi. 

I can stay hungry. I can walk a lot. I can tolerate any shit you throw at me. But I can’t do garmi. I know this is a first world problem and I saw almost everyone be ok with the weather – from kids to oldies to everyone. But I wasn’t able to think straight most of the time. 

Made me think – how do I survive in Mumbai. The thing is, I don’t, on most days. Most times I am ranting about the heat and humidity. And then when I am not, I have spotted ACs and places that allow me AC. That reminds me, I need to talk to folks at Rentomojo to fix ACs at home. #todo

H/ Family thing 

I had a few chats at home and they weren’t the best. And I can see my parents sinking. And I don’t know the solution. I will probably move them to Mumbai or I will move to Delhi. Let’s see. 

It really sucks that you live all your life with your folks, see them as the source of strength that you take pride in, and then at a point in time, you are forced to accept that they will wither away. 

I know I can’t do anything about it. I know this is acceptance that we need in life. I know this too shall pass. 

Oh, coming to my life per se, I wouldn’t want to be seen as frail, unwell, drifting away to anyone. 

To be honest, no one cares. And anyway I don’t care about anyone but Sonali or Myra. I can hide myself from them. To be honest, even Myra wouldn’t care for that matter. Kids are a malleable bunch and they move on fast. Maybe some kids from Village would stay around. Maybe I would want them to stay around. But, again with them, my past has taught me that folks from work tend to move on faster than you imagine. I don’t want to keep repeating sorry tales of my experience with people but it’s something that I need to think about for sure. 

I/ Space

I’ve realised yet again that I need my personal space. I may not use it a lot but I love the idea of having space. I want to ensure that I have my bed, my room, my whatever at each place I go to. Something that only I have access to. Like a secret room or something 😀 

I don’t know why or how this want has happened to me. I didn’t grow up in a place with a lot of space. I’ve never had a fancy house (apart from that 2-year window when my income to mehangai ratio was tenable and that short window when I lived in Vivek’s house). Plus, most times I’ve travelled, I have had to share rooms. Plus, lately, I’ve had to give a lot to keep people from the village happy and close.

So, I don’t know how or where this want and need for space happened to me. 

Maybe worth meditating more over. 

But the point is, I like space. And I can’t do well when things are crowded. So, this rules out public transport (apart from flights (I am writing this from a cramped seat of a plane), hostels and other such things. 

More on this some other day. 

J/ When I travel… 

Continuing on the space thing, in this 7 day trip, I slept on 4 different beds. This means I have packed and unpacked at least 5 times. 

And I hate this feeling of being a nomad when I am on a chutti. I am a nomad enough in real life and I want to not have the same feeling when I am traveling for leisure.

Ofc, while I am travelling for work, I know I have to do this. But when I am on a chutti, I want to take it easy and not run by the clocks of hotel check-in and check-out.

Next time on, I will ensure that either I am on a road trip where I am living the camper life or I stay put in one hotel / location. 

I know this extreme thinking may not be ideal if I want to see the world (imagine going for a Euro Trip – covering 10 countries in 15 days). So, I am ok to miss on things. Fuck the FOMO! I will only do this pack-unpack-pack-move routine in rare conditions. 

Ofc, some people enjoy this moving around like a sport. I don’t. 

Ofc, this is a very first world issue. But I am now a first-world resident and I better live with the reality.

K/ People 

I love people. And I love to help them. I was telling Farheen that my love language is your success. Your = people I love. 

And I need to find a way to enable more people around me to do more. Maybe I should carve out time for specific things? Maybe break them into tiers and funnels. Lol. Will think more on this. 

Oh, I also removed a lot of people from calendars and other places where I tend to save things at. This means that I am removing some people from my life. 

L/ Bored of not working 

I think on the 5th day of the trip (friday I think), I was at a point where I was bored out of my wits of not working. And I craved to get back to work.

I don’t know how people tend to retire. Maybe they reach a point where they want to do something meaningful without the hassle that comes along with work. 

Would be useful to think about. Especially in wake of the Meru and H above. 

M/ Flight snafu

I am on a 5 hour flight and I think I need to fly better airlines. I miss Vistara 🙁 

I dont want to get into too many details but I was on a narrow body aircraft of a low-cost carrier (Indigo) for a 5-hour flight and it was hell. Passengers were rude, drunk, bickering over small things. Air Hostesses were inept at handling 180 people for 5 hours. Service was shit.

The person next to me complained of chest pain and he was visibly in distress. The air hostess gave her an apple and a paracetamol!

I mean, really?

What about talking to the captain to ground the aircraft? What about emergency landing? Someone’s life was at stake!

Anyhow. Not my monkey. Not my circus. And again, first-world problem ;p

N/ High-trust society 

I’ve spoken about this a lot in the past that once you eliminate reasons for mistrust, life becomes better. This has been a guiding philosophy lately. And I saw that in action in Bangkok. And in the flight (the snafu I mentioned above).

Once you are in a high-trust place, you automatically do more. You automatically start to do more things.

Oh, same with AC. If you are in a place with AC, your productivity goes up. Lol. 

I must build high-trust environments. And I know there would be some agents who would try to game these and it’s ok to build these despite this. You know, tax. But I will index on this. At least at C4E, we eliminated this challenge by overcommunicating and offering favorable payment terms to our collaborators (two sources of mistrust).

As I scale and do more, let’s see how I build this.

O/ Other things from my notes that I wanted to talk about 

  1. On the 15th of April, some years ago, I got myself sgElectra. Till a point in time, I celebrated the birthday with great fervor. But not anymore. 
  2. In continuation with J above, I have taken this note on my notes that “ 1/ Need to be less sore. There are many things to do as I look forward. The past is gone. And I need to move to the next”. On this, most times I am not sore, to be honest, but there are times when I feel I need to practise equanimity even more. 
  3. Parenting is not for me. I saw Shilpa in action and I realised that I am glad that I get to parent Myra and Mira from far!

I think this is it. I am sure there must be more notes. Maybe at a later time.

—

So, yeah.
This is it.

I am back to regular programming from tomorrow. And that means, more reviews.

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).

Wk 11-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes, highlights, thoughts and other things from the 11th week of 2025.

Morning!
Writing this on the 17th.
While it was a short week for the world (holi and all), I had a long one. I can blame it on work, friends, health and all that! And thus I am late by a day. It is 8 AM right now and I am taking off at 930. If I can publish it before that, great. If I can’t then the post will come towards the end of the day. Have a lot to do.

Nonetheless, let’s go!

🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by? And the next week!

There’s a slight change in this format from the past few weeks. I will now track this as one or two LARGE things that I want to do in a week. And my report on that. And then the next section where I will talk about what did I get done in the week.

A/ 2025 plan.
This remains open. I thought I would take a week off and do it. I did not. I continue to keep this open as a task.

So that.

In the coming week, I will…

1/ Carve out time for the 2025 plan.
I met Ashi, Shubhi and a few more friends from MDI on 16th Mar and my eyes have opened up to my foolishness with money. I need some discipline and that would be a large part of this.

2/ Get to the first draft of book 2.
I am at a place where I have enough material to convert my notes into a working draft. So that.

☑️ What did I get done this week?

I will give 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.

At this point, the following things are important to me (I know too many but…) and these are IN ORDER.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health – This was bad. I was unwell. I ate kachra. I didn’t sleep well. If I could give myself a -10. I would. In fact, this is the BIGGEST red flag. So, will work on that!
-1

Meru – Regular work. Nothing new. Worked hard. Long. Was fun. Need to hire a lot of people. If you know people, please do reach out.
I will give myself a 0 on it.

C4E – Did maintenance things. And trying to hand over things to C. Putting in place things for other parts of C4E. Nothing large to report. Nothing large done.
So, a 0.

Brand SG – Did nothing, even though this is an important one. I mean I did record a few podcasts but I haven’t done anything large. I didn’t even post things on LinkedIn. I didn’t connect with others.
– 1

People – Did a few things. But nothing large to be honest.
I will give a 0.

Book 2 – Wrote a lot. I am ok with the progress I made. Not happy. Not sad. Ok. most of it was done by Claude. But progress for sure.
I will give a +1

Shauk – Nothing on this.
So, another -1

So the overall score is -2 for this week.
Trends from the pevious weeks: -1

The max I can get is 7 in a week. Let’s see when I get to it.
Added this to my tracker too.

📊 The tracker from the last two weeks

Here’s the tracker.

Look at all that food I am having!

I am killing myself one bite at a time. I will fix this. I have promised Ashima that I will get a functioning kitchen. And thanks to Rohilla, I do have a viable cook. I just need to find the money that I need to spend.

My back-of-the-envelope math says that I will have to spend 48K per month on this. Here’s the calculation: Cook – 5K, Groceries – 10K, Supplements – 10K, Gym – 5K, Coach – 8k, Physio – 10K.

And this does not even include the one-time expense (gadgets, utensils, clothes etc). At this time, I don’t have this kind of money on me. Lemme see what can I cut back from my life and allocate to health.

One large decision that I can potentially take is that I can move to Thane or Vashi or whatever. But I refuse to be not at the epicentres. I even wrote last week about how you need to be in the epicentres of action.

The other decision I can take is to cut on Starbucks (I do spend about 30K on casual coffee and meetups). But then this is where I meet my people and other people. May be not.

Anyhow. This is not the place for taking decisions. I am merely dumping whats on my head. Oh, and I know that I am probably over-indexing on the spends. Most people probably manage it in FAR less. But, like I say, I am not a great money manager. Ok, moving on.

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos.

Not too many worth sharing. But some inspiring ones nonetheless. Do lemme know which one you thought was the best.

📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

This week was busy. I didn’t get a lot of reading done, tbh. However here are a few that I would love to share.

  • On assisted suicide. By Kahneman. THE Kahneman. Here.
  • On Network Effects. I read a few posts on the website. Start with this Masterclass. In fact, over the next few days, I will go down this Rabbit Hole and explore this as much as I can. If you are reading this, do read this and lets see how we can teach each other this. I would also like to see perspectives against this.
  • Charlie’s Psychology of Human Misjudgement. This one never gets old. I even told all my people to go read it. Thanks to Andrew for this 🙂

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

There’s a lot in this department to be honest. I may not be able to capture all of those here but I will try as much. Lessgoo…

A/ Health
I am not at an age where I am thinking a lot about mortality (funny I am writing this from a plane and I am worried if the plane goes down, what would happen to all things that I have thought about and planned in life), spirituality and other such things. And I am also thinking a lot about how do I become that person who is capable and able to lead others. And I thus need to be in the prime of my health, if not in other departments.

This is a classic “why” that I now have and thus I need to act on the how and the what.

Now, within this, I can control a few things (what I eat, when I sleep etc.) and there are a few that I cant control (diseases, acts of God, randomness). So rather than crying over what I cant control, I will try and optimise what I can, indeed control.

B/ Network School
Even since they talked about Network School, I have wanted to be there. Last week, I secured an “admission”.

My suspicion is that anyone and everyone is getting that. I would have loved to go (little steep for me at USD 1500 per month) but at this time, a lot’s happening and I don’t want to digress.

This is the classic case of wrong timing. If not for Meru, I would’ve gone for a month for sure.

C/ C4E Base / C4E House
I want to get C4E Base in various parts of the world where the entire C4E village can co-live and work on things that are important to them (these could be C4E or non C4E things).

Think of Hacker houses. But for folks from C4E. I know the current ownership structures in the country and the emotions attached by people on their houses makes it tough to create these houses. I will have to build some of these. Let’s see when I am able to do so.

These spaces would be co-work, co-live, co-create, co-perform and all that. These spaces would encourage others to drop in, others to feel at home, others to do whatever they wish to!

D/ Design
This continues to be my Achilles Heel and a want and a need since 2007 when Raj and Vikram first made me aware about power of great design in life and all that. And since I pivoted C4E to brand, I have continued to want a great design partner.

E/ Upwork.
Murtaza opened up my eyes to upwork. For some reason, I’ve always remained on the edge with upwork. I have had this bias that only the shit ones get their projects from upwork. But once Murtaza showed us the numbers, I realised how wrong I was!

I would like C to chase this. But from now on, I can only like. The decision is hers.

F/ Using money.
This could be a long one.

Lemme try to make a coherent narrative. I am a big fan of Paras Chopra. Not just cos he’s made a lot of money but also cos he seems to be giving in using it the right manner – building tools of public utility, offering grants to the deserving, building residencies, initiating moments etc etc.

Same for Andrew Wilkinson. He runs Tiny and he uses some of his money to build things. Same for Ray Dalio.

Now all these may be construed as cherry-picking but they are supporting people. And this is where my lesson is. Why cant I support people like that with my money? I mean I already do with SoG Grant (this year I’ve given up some 45K already but these have been to individuals and in most cases the beneficiaries get to work on a project or two). But can I do this in a way that it compounds and builds something AND someones?

No, I am not a philanthropist. I want to see a better world that M & m may get to inherit and I want to build that work. I want to happen to things. And thus I need to make money. Or may be raise some money. Let’s see what path I take. #sgtodo.

G/ A man who knows a man
Chota Anna (I can’t put his real name here) told me the other day that he’s a man who knows a man. I was instantly reminded of myself. I am also the man who’s knows a man. And I know more men who know other men. And ofc I am a people-connector. So, 2 + 2, I am in a great shape ;P

I want all my people to be this. I know I have a lot of introverts in my life. I know I have a lot of private people in my life. And I know that I merely am a platform for opportunity exchange. So, I need to become an even larger connector.

So that.

Oh, and Chota Anna has asked me for help with some films. I was sad for a minute that I no longer have access to TRS or PPP and I won’t be able to help him. But I will do whatever I can to help him. I can’t be too active, cos Meru, but I will do whatever I can.

More on this in the next few days.

H/ Book 2
This is going SURPRISINGLY better than what I had expected. Thanks to Claude. If there are no large surprises, I should be ready to ship the first draft by the end of this month! Yay!

I/ Love
I’ve been thinking about this lately. I realise that I am ready for this. And yet I don’t have the time. Anoush told me something like, I need to carve out time for love. I realized I don’t have it in me to do even that.

In fact, I realised that I am stuck in that dichotomy – on one side, I want to be detached from everything. On the other, I want to be around my people. But then it makes me think – what’s the point of this life anyway if you’ve spent it in chasing action and all that.

The spiritual in me has come to the conclusion that life is pointless in large scheme of things. But on a day-to-day basis, you need to be engaged (park it as i) and be useful (part this as ii). And while you are engaged and useful, you need to build.

i, You can choose to be engaged in tiny things (like gardening) or you could be engaged in send rockets to the moon (and trying to catch them back). You know that carrom scene from Munnabhai? The old man chose to be engaged in and invested in his game of carrom. We call this “matar” at C4E. All of us need to be engaged in some game of carrom, some matar. For me, it could be C4E. For someone, it could be their family. For some, it could be religion. But there has to be something that becomes your identity and you engaged, invested in it!

ii, You can choose to be useful to your family (make that your focal point). Or you can be useful to the world at large. If you are useful to the family, in all probability, the family will support you and take care of you in your old age. When you are doing it for “others”, you are left to fend for yourself. So, need to figure this.

So that.

I just realised, all these posts are actually great linkedin posts. And if not that, twitter content. And if not even that, a separate essay. When I write these on my weekly note, it gets lost in all the other brain dump. Will think on this. #sgtodo

J/ Demand more from life.
Demand better things (food, drinks, clothes), better service, better people etc. People may say these things don’t matter. They do. But as you demand these things – you MUST NOT be an asshole.

I have a friend – she seeks the best and she wants the world to bow down to her whims and she gets him way most of the times but she’s often an asshole about it. Funny thing is, this attitude of “world is out there to serve me” allows him to do well in life. I’ve often thought about being a bitch like that but I’ve realised that my values don’t permit me to be that.

But what I can do is, stop being a perpetual people pleaser. Instead of doing things to seek validation, please people, I must do things

In fact just yesterday, I took a hard call of not supporting a lady who needed a lakh or so to get out of domestic abuse. The old me would’ve instantly given her 10-15K. This is the number that I am willing to let go of without any remorse. But the new me (who wants to support only the ones who deserve support) has chosen to not do that.

Thanks, Adam Grant!

K/ Poker.
I will teach all my kids poker. It’s a great tool to help you grow. You learn about risk, arbitrage, people, decision making, emotions, maths, gut, small talk and all that.

I took a session for C the other day. I will do it for others. If you want to be a part of the lessons, DM me these magic words – “pocket me rocket hai”. The session is STRICTLY for the ones that DM me these words.

Oh, I am not good at it. May be I can invest time to become better. But then, does it add to my current life plans? Not really. So, I will merely teach :D.

L/ Other things that I want to capture but I may not spill too many words…

  1. Spillpot! I love when people ship projects. However broken they maybe. This is a good case in point.
  2. I am guilty of rotting on insta last few days. To be honest, all of it was with the motivation to get things done and learn more and all that. But I end up wasting time on it. I will limit my insta screen time to 10 mins in a day. I know this may not be enough to see, connect etc. But I will limit myself. Same for chess. Oh, I am not even good with chess!
  3. Super lesson from Hareesh Sir – “sheet banate jaaenge, cheez bhi to banani padegi”.
  4. Fam health scare. I will park it here. Nothing more, nothing less.
  5. Got myself a Gen-Z tee. I want to dress better. I am lazy and unplanned but I will fix it.
  6. I need to get myself sunglasses. I used to love them as an accessory at a point in time. And then I lost a couple of pairs in quick succession. And then I realized that the pairs I wanted were too expensive for me. And then I trained myself into thinking that I need to get Vitamin D. Lol. So, I will buy a pair.
  7. The way the captain speaks in the flight says a lot. Confident. Articulate. Polite. I must learn to be that. Wait. I have the word. Gravitas. That! In fact, I can relate the same to events. The way an event manager handles things when things go wrong, you realise their power!
  8. I am in Delhi for 3-4 days. I may stay longer if need be. This time I don’t plan to meet a lot of people. One of these that I will indeed meet is Farheen.

🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Looking up.

I think this is how I would summarise the last few days.

In the previous weeks, it’s been Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

—

Ok!
This is it for the week gone by. Late by a day. But it’s here. Yay!
Lemme know what you think.
See you around.

PPS: 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

Wk 10-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes from the 9th and the 10th week of 2025.

Hello hello!
I am back!
I missed week 9. I was unwell and thus I didn’t publish. I could have but it takes like a few hours of active thinking to get this going and I didn’t want to a shoddy job at it. No, I am not for perfection but I am definitely for putting in the effort and I know I was in no shape to put in the effort. So that.

The other thing, no one asked.
So much so for writing in public, and attempts to build an audience!

Anyhow. The point is, I am back to writing.

A lot seems to have happened in the last 2 weeks. And yet nothing seems to have moved. You know what I mean? Everything is happening at once and nothing is happening at all.

More in the next few paras…

🈺 What I was supposed to do in the week gone by. And my report on the same.

A/ 2025 plan.
This remains open. We are now officially in the third month of the year. I’ve never been this delayed with this plan. May be I will take a day off this week and do this?

B/ Health
I have a LOT to report in this department. I got myself kitchen things. After I think 7-8 years. The last time I had a semblance of a functioning kitchen was when Sonali and I lived together in Ghatkopar. Once she moved on, I haven’t had the kitchen things.

I am building it back. I don’t like it to be honest but I need to live long and be healthy while I live long.

I am also adding some more ingredients to what I eat – things like Protein, Oats, Almond Milk, Sattu, Turmeric, Chia Seeds, ACV etc. I’ve built a habit of blending a lot of these things in a grinder and eating / drinking what comes out of it.

Been doing it for 3 days now and so far it seems to be ok.

Oh, the trigger for this was the latest episode of food poisoning. I fell sick and missed a few events. And that’s when I decided I’ve had enough of this life. Oh, I have activated this channel where I will upload EACH thing that I eat. And do read this from my clone.

I just need to add a gym and workout and I think we would be ok.

☑️ What did I get done this week?

I will give 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.

At this point, the following things are important to me (I know too many but…) and these are IN ORDER.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health – Started to set up the kitchen. Will try and get a cook. And like I said, will add some workouts. I’ll give myself +1 on this.

Meru – This is new. I am adding this on top of C4E. At the time, we are setting up the business and this means there’s a lot of work – team, processes etc. On this a lot is getting done, thanks to Hareesh Sir. I will give myself a 0 on it.

C4E – I am not very active on this any more. The only thing I do now on C4E is take care of my people (mentoring, coaching etc) and service long-term relationships (clients that are now friends and I am invested in their success). The other critical areas (running the kitchen etc) have been taken up by others.

Over time, I want to stop reporting on this. But I may not be able to. C4E is the only thing I’ve created and probably the only thing I am attached to. With or without my running it like a business. Think Berkshire and Warren. I will give myself 0.

Brand SG – Recorded many conversations. For C4E, for Adulting, and for Meru. The first guest for The Otpmist’s Manifesto is decided. So good overall. I will give myself +1.

Now, need to find a way to build distribution.

People – Did nothing. -1

Book 2 – No action. I just need to carve out time to send prompts to Cluade. So, -1

Shauk – Nothing on this. So, another -1

So the overall score is -1 for this week.

The max I can get is 7 in a week. Let’s see when I get to it.
Added this to my tracker too.

📊 The tracker from the last two weeks

Here’s the tracker.

You’d spot a lot of reds. And greens. Blame it on food poisoning. I mean I think it’s food poisoning. I didn’t really go to a doc to check. My aversion to doctors is a well-known thing!

The point is, I was unwell. And that left me with some down days. And that affected how I live and work.

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos.

This one is a mix of app screenshots and photos that I took. Do check out some of the sunset pics and videos. Absolutely bombs.

📖 Interesting Reads from the last two weeks

I know there are more things I read and saved. But this is all I have to share at this time.

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

A/ Starbucks
I am at a Starbucks as I write this. And I love that I am in the zone while I am here. I just need to build a space like this. At times I think I should start a coworking space. Other times I don’t want to. I may as well say, fuck it, let’s do it. And I may open it up. Anyone wants to partner up?

B/ Love
This is a big one. I think I am ready to find love. If I can find love. I mean I’ve been that romantic who believes that love just happens but it clearly hasn’t happened to me. I am unlucky like that (no am not crying about being unlucky – am VERY lucky otherwise).

Oh, and why do I want to find love?
Well cos apparently love is the fifth ingredient that you need in life to live long and thrive. Read this.

C/ From C4E to Meru
A large part of my time will now be spent on building Meru. While I do that, C4E will be run independently by Chandni, Anshika, Fareen, Kaushik and others. And they will be helped by our friends, colleagues, partners and well-wishers. I need to write a separate post on this someday. Not for others. But for self.

Oh, the other thing that has happened is that I now open Meru’s email before I open C4E’s. If this is not moving on, I don’t know what is.

D/ Spiritual SG
Lately, I have found myself to be very very spiritual. I find deeper meaning in the music I listen to, the actions I take, the people I meet and the decisions I make. I don’t know what this means or where I am going but this is new to me. I’ve been a transactional person all my life. I look at things from a problem-solution lens. And then I move on. Once I add spirituality to things, things change. So that.

I’ve been reading a lot of Kabir, Baba Farid, Buleh Shah, Rumi etc. I am not sure what school of devotion, spirituality, bhakti etc they belong to. But I like what I am reading.

E/ This tweet
I saw a couple of people I love get what they want. And that was incredible! This was easily the highlight of the week gone by. Do read it. Please 😀

F/ Films
While I was unwell, I saw a lot of films. Jack Reacher. The Runaway Jury. I don’t even recall the name of, or the story of the other 8-part series that I saw!

While vegetation is ok for a few days, I remembered that I wanted to make films. I will get back to it. I am not sure when I will find the time with all that’s happening but I will add this to the shauq column and get going.

G/ Mumbai
Here’s a thing. If you are young, ambitious and want to grow, you HAVE to be in Mumbai or Bangalore. No Delhi. No Pune. No Goa. No remote. While on this, read these two by Paul Graham – Ambition and Cities and Hubs. Of course, if you can go beyond India, look at places like Dubai, NY, SFO, Singapore and such places.

I know the world we live in is very connected and all that. But there’s some magic that happens when you shake hands and look at someone in their eyes. Hubs create magic that nothing else can replace.

Oh, this trigger came to my head because in the last few days, I’ve spoken to two really sharp young women who’ve expressed their desire to move from their cocoons to large hubs. In fact, I saw one really smart person move to Pune to join some startup that sells cheap Chinese knock-offs and it broke my heart. It could be a great career move but its life harakiri.

You will get limited as a person if you goto a place like Pune, Nasik, Kochi, Chandigarh, Indore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad (C4E Labs is based out of Ahd, btw) and all that.

Of course, if you are not ambitious, you can continue to “enjoy” the “quality” of life in these second-rate cities. But if you are ambitious and want to make something from your life, consider moving to a hub. Move to epicentres of action and not pine for the relaxed, remote life. You can relax when you’ve done what you’ve been sent here to do. And while the remote things may work for a few exceptional people, in general, for average folks, remote life is not worth it.

And I say this with all my disclaimers (edge cases, exceptions, strong opinions, power of youth, opportunity, privilege, life conditions, family etc etc).

And yes, the fuckery that “hubs” impose on you (bad infra, pollution, “fast” life, “struggle”) is 100% worth it.

H/ Space. Trust.
I realised that I want to have a large space for self. And then some space for my friends and family. You know, sai itna dijiye?

And thus I need more money. To be able to have a large space. And no, not on rent. But own. India sucks like that. Pesky neighbours look down upon you and question if someone is staying the night with you. I don’t know why we are such a low-trust society. And here I am – I put my faith and trust in even strangers.

So I need that. I will work towards that.

I/ Impermanence. Of loss.
Something happened at C4E that made us lose money (about 3 lakhs) and our reputation. As a team, we could’ve done better. We’ve taken our lessons. The largest for me is that I need to listen more to my gut and not give into emotions.

The biggest thing for me from this experience? Ensure that people directly involved are ok. And I second, do not add random processes so avoid such things from happening in the future.

No, I don’t want to get into too much detail. But the last word on this is, this too shall pass.

J/ Other things that I want to capture but I may not spill too many words…

  1. Looking forward to the workshop on Taste. On the 22nd. More here.
  2. The fact that I live away from my parents continues to eat at me. I don’t know what to do about it.
  3. Loved the connection between Baba Farid and me.
  4. Met a friend and gave him gyaan on how to manage life. I wish I could do more such sessions. Anyone else needs to put a structure to their lives?
  5. Plants remind me of Sonam. Starbucks reminds people of me. What else can one be reminded of? reminded by?
  6. I put this tweet offering help. Spoke to a few people. Must do this more often.
  7. cerebralquotient.com is gonna be live soon!

I think this is it. Was good to be back and writing! I really missed the joy this simple activity brings to me. Must do more of this.

🥡 So, one large takeaway from the week?

Survive. Survival. Surviving.

I think this is how I would summarise the last few days. This is what defines my week

In the previous weeks, it’s been Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

—

Ok!
This is it!
Lemme know what you think.
Gotta go.
See you around.

Oh, here are the previous editions: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed)

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes.
PPS: Added emojis!

Wk 07-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes from the 7th week of 2025. I talk about C4E, Book2, Hospitals, AI and its impact on life Personal Brand, Economics and more.

Versova
Starting writing this at home.
Now at Starbucks.
There’s calls and meetings. So let’s see when and how I finish this.
Now at Jamjar at 1805.

The 7th week of the year is over!

Is this year flying past by like a rocket to the moon or what! I know that time seems to pass on faster as you age but this year has been something else. I don’t remember when the new year started and I don’t know when Feb is now ending in like 10 days!

I think this is also cos I’ve been on probably the steepest slope that I had to climb. And on this one, I am not merely climbing. I am sprinting. And no, I am not complaining. I am loving it!

Anyhow, here’s my update.

What I was supposed to do in the week gone by. And my report on the same.

A/ 2025 plan.
I don’t even want to talk about this. Open forever. It’s no longer on my radar. I don’t think about it.

But like I said last week, this is my ritual for like 1000 years. I want to not have done this. I will pick this up. If not next week, then in the week after that. And if not then, then some other day.

B/ Health
This was not on last week’s list. It was in one of the things that I wrote about this was NOT on the top.

I am adding this to the TOP from this week onward.

My ability to do large things and go beyond is indexed on my health. And I need to work on it.

A few days ago, I tried to shift my identity to that of a healthy person. So far it hasn’t helped. I need to do more action on it.

I will track these two as North Star things. I will remove the plan once I do it. But health will be my north star.

Moving on.

The tracker from the week that went by.

Here’s the tracker from the week gone by.

Here are the changes I made…

  1. I have added a weekly average column to know how the week was (often it gets tough to see that in large context). Now I know that in this week, I spent more money than average. I walked less than average. I slept more. I was more in control of my emotions. Etc etc.
  2. I added a color code to “good” behaviour. You can see the two days when I slept more than 7 hours. V will be proud of me 😀
  3. I can’t stop eating Kachra!
  4. If you see this, please tell me what you see that I am missing.

Photos from the week

Here are some photos from the week gone by.

There are a lot that I want to capture for posterity. I am uploading those here as well (with slight edits to ensure that this page is not messed; originals are on the link).

Oh, since I have a new phone, am taking a lot more photos.
Plus I am reading a lot and thus a lot of content to share.
Plus I went to the beach more times this week.

So that has helped.
Let’s see how it is the next week.

Interesting Reads

Here’s a list of things that I read / saw / consumed that left an impact on it. In some cases, I went and stirred up debate in my network.

Here’s a list. In no particular order.

  1. If there’s one thing you read, PLEASE ensure it is this. In the essay, Prasad talks about life and careers in a post-AI world.
  2. On the same thread, Sam Altman’s Three Observations.
  3. It would be useful to re-read this piece by PG. On writing. And life in a post-AI world.
  4. Prak shared this piece by Michael Dempsey. I read it. Took notes. Went down the Rabbit Hole on Schelling Point. Still unable to wrap my head around it. But will spend more learning. In fact I am increasing getting fascinated by Maths, Physics and Economics (see this channel). Let’s see where I end.
  5. The Pygmalion Effect. Video (not a read per se)
  6. Jung on Life After 40. This was very interesting, especically cos I am, well, over 40. And even more so cos I keep crying that I am old and all that.
  7. No one cares. Read this.
  8. Been reading about SEO and these two pieces were good to read. In one line, all the fears of folks about AI-written content are dumbfounded. Google does NOT punish (as of writing this, unless things change).

There are more links and things that I read. And there are more videos I see. I share those on this group. In case.

This brings me to highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

In no order…

A/ AirPods Pro Max
I had decided that starting 15 Feb if I could write for 30 days straight (and even AK had to write), I would get myself one. But none of us wrote. So, no AirPods for me. Important to document.

B/ Book2
I’ve started to work on it. And I am leaning on Claude for that. So far, I’ve “written” 5 chapters of approx 2500 words each. So that’s fast. At this pace, I should have a draft ready in like one month!

Here’s a WA group that you may join in case you want to help me read the early drafts and help me find direction.

C/ C4E lacks action and attention
I’ve not been able to focus on C4E in the last few days.

Thankfully we are in the middle of our downward cycle and thus there isn’t much to do. So we are ok. Plus the team is running whatever we have well.

However, we as a unit lack action-orientation. We take too much time for everything. We think a lot. We dont break enough things. We are not ghissoing our chappal enough.

Need to fix it. And add some sense of urgency. I will pick this up in the next week.

Three things worth noting here.

  1. We wanted to price ourselves at a premium. We took action towards that we haven’t made any large progress.
  2. Our new creds was to be ready last week. It is not. I will not ask for it or chase it. I will make one myself. Adding to my todo.
  3. We need to reinvent our model. We haven’t done anything about it.

D/ Dave Matthews Band
I’ve recently been tripping onto music from Dave Matthews Band. I dont know but I love the sound they make!

You can start here.

E/ Claude and Cursor
I’ve been experimenting with the two things. One to write “code” and the other to “write” book2. And I love it.

I feel my mind has expanded. I can see it expand! I now realise that I can do a lot more. The power of my thoughts is a lot more, well, potent! The sky seems to be the limit. I will try and write more on this. But time seems to be a roadblock.

F/ I suck at negotiations
I knew this all along but I know this more now. That I suck at negotiations. I dont know if I want to learn that, at this age but it’s a good thing to know about. I will ensure that my kids learn the skill. And do whatever needs to be done – to make them great at it.

Oh, and as a matter of principle, I will not work on any negotiations from here on.

G/ Growing up
Had to go to the hospital. And I hated it. Each time I go to one, I hate it. I dont have an answer for my hatred or my aversion to those. But I hate them.

I know I will have to go to more of these in the next few years. It’s a deep fear. And I am trying to learn. I hope I am better. I hope I grow up!

H/ H2 of the day makes me sad and ineffectiveness
I’ve realised and I have known that I can’t do anything productive in the second half of the day. So this week on, I will move all my non-value-add things to the second half. The first half will only be to do deep work, independent of any conversations. If someone has to meet, it has to be in the second half. At least, for as long as I can control.

Even today, I did a lot till about 1 PM. Post that I went to the clubhouse and merely vegetated. Must be my sugar levels or something.

Irrespective. I will try and control this a lot more.

I/ IPO
Ajax are getting IPOd tomorrow.

They are a client and this is the first time I’ve seen a client get to IPO. Incredible learning experience. One more feather to the cap.

Now the lifegoal is to build a company that IPOs. Or may be not. I may not do well with the public scrutiny that public companies must endure. Let’s see.

K/ Angry and Sad with Kumbh
My parents were stuck in an overnight jam somewhere in UP. Or whatever state that Kumbh is happening at.

And I hate it.
And I dont know what to do about it.
I am angry and sad about it. I have enough money that they are not on public transport. But I dont have enough money to get them a charter plane and VIP darshan. I wish I had.

Plus, on top of it all, I dont understand how faith and religion becomes so important that they are willing to endure this. I am reading Man’s Search for Meaning I and get the why to live and all that but where is the why in this?

Thankfully their spirits are high.

L/ Other things that I want to capture but I may not spill too many words on those.

  1. For a work thing, I decided to submit to two elder gents. I will blindly do what they ask me to. I will offer to them the kind of adulation and submission I’ve wanted from my people. See this.
  2. Managed 45 days of daily journal. Now will aim to do 365.
  3. Deleted Insta yet again from my phone. I will put that on sinphone and see how much time I invest on it.
  4. Became a fan of Nicobar! But only when they are on sale. And I am ok to wear older fashion. The only thing latest I want is the iPhone 😀
  5. I am increasingly getting interested in Economics. Here is one of the creators that I absolutely am a fan of!
  6. I need to check for ADHD. I dont know if there are online tests. But I need to know.
  7. I have started to work on my personal brand all over again. This time on video. Have reached out to AD for help (now that he’s doing this professionally). Let’s see where I reach.

Ok that.
Phew

One large takeaway from the week?

In one word?
Respect.
More about it on my Roam. Or somewhere in the deep confines of my mind 😀

For context, last week, it was Money. The week before that it was People.

Ok!
This is it!
Lemme know what you think.
Gotta go.
See you around.

Oh, here are the previous editions: Wk 01, Wk 02, Wk 03, 04, 05, 06

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes.

Wk 06-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes from Week 6 of 2025.

10:25 AM
Starbucks, Versova
Let’s see how long do I take on this. I’ve started a Forest timer. Let’s see.
Update: Made numerous calls in the middle. Publishing this at 14:06 PM

So, this is my favorite time of the week. Where I am by myself. And I sort of journal what’s happening in my head. I do a recap of the week. I dump all that I need to get out of my system. Call it flushing. Some things make it to the blog. Some dont (the ones that dont, get to my Roam). The thing that I am most careful of is that I dont delve in the past. and I dont want to worry about the future. I am present. Thinking. Cataloging. Actioning. Just the act of sitting at one place and writing and publishing is nice. In fact, I often think that if I could just write and pay my bills, I will do that. But then, that’s alternate reality. I need to act on whats up today!

Oh, I am listening to this as I write.

Here are sections (I want to change this but I will do so at some other day)…

What I was supposed to do in the week gone by. And my report on the same.

A/ 2025 plan.
This has been open for like 2 months now. I met Neha last night and she mentioned that she’s been seeing make these plans for 3 years and no action. I am still poor, fat and all that. Vivek says the same.

But…

I remain a thick skinned person. This is my yearly ritual and I will not trade this for anything. So, at some point, I will get to this. Parking as sgp1 and todo.

The tracker from the week that went by.

Here’s the tracker from the last week.

I ate a lot. I walked some. I spent a lot. More or less the emotions were in control. My streak of daily updates is good too (I’ve moved those to @altsg). I had a REALLY bad day couple of days when someone shat on C4E on a public platform. But now that I look at this chart, apart from that one red and yellow window, I was mostly ok.

This is surprising. There’s a disconnect. My daily twitter posts reflect otherwise. May be I need to write my posts better? Or maybe I need to capture things better. Will be more mindful in this week.

In fact, J said that for someone who claims to be a Stoic, I am moved a lot by my emotions. She’s not wrong. Must be more mindful.

If you see this, please tell me what you see that I am missing?

Photos from the week

Here are some photos from the week gone by.

Oh, btw, I tried to find a way to embed Google Photos into WordPress. I found a plugin as well. But I was too incompetent to get it to work for me. IF you know wordpress well, would you want to do this for me?

Interesting Reads

Adding this section from this week on. The intention is to capture what left an impact on it. And have my people read these and debate.

  1. Triangle of Talent by Shaan VP. FUCKING EYE OPENING.
  2. Derek Sivers on How to Spark a Movement. I see this often.
  3. Imperfection by Dharmesh Shah. Loved loved loved it.
  4. This presentation by Paras Chopra where he makes a case about why India needs to build our own AI Model. I have my disagreements but he is the man in the arena. Also, Paras is inviting people to work with him to build those models. Some of you may want to apply. Going by his reputation, he will ensure that it reaches fruition.
  5. This piece on Atoms and Bits.

There are more links and things that I read. I share those on this group. In case.

And this brings me to highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

I will lean onto my Roam and Daily updates for this.

In no order…

A/ C4E – a LOT happened at C4E in the last week.
And here’s a quick summary.

  1. Reputation. I dont care about mine. I may live or die. But C4E is a village and I will not have ANYONE call us a scam or a fraud. I am ok to not meet your expectations or whatever. But I am not a scam. I will work harder than anyone else you may find. You know, more chappal than anyone else. But I am NOT a scam. The sad part was that apart from me, I dont see anyone else at C4E care for the reputation! I wrote more on my daily update here.
  2. Premium Pricing. I will restructure C4E to only charge a premium pricing. I may die hungry but I will not work for anything that I am not comfortable with.
  3. People Ops. I will ensure that we treat people better. We are mostly good but I want to take it up a notch. We HAVE to be the best when it comes to people.


B/ Health
I am at that age now there I am seeing multiple health issues. I have something wrong with my heart and I need to see more docs for that. Skin seems to be breaking out. My back hurts perpetually. I really need to fix my hernia. I need spects. I can go on and on.

I need to work on this. And I will. Starting today, I am changing my identity to that of a healthy man. I will do each thing that you expect a healthy person to do. Including working out.

And this will be more important as I go along with the startup that I am working on!

C/ Farheen 
Spoke to this lady. She’s all of 23 and WOW. My gut says that she will do a lot in life and go far. But let’s see. She offers social media marketing, SEO and allied services. If you are on a lookout, you may consider chatting wiht her

D/ Dubey Ji at Marine Drive
Just yesterday, I was at Marine Drive and I did what I do each time I am there. Get a massage. And of course got talking to the masseuse. And he told me about this person – Dubey Ji. Apparanty, he’s the guru of most of the masseuses on the Marine Drive. The important part is that Dubey Ji is now retired and each of his shagirds give him a tiny sum each day! I would love to be that where all my kids are doing well and I am merely living vicariously thru them!

E/ I got a new phone.
And I dont feel any emotions towards it. It was important to capture. As a young person, each time I got a new phone, I made an event out of it. I realised that it was no longer the case.

F/ AKs website is up after a month!
So cool! The world needs more of her. Here’s the link – akforthevibe.com

G/ C and Krishna
If I were to make a list of people who believe in SG, Krishna and C will probably top the list. And I have been unkind to both of them over this week. And I need to fix it.

But…

I don’t know how. I know both of them will read this post and both of them will say, “its ok”.

H/ Took a loan
I had decided that I will not take a loan again. But this month I had to. And by the looks of it, I will need to take another one. I dont know when this cycle will end. Let’s see.

I/ The AI Fomo
I talked about it last week too. And its getting all the more real. TBH, since last week, I have made some progress. I am more aware. I have read more. But I still dont have enough to give me comfort. I need to find that.

J/ Worth Living For
Prof Kavi Arya mentioned this in a conversation. He said something on these lines… “Most people tend to think about things that they want to die for but this approach was refreshing – what are you willing to live for?”

This opened by eyes like nothing else had!
I am willing to live for a lot of things. And no, these things don’t mean leisure or pleasure.

K/ Other things that I want to capture but I may not spill too many words on those.

  1. Updated my Work With Me Page. After I got the inspiration from Hardik Pandya’s page.
  2. Gokul NA. Each time I speak with him, I am inspired to do more with my life. I REALLY wish I could drop everything and work FOR him. He’s a rare person that I want to work FOR. And not WITH.
  3. May get to work as a marketer on a project at IIT Bombay. I am not getting paid a lot but I would like to get the experience of being at IIT often. Maybe know more students and all? Oh, on my previous visit to IIT, I bumped into Mayank Pareek! Talk of serendipity!
  4. Films business. I HAVE to do something about it. I will have to restart from scratch now that I am out of TRS but I will do it.
  5. I have a crush on a 51-year-old!
  6. I’ve been missing Steve Jobs.
  7. Made some tough calls that I was avoiding for a while. Some more tough calls need to be made. Will do those in the coming week.
  8. Met Arun Kedia for a coffee. One of the best meetings in a long long time. More notes in my Roam.

Ok that.
Phew

One large takeaway from the week?

In one word?
Money.

Last week, it was People.
This week, its money.
I don’t want to write more here (context is on my Roam). In case someone wants to know more, you know where to find me.

PS: Reminds of KWAN – love, respect, community AND the dollars too!

PPS: Now that I am on films and trailers, I saw this and it brought a lump to my throat. Happens each time. And then I saw this.

Ok!
This is it!
Lemme know what you think.
Gotta go.
See you around.

Oh, here are the previous editions: Wk 01, Wk 02, Wk 03, 04, 05

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes.

Wk 05-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes from Week 5 of 2025. I talk about things I did, things I learnt and things I am thinking about.

6:47 PM, 2 Feb
Jamjar, Versova

I should be at CSS.
But I am sitting this one out. I have multiple reasons. Here’s a list.

A/ I want to write this before the day ends. I started late and then I had to be at places and thus I didn’t get time. This is my pursuit and I am responsible and I have to get this done. CSS is C4E’s pursuit and I have it in very capable hands of AK.

B/ Also, I want AK (and other kids) to start taking independent ownership of things. I want them to start living with the idea that I will not be around. I also want to learn to not have the pleasure of seeing my kids in action. I want to give them the space to grow and I want to be absent from their lives. I want to be proud of them from a distance. Howsoever tiny it may be but it’s indeed a thing that I value a lot. More about CSS is here.

Ok two only 😀

Anyhow. Coming to the review of the week. Here’s a report.

What I was supposed to do in the week gone by.
And my report on the same.

A/ 2025 plan.
In one line, I haven’t been able to work on my plan for the year. I think now that one month of 2025 is gone, I may never get around to doing it. May be I will still do it during the next week. Let’s see.

The tracker from the week that went by.

The tracker from the last week is here.

As you can see, I have started to miss some days. I need to get stricter about it. And now that I’ve done this for a month, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t do this everyday.

What do you see in this tracker?

Photos from the week

Here are some pics from the week gone by. Here is the link for the week.
As you will see, it was quite a week!

And this brings me to highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

Highlights from the week gone by…

In no order…

A / Unidimensional personality
I’ve realised that I have a very unidimensional personality. I was dinnering with a friend of 20 years last night and I did not know what to talk to her about. Each time she would talk about current affairs, friends, etc etc, I would bring it back to work.

While its ok for me at this stage of my life, I think I will have to find a way to change this. Oh, I do want to change this. While work is interesting, what I do today is not world-changing. Aisa bhi kuch khaas nahi kar raha main!

B/ AI FOMO
I have this HUGE FOMO about my lack of participation in the AI rush. While we at C4E have a client who works at the forefront of AI, I am still a silent observer. I feel like that person sitting on the sidelines while life is passing him by!

I don’t know what to do about it.

I do have a friend and collaborator in Krishna. I do have that not-so-secret startup that I am building with a few friends. Both are on the fringes of AI but I would like to have a more mainstream participation. I don’t know how. Any ideas anyone?

C/ AK at Hyd
AK is going to Hyd in the next week. I am INCREDIBLY proud of it. I know she will read this. And I want her to know that I love her!

D/ Processes over people
Each day I am reminded that if I want to scale, I need to think beyond my love for people. You know, I REALLY wanted to prove to the world that I can create a billion-dollar company with great people at the helm and all that. But each passing day I think its getting difficult.

Today I met AK Sir (not my AK but AK sir) and reiterated that if I want C4E to go beyond where we are, I will have to think more about processes than people.

So that.

I know, I know. Sad and disappointing. But this is how it is. I swear that the world is unkind, unfair. And at the same time, it is good, nice and all those warm things. I think its fair to say that the world is indeed a reflection of who you are!

ISTG, I am full of hope on most days. In fact, as I write this, I am staring at the first loss-making year for C4E since COVId-19. And I remain hopeful that we will do well.

Time shall tell.

E/ Took a laptop back from a C4E alum
One of the people at C4E moved out abruptly. Many things lead to this. We weren’t able to challenge the person enough. We couldn’t pay her well enough to help her retain her lifestyle. We didn’t have enough work to keep them meaningfully employed. And then some more.

Each time someone moves on from C4E, I feel sad. In most cases, I justify my sadness with the knowledge that whoever goes away, has gone to a better place. And that’s ok.

In most cases when people go, they go with the gifts that C4E had showered them with – most of these are intangible. In some cases it’s tangible. This person when she moved, C and I decided that we would ask for the laptop that we had got for them. This is very unlike us. I have promised people that I will take care of them for as long as I can. And in most cases, I do. Even after they move on from our life.

But for some reason, this one seemed personal. And I hate it. HATE IT.

But I had to do it. You know, a man’s gotta do. I am also justifying this one as the first in many steps that I will have to take to make C4E bigger and better. So that.

Oh, in the same bullet, I want to write about a tough separation with someone who we were trying to get at C4E. But I shall skip the gory details. All of us at C4E failed with that. Our culture failed. I wish we didn’t. But lesson learnt.

F/ Private Twitter
On the counsel of AP, I’ve made my Twitter private.

I will continue to be on @saurabh and I will build that into a large distribution page (despite the flag and shadow ban). But all personal updates will move on @altsg. Go follow that.

G/ Met Prof Kavi Arya
What a guy!

This meeting was probably the highlight of the week. He runs e Yantra. I heard his journey and I was inspired to do more with SoG.

Meeting him again on Tuesday the 4th. Looking forward to that!

H/ Met Murtaza.
Again, what A GUY!

Again, the second highlight of the week. Murtaza is all of 33 and wise beyond his years. I wish I could be like him. I wish I could create the kind of impact and wealth he’s been able to create.

I/ MDI Network
For the startup, I have been asking for help from people. The set of people who came forward the most is from MDI! I even made a post on LinkedIn about it.

I can’t express in words how much the help means to me. I would’ve spoken to 10 odd people and EACH person gave out advice, inputs, connections and more. I am so so floored by the generosity of these people.

I aspire to be like that. I want to be that person in deed when someone comes to me in their time of need. Come on, universe!

J/ Other things worth noting
I am adding this section for things that I want to take note of, but don’t have large comments to make. This doesn’t mean that these are small things. Just that I’ve either spoken about them elsewhere or I want to keep those private. Here they are, in bullets…

  1. Sachin told me to stop with self-deprecating humor. Wrote more about it here.
  2. Vinny told me about the secrets of the restaurant business. It’s no longer a case but there was a time when I wanted to run a restaurant (I still want a cafe / co-working space etc).
  3. Pradeep did a KICKASS job on Towards Eternity! It is a weekly newsletter that curates and brings together insights from the world of healthtech. Aimed at health enthusiasts, startups and investors, Pradeep cranks out a kickass letter week on week. Do subscribe!
  4. I failed as a leader at C4E. I failed to instil camaraderie. I failed to inspire a sense of urgency in my people. I failed to have us at a team seek higher standards. More is on my roam.
  5. Decided that at C4E, we will stop with low-value work. More on this in some subsequent post. Maybe Chandni will write this.
  6. Read about Bardo. Loved it!
  7. Was reminded that I need to learn the art of sales. I suck at it and I will make a deliberate effort to learn. Thanks, Ramanuj.

Ok that.
Phew

One large takeaway from the week?

In one word.
People.
Simple.

In the week gone by I must have spoken to some 20 people and each was an intense, long chat to learn more, share more, connect more and all that. And I want more! Lol!

Ok!
This is it!
Lemme know what you think.
Gotta go.
See you around.

Oh, here are the previous editions: Wk 01, Wk 02, Wk 03, 04

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes.