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.