7 September 2026.
Starbucks, Versova.
Writing this first thing on a Monday morning. Cos missed last week. And I dont want to miss two weeks in a row.
So, I had a long day yesterday and day before. On Saturday, I was part of a shoot. Then I hung out with my people. And then I went to meet some friends from MDI. And then, on Sunday I hung out with more friends and did more conversations. Mostly ok. And lot of ideas and insights.
The primary thing that am taking away from this week and weekend is that money talks. Everything is manageable and doable if you have the money. If there’s one thing that you want to take away from this post, let it be this.
Ok, now, onto regular programming.
The track of the week is Chal Chale. I am listening to this version (not the best audio). I love the rawness and grainyness of this version. I love the delay and distortion!
If you are a purist, you may want to listen to this one.
Ok, lets go!
.
Highlights, reflections, updates, notes and thoughts from the week gone by.
1/ Update on the August Plan
I had decided that in August I will do the following…
- Work more on WeAreC4E.com. Make it into a lead magnet for event piece for C4E.
- I am thinking of shipping the CRM tool to the world. I find value in it. Let’s see if others will find value as well. So, I will make a landing page and will try to give demo to people and sell them a subscription. In case you want to buy, am selling it for $99 a year.
- Make Book 2 shippable. It’s almost ready. Just that I need to make a pass thru it.
- Operate in Eco Mode. And as a part of that, use cash as much as I can (against digital payments). Unless absolutely necessary. I want to add friction to the money spending thing.
I missed Book2. I think I will drop it off my plate. I dont think I have it in me to ship another book. Funnily, the ghostwriting piece seems to be working well. I have many open leads and healthy inbound (read that as 1 a week).
However, on C4E, despite my attempts (similar to the ones I made on ghostwriting), I’ve not been able to get outcomes. I think this is because the SEO piece on ghostwriting is easy.
Eco mode has been ok. I wont say I did well. But I was indeed mindful about my expenses.
I failed at the CRM tool. I took help from Krishna as well but together we failed. So I will park it. May come back to it in a few days. But for the time being, its parked.
.
2/ The plan for September
We are one week in September and I feel I have derailed. I mean, I didnt plan for anything and I didnt get to make any large outcomes so far. Also the way life is, I think Sep will be in limbo. I will think about this during the week and in case by the next week I can think of something, I will update this.
If you have any ideas on what I could be doing, please lemme know.
.
3/Food-Junkie
Lemme talk about myself here. Its a world-wide well-known thing that I have consistent struggle with fitness, diet control and all that. I am a man inspired by my quirks and vibes and I do things by the mood, than by the book. And one of the things that I can not stop doing is to eat snacks. You know, Kurkure and all that. Lets park this for a bit.
When I see folks who can’t help but have alcohol, substances, drugs etc etc, I often wonder why can they not simply control their urges and operate more mindfully. To a point that I judge people. And I would build associative conversations that by being a junkie, they are making the lives of their loved ones hell.
And I dont know when this epiphany happened that I am the same. I may not be abusing substances but i do abuse food. And I am a food-junkie. And I need to find a solution.
PS: NN Taleb says that two of the toughest addictions are sugar and salary. I quit salary a while ago and I need to cut sugar now. Help me with it!
.
4/ PG on brevity
PG says, “AI will be especially fatal to writing that takes too long to get to the point. Now there will always be a more concise alternative, and 99% of readers will choose it.”
When PG says something, I stop everything and pay close attention. And this piece from him is like a death knell for me. I do not have the brevity muscle in me. I can’t make a point in less words. I ramble and rant and whine and meander and write like there’s no end. I get carried with the flow while I write and I assume that people who read me (handful) would like to go on the journey with me. I like to jump from topic to topic and I can even be in the realm of absurdism. And even in these times when people no longer have the attention span to read, I continued to think that some folks get joy from reading.
And if PG’s correct (he often is), I don’t stand a chance in the times to come.
.
5/ Write More.
Continuing from the previous one, I think I want to write more. It’s one of those few activities that put me in the flow. I can often find myself lost in my thoughts and my head and keyboard when I am writing. To me, its one of the most high leverage actions that I take for my sanity.
Just that since I hypermaxxed on claude (see the image below), I’ve been spending all my laptop time on it.
Now, clauding is not a bad thing. But I know that it is not really “deep” work. I talk to it and I get some output that I flaunt. I am a mere orchestrator and a manager. I am not a maker. And at best, its an addiction and distraction. And nothing wrong with it. Just that I dont “create” things. I am not a maker. And unless I am a maker, well, I am no one.
The other thing about writing is that it opens doors for me. A lot of close friends and relationships have happened because people read what I wrote. People resonated and reached out. I could text them and send them links and they would react, reply and all that.
So, write more ;P
.
6/ Shoot. People. Gratitude.
This weekend I was part of a shoot.
We at C4E did it in collaboration with Collabor8.
And I had fun. I hope everyone had fun. More than fun, at least I was full of gratitude. I was able to pull it off because I could pull in favors from people who believe in me. I got things for cheap, things fast, things easy. And people showed up. And they did better than they would at some other “commercial” thing. Another example of people create magic.
I cant name each person who worked hard but I can talk about some that come to mind. The start was Aoneha and Vikram to get an artist to agree to be a part of the shoot. Then I was able to ask for help from Sampat for the venue. Then Naman pitched in with bringing my vision to life with his work on AI. Raunak (and Sam) helped with the direction. Sampat’s team again pitched in to help me reduce the equipment rental cost.
No wonder they say it takes a village. And am I glad that this village exists!
PS: I am not happy about pulling favours and not paying people as much as I would have liked to pay. I know money is the grease. And I know I need to be able to more mindful about it.
.
7/ Neelesh Misra
One my friends works with Neelesh Misra. And while we were chilling at my place on the weekend, I was taken down the memory lane to my time from around early 2010s.
I used to work in Gurgaon and commuted almost everyday from East Delhi. The ride would take me anywhere between 50 minutes and 3 hours depending on traffic. Mind you, this is pre whatsapp, pre Jio days and all I had was a Blackberry. And thus my constant companion was radio.
One of those companions was Yaad Sheher by Neelesh Misra. I remember I would time my drive from office to home to be able to catch up with the entire episode of Yaad Sheher. I loved the voice – right kind of balmy, right kind of warmth, right kind of passion. I loved the stories – rooted in small-town India, the kinds I could relate to. The kinds I can relate even now. I loved the curation of music. And the right-timing of the breaks in the story to keep me hooked. If I could, I would place Yaad Sheher up there in terms of the best things to have happened to entertainment.
It had no brain rot content, it had no gossip, it had no potshots, it had no one being dissed. And yet it hooked me. And probably many more people.
So yeah! Yaad Sheher ki yaad.
PS: Must give a shoutout to The Band Called 9. This is where I first heard magic of Shilpa Rao. And, on the way to work in the mornings, my companion was Saarthak (linkedin, insta) and Adam.
.
8/ Mobile first
Plainly said, I want to use mobile to work and all.
Today, if I need to do anything, I need to get to my laptop. Even the simple task of booking a ticket requires me to use a laptop. And I see people making Oscar worthy films on broken phones. There are people who use a screenless Raspberry Pi devices to send rockets to space!
I dont know how I will do this. But I will try and get to it.
.
9/ Broadcast list
On a whim, the other day I made a broadcast list on WA. Of all people who I want to keep posted about what’s up in my life. I did this cos I know that I suck with keeping in touch and I can not, not have people around me. So, I found the laziest way to do so!
In case you are keen on joining this, lemme know.
.
10/ Other Notes and Links
Some notes and thoughts. In no order…
- This piece by Manu Joseph is gold.
- ?
Guess this is it.
📸 Photos from the week gone by
Since I went to the beach a few times this week, I do have some photos. Plus, I did a shoot and thus there are photos.
As always, for people who ask.
🏃➡️ Health
Not a good week. I could do 12 till a few days ago. Now am back to 1o. Lets see when I do more. Also, I made a bet with Rana to do 50 pushups till the next year.
.
📈 The trackers of life
I didn’t track a lot to be honest. I will skip this, this week. Hope to be back with tracking next week, even with some travel and ambiguity.
.
📌 So, what did I get done last few weeks? And what will I do next week?
A one-line report on what shipped. Not WIP.
- Health. Sleep, food, movement. Worse than last week. Twelve pushups down to ten. Plus I met Purav and he pointed that my diabetes is now visible on my face. Sigh.
- C4E / Work. Chugging along. Still shuttling between 66MGRoad and Atlas Fractional.
- Brand SG / Distribution. Nothing large.
- People. Met a few.
- Book2. Lol.
- Shauk. Many things. Apps, writing, content, shoot etc etc.
.
Action on LARGE objectives for the year
In 2026, I plan to do three things.
- Book2
- Human Flag Pole
- Save a million dollars
Book2 / Caravan Serai.
No movement this week again.
Human Flag Pole.
This week I walked more. And I reached up to a point that I could do 10 pushups on the trot. Lets see if I can continue with 10 for the next few days. I want to reach till 100.
Save a million dollars.
No action to report.
.
📅 One thing that defines the past week?
Busy.
I was about town!
The other words for this year have been: Skip, Routine (yeah same), Routine, Getting Back, Freedom, People, Motion, Show, Flow, Excitement, Embarrassment, Blur, Whiling, Movement, Activity, Regular, Easy, Journey, Downtime, Same, Drift, Routine.
Over and out.
Until next Friday.
SG
PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. Previous editions from 2026 are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 (missed these three), 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 (missed), 26, 27, 28, 29 (missed these three), 30, 31, 32, 33 (missed), 34, 35 (missed)
PPS: Please do point typos.
PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.
