Nagarathna Memorial Grant Archives

Wk 17-26 – Weekly Note

Notes, thoughts and highlights from Week 17, 2026

26 April 2026
Starbucks, Versova

As I start writing this, I dont have any large thoughts. But I do have notes that I want to expand into this post, I do have a track that I want to share with the world, I have my usual list of things that I want to work on, I do have a few things that I want to boast about and I do have many other tricks up my slave. But I dont feel like writing.

And this is strange. ~~Since I can remember~~ Since 2006 at least, writing has been my catharsis. And while there have been periods of ups and downs, I’ve never ever felt like not writing.

But then, we shall prevail. One of the best writing lessons I’ve ever got is this – rather than waiting for inspiration to strike you, make writing your bitch and command it when you want to.

So here we are.

The track of the week is this. I must’ve heard this a 100 times since last week.

☁️ Highlights, reflections, updates, notes and thoughts from the last week

1/ The Gate of Years

I saw this play titled The Gate of Years by Keneth Desai.
At Rangshila.

And I have to say, it was one of the best I’ve seen ever. And since I was seeing a play after a while, I had high expectations. Needless to say, Kenny delivered. A punch and a performance. So good that I wanted to leave everything and fling myself to the world of theatre.

The play had everything going for it. Based on The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate, the story is an exchange between Fuwaad ibn Abbas, a merchant and Bashaarat, a shop owner selling curios from the ancient times. Kenny did a one-person adaption and had me spellbound for almost 90 minutes. I was so moved that I even wrote a Linkedin post about it.

I mentioned on the linkedin post and I want to write here as well.

Of all the inexplicable things in the world, the largest mystery that I am confounded by is the reason why people do theatre. They definitely don’t make money. They are glad if they get audience (for this fabulous piece, Kenny had like 10 people in attendance (and one of the audience members was none other than Naseer Sir)). They are not covered on the front pages of any tabloids. Of all the raison d’êtres that us humans chase, theatre offers none!

Someday, I’d like to ask some theatre folks.

Anyhow.

Lemme talk about Naseer Saab for a bit.

Once upon a time, I was so close to working with him on a film that I could touch the set and feel the air with anticipation. A friends friend pitched the project to Shikha and I. And we latched onto it. We made good progress. We did a few meetings with Naseer Sir (yeah, I’ve been in a 1v1 room with him), spent some money on location scouting (to places like Indore and all that), met the studios (Jio etc), financiers and all that. All in hopes of getting the film. But we couldn’t. There are versions of story on why we couldn’t (and my version is not the most kind), but lets not talk about that.

The point is, if I had run a deliberate life back then, I would probably have had a film with Naseer Sir. If a few years later, I had lived a deliberate life, I would have had a film company. If… would… could… have had… sigh!

Someone needs to slap some sense into me.

2/ NMG Grant

Thej announced the winners of NMG Grant for the year. He (and friends) granted a total of more than 5.5 lakhs to 10+ people for projects ranging from healthcare to maps to wikipedia to animals to music.

The full list is here.

If you are someone with some capital to spare and want to support young people with microprojects, do consider supporting Thej and NMG.

PS: At a point I wanted to start a grant of my own (see SoG Grant) but I was not able to put attention / focus to it. It has always remained a “someday” project and each time Thej issues the grant, I am inspired to copy it.

3/ MJO

This past week I re-discovered my love for Saurabh Shukla’s MJO.

I dont know what is it about this series that I love the most. The Indian-ness (more of UP-ness), animation, dialogues, animation, background score or a combination there of. Or maybe how Saurabh Shukla talks about himself in each video.

Do see it.

4/ Valuation Business vs Cashflow Business

This is one of those questions that needed an answer.
Lemme start with definitions.

Valuation Business is where you are valued at gazillion dollars, irrespective of the revenue or profit. This is largely driven by investments in the business (either by VCs or by other such parties).

Cashflow businesses are the ones where no one wants to invest but you make a lot of money and use that money to scale. Gravity was a cashflow business. A grocery store is a cashflow business. C4E is a cashflow business. The business throws some free cash flow that is available to folks at C4E to use.

So, all my life I wanted to build a business that create a large impact (you know, impacts a billion people) and I thought an easy way to do so is via a valuation business (after all, if you lean on VCs, you get to deliver to a larger set of audience). But with time I am learning that there could be merit in the freedom that you you get when you work for yourself and work on a business that throws free cash-flow at you. And that ladies and gents is the big revelation of the week.

Ofc it may not allow me to build a thing that delivers large impact. But may be, at this time, I need some freedom and some wings?

4/ Other minor updates

Here are some notes and updates from the week gone by.

Spoke to a few friends about the idea of being a sparring partner to founders and CEOs. Got some interesting feedback. Will sharpen that.
Talked to my people at C4E about my attempt at finding something to work on. So far, I am drawing a blank (I do have some ideas but none of them is close to fruition) but I remain hopeful. If nothing else, I will pick up events and get to it.
Spent time with Rana Sir and learnt about how large businesses take shape. I am realizing that I dont understand a lot about how to run large businesses.

📸 Photos from the week gone by

Stopped this as few weeks ago. In case you want to get photos from me, DM me.

📊 Trackers…

Here’s my trackers…

And here’s the mood…

✅ Action on LARGE objectives for the year

In this section, I will capture my progress on large objectives for the year.

In 2026, I plan to do the following three things…

Book2
Human Flag Pole
Save a million dollars

No action in the last week on any of these goals.
So, no progress and no update.

Plus I hadn’t seen these in a few weeks. So at least am back to tracking these.

📌 So, what did I get done last few weeks? And what will I do next week?

This is a one-line report on progress I made on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.

So, this year, I want to track the following…

Health. I will work on sleep, food and movement. Slowly getting back to a sleep routine.
C4E / Work. I want to shortlist some idea that I want to work on. No answer. I have given myself a hard deadline of 30th April 2026. Either I will find an idea or I will work on whatever my people tell me to. So far, no idea. But I am moving in some direction.
Brand SG / Distribution. No action on this.
People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc). No action.
Book2. I want to start with this. No action.
Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc). No action.

🏃🏽‍♂️Health

I added Health as a key section last year. I read somewhere that you need 4 things to live long – sleep, exercise, diet and community. I will track all four. And then some more variables that I feel are important to me. Let’s see what comes out.

No action again.
I mean I didnt track or actively think about it.
I want to keep this live cos this makes me think.

⏳ Reminders from last few days

This section captures things that I want to not forget. I add those to SG’s Office. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates. I am revisitng htis after a while

A few things.

Update C4E’s Culture Book. This is still WIP.
C4E’s website. This is new.

I have a suspicion that this list will grow and will become unmanageable in a few weeks. I will find a solution when I get to it. For the time being, here’s a sheet where I track my actions.

Here are the things that I’ve closed previously…

Start a podcast with C and AK. This remains open and will probably get shut. I dont see the excitement in the three of us.
Storytelling presentation for the session on the 7th March. I missed this. And I will do this in March. Maybe on the 28th or the 29th? I missed this again. I dont think am doing this. So closing and moving on.

🗓️ So, one thing that defines the past week?

Blur. Again.

The other words for this year have been: Whiling, Movement, Blur, Activity, Movement, Regular (again), Regular, Easy, Journey, Downtime.

—
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. Previous editions:

2026: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 (missed these three), 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

PPS: Please do point typos.

PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.

PPPPS: I am not really happy about this update. But I guess we will live with this and aspire to do better in the next one.

Wk 04-26 – Weekly Notes

Notes, thoughts, ideas, links and some photos from week 4, 2026.

7:41 AM, Tiruvannamalai

New Week.
New City.
And I love it!

This week, I was in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and then Chennai. And now here. Loved it. It’s good and bad.

Good – I got so many new experiences, new sights and new smells. You know, something shifts your internal chemistry when you have new experiences touch your soul.

Bad – The routine gets screwed. I sleep on unfamiliar beds, eat things that you dont want to eat, dont have a table to write on (I am writing this lying on the bed) and I am unable to work out. I can only imagine how the traveling salesmen, athletes, celebrities manage their fitness!

Ok, ranting. Lemme get to the weekly notes.

💭 Highlights, reflections, updates, notes and thoughts from Week 4, 2026

These are not in any order. And like last wee, I will try to include as many photos as I can.

1/ Ramana Maharishi

I am at Tiruvannamalai to visit Sri Ramanasramam, the Ashram of Ramana Maharishi.

I am not a religious person. Neither am I spiritual to be honest. I am indifferent. I am probably that Nihilist Penguin in human shape. Lol.

Anyhow, the visit has been worth it.

Especially cos it needed the grind to reach here (a flight to Chennai, a 4-hour road trip that became 8-hours long (thanks to a rally by Modi Ji) and the hunt for a place in the large town. If you get things easy, you dont respect those ;P

And some bouts of clarity that struck me.

No, I am definitely not the illuminated one. Never was. May get to that some day. But now that I’ve spent a day or two here, I did get some thoughts. For starters, I am a LOT more aware of the constant bombardment that we subject ourselves to. That I subject myself to.

While I was in the ashram, I didn’t use the phone and it was painful for the first few minutes. And then the silence engulfed me. And even when it did, there was this revolt from my system. I found myself reaching to my phone more than once, tbh.

I found myself thinking about how you can invest your time enquiring about who you are and what’s the purpose of life and all that. Or you can run the rat race (do see this). Or how you can discharge your duties and while you do that, you are helpful to people, the world and thus, in exchange, to yourself. And maybe that’s there is to life.

Truth be told, I’ve known this for a long time (that I need to be useful and be of help to people and that my salvation is in helping others get to their respective salvation). Each spiritual or inward experience brings that to surface. The only addition that seems to be happening lately is the move towards the oneness. I am far from it, especially because of actions and thoughts of so many people seem so… stupid.

Ok moving on.

One striking thing that I noticed about the Ashram was that there was no conversation about religion at all. While the leaning is clearly towards Hinduism (I could be wrong), there were no overt showcase of religion.

The most important thing I noticed is that simplicity with which he lived his life. They’ve preserved two rooms where Ramana Maharishi seemed to have lived, died and held meetings. And the rooms were tiny and sparse. An astute builder would have sold that much space as a cosy 1 BHK but we are talking about a guy who commandeers thousands (if not lakhs) seekers. And yet he lived in place with no opulence. Room barely large enough to do even yoga, white bedsheets and literally no furnishing. Made me wonder why do people chase opulence of palaces and kingdoms.

Reminded of that couplet by Mehshar Afridi. He says,

“Rehta Hai Sirf Ek Hi Kamre Mai Aadmi, Uska Guroor Rehta Hai Baki Makaan Mai!”

And no, this is not to be confused with Minimalism or hoarding. This is more from the space of needing little. You may or may have large wants. I’ve been there – want a lot, hoarded a lot, reduced those. And now I am an advocate of Optimalism – things that you need to live a good life. This includes, limited number of clothes, comfortable bed, cool bedroom, air purifier (while in india lol) and a Starbucks ;p

Lol!

Only I could have compared Starbucks and Sri Ramanasramam in one note. On the mid-wit curve, I am either the illuminated one. Or I am stupid. You decide. And lemme know.

So, to end this part, if I were to talk about who am I, these things come to the top of mind…

Medium thru which things happen. In words of Gokul, a medium of opportunity exchange.
Cheerleader of action.
Enable others to get to their salvation.
Be of service to the world around me. In words of Scott Adams, be useful.

And like most lists and things, this is WIP.

Ok. Moving on.

2/ Sleep

Lets move to worldly things like sleep and all that.

My sleep has been all over the place this month. Many reasons. The big one is of course all the travel. And the minor one is all the distractions. And I want to fix it. I can control the distractions for sure – other things will need some thinking.

I have realised that with age, unless I get my sleep, I am unable to function well. And on top of that, with lesser time at hand, I want to optimize the time that I am up. And thus means that I need to get more from my sleep.

You see how this is a vicious circle?

3/ Constant Simulation

Marrying 1 and 2 above, I am acutely aware of this constant simulation that I have subjected my mind to. I mean there is not a second in my day when I am not jumping from one thing to another. And that’s NOT cool at all. I can’t be of service to the world (or my loved ones) if I am unable to get deep into things.

So I need to find a solution.

I can start with the modern-day boon and bane. The mobile phone. I will fix my life.

So, over the next 21 days (habit formation and all that), lemme try to fix this. And while I am at it, I will also try to add some more good habits.

So, I will be off SM (unless work), eat only Lal Babu’s food (if I am in Mumbai) and average 15K steps per day. And if I can do these three, without an exception, I will reward myself with a trip to Singapore in March.

Off SM means I will delete apps from phone (use only on laptop and that too ONLY when I am in a Starbucks). I will not actively post (unless someone asks me to open it). I will use my YT lives and these weekly updates as a way to share what I am upto.

Eat Lal Babu’s food means the things that are cooked in my kitchen by Lal Babu. If I am travelling, I will see what I will find to eat.

Steps is easy. Wherever I go.

To be honest, I was unable to stay off social media cos I thought that I will miss out on something important. I mean look at how fast the world is moving! But then, fuck the FOMO. I am sure the Village will keep me abreast with what I need to know. And news important enough for me to know, will reach me!

Oh, and this starts the day I land in Mumbai. Lol!

4/ Making Health my identity

Marrying the three above, I think I will make health my identity. Lemme explain.

A person like Virat Kohli is paid to play well. The largest ingredient in that is to be fit – physically and mentally. An actor like Ranbir Sing is paid to look good. The largest ingredient is perceived beauty. A corporate leader is paid to make great decisions. A large part of that is low cognitive load and thus they are offered comforts.

I am not an athlete, not an actor and not a corporate leader. In fact, I refuse to let my identity come from the work I do. However if I dont want my body to fail my brain, I need to keep the body well.

If I were to look at my work, I am probably paid to think and connect. Connect people, dots, things. And get things done. And I do all this with a lot of enthusiasm, effort and emotion.

Now, if I could do the same effort with same three Es, for my health, I would get fitter. So that.

Side Note: I saw a reflection of me in a mirror while I am here (in a tee and pants) and I dont like how I look. And this, I want to change.

PS: Credits to this book that I am reading.

5/ Chennai

I have loved my time in Chennai this trip. There was less traffic (probably because long weekend), great weather (needed AC but I could walk on the roads) and great people (Aashik, Nikhil, Aditya, Shravan etc). And there was enough things to do. There’s something about relaxed, no-agenda meetups

Also reminds me that I must travel more often (lol).

Oh, this is a photo from a random traffic signal in Chennai. I am told that all these red signals have red hearts. Lol.

6/ Nagarathna Memorial Grant is now open

The annual Grant is now open.

In Thej’s words, “I am creating a yearly ₹1,00,000¹ micro-grant to support something meaningful. Grant is named after my mother – Nagarathna. The reason for grant could be anything as long its meaningful to you and people around. Though I prefer free and open source or creative commons projects, It’s not a must. It’s a no strings attached grant.”

I am a fan of Thej’s work and I support his grant. In fact, I instituted SoG Grant after I learnt about microgrants from NMG. I encourage you to apply and share word.

7/ Notes from flight to Chennai (AI 2780)

It’s no secret that I take notes when I am in flights, I take notes (this time I saw parts of a a movie as well and I must see more films as well and make more films) and here are some redacted, snippets from the flight.

I need a main quest that gives meaning to life. I think running a business is not a quest. While its creating and keeps me happy and engaged and all that, its not a big one. Think of the quests that Dr Peterson talks about. Think of a “provider” for a family.
I love being in flights. They allow me to think hard and deep about things. Need to make more such caves.
I realised that I dont work harder cos I have it easy. On paper, I have a business that throws enough cash at me to keep happy and maybe this is a problem? I dont talk about this often. Must do.
I am not even an petty thief!
What do I focus on this year – yet to find out. I have options – events, defi, Helio.
Live a life where I work hard, get paid well and I pay people well. Sanket told me this first. So that.

8/ Films

Staying on the notes, I think I must make movies!

I dont know why I keep coming back to it. There was a time when I was convinced that I wanted to make movies. I chased that dream. Made some moves. Failed. And now that I am back to thinking of the next steps, I find myself wanting to do movies! And even though I know that AI will screw this business, I am still keen on doing that.

This seems to be the constant itch that I cant seem to get away from. As a child, I had wanted to make ad films, then I wrote a book, then some short films and then I have been all over the place. I must either scratch the itch (make films and get over with it) or I must bury the hatchet!

9/ WordPress vs Substack

Substack seems to be evolving into a CMS and an ecosystem. It seems to be evolving into a blogger / Medium. Compared to wordpress, I think Substack offers a lot of advantages and I am almost on the fence about moving my words to Substack.

I typically want to own my content and words and all that and while on Substack as well, the words would be mine, I am still on the fence about it. The ones who’ve moved, what do you think?

Any other learned opinions?

10/ Misc things from this week

Here are some thing that I want to capture but not necessarily talk about in great length.

This speech is kickass. Do see. It talks about The Power of the Powerless. One of the best texts I’ve ever read in a long long time.
This group of musicians, Patiala Mehfil, has my heart. Each time I see a great music act, I want to get into that business.
This campaign by Plum is KICKASS. I wrote about it here. If you are a marketer, please take note.
DD held their Darbar in Chennai. OFC, I didn’t attend it but a win for someone from the village.

Guess this is it.

I dont have a lot of reads, link etc this week (travel, you see). Maybe more next week.

🈺 Photos from Week 4

Here are some.

Over the next weeks, I will retire this. Takes a lot of time and gives no ROI. Plus I now include pics in the commentary section. Lets see.

🈺 Trackers from Week 4

At some point in time, I will have detailed trackers to show. But for the time being the small numbers that I have tracked are…

Average Steps -9047. I want this to be 15K over the next 20 days or so.
Pickle Sessions – 1. I want this to be 3 over the next few days. I also want to upgrade to Paddle one of these days.
YT Live Sessions – 4. Missed for the 22nd, 24th and 25th. Will miss 26th as well unless i do it from the car, en route to Chennai. Let’s see.

What is missing?
Well, sleep, workout, yoga sessions, food, emotions, habits, money and more.

🈺 Action on LARGE objectives for the year

In this section, I will capture my progress on large objectives for the year. In 2026, I plan to do the following three things…

Book2
Human Flag Pole
Save a million dollars

No action last week either. Jan is almost over and I have not moved an inch on this! Also, last week I mentioned that if I am gonna be moving around this year, how do I keep consistent towards the goals. I dont know the answer. Will think.

☑️ So, what did I get done last week? And what will I do next week?

This is a one-line report on progress I made on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.

I will get back on this in the next update. This year, I want to track the following…

Health. I will work on sleep, food and movement.
C4E / Work. I want to shortlist some idea that I want to work on.
Brand SG / Distribution
People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
Book2. I want to start with this.
Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

🏃🏻‍♂️‍➡️ Health

Like the last one, no action. Give me a few weeks.

🧠 Reminders from last week

This section captures things that I want to not forget. I add those to SG’s Office. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates.

Again, need a few weeks

Like the last two, I will get back on this in the next few updates.

🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Downtime.

The other words for this year have been: Journey.

—
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. Previous editions:

2026: 1, 2, 3,

PPS: Please do point typos.

PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.

PPPPS: This is the first “update” of the year and thus a lot of this is incomplete. Allow me one or two weeks to get settled. And, on this one, do lemme know what you think of the new format.