10:30 AM
Starbucks, Versova
I am at my regular Starbucks.
On my non-regular table (the one I sit one has been occupied by a group of young people and I dont want to be around — for I will be distracted with their chatter). And with my regular order of coffee (hot Americano). And without butter. There’s a lot on my mind and this is my opportunity to dump it all.
As always, before I go, here’s the music that am listening to on loop.
This week was about this (Home by The Magnetic Zeroes) and a LOT more about Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin from A Complete Unknown.
Thing with Bob is, his music makes you think. Snaps you out of your reverie. Makes you want to take to the streets. And question your existence. Each song is like a battlecry. Each is like a whack on the side of your head. Each a clarion call. Each an opportunity to go do more. Each makes you want to do more with your life.
Oh, Bob!
Anyhow, from this one, my fav lines are…
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’
In fact, these lines are up there in my “dream list” of things that I wish I had written. The other one includes The Piano Man and Hotel California. No, I dont want to get in to that Rabbit Hole of writing and all.
Right now, I need to focus on the review and I have a lot to say.
Any how.
Let’s go…
💭 Highlights, reflections, updates, notes and thoughts from the last week
Unlike the last few week, I am trying to do this in some order. I may not be able to explain in words but there is an order this time.
1/ C4E Sunset Club
If you are ever in Versova beach, you must head to C4E Sunset Club. I went there this week.
After ages.
And I loved it.
And I have no shame in saying that I missed it.
Here’s an unedited photo from there.
I even made a mental note for myself. That I will find a way to always live close to a beach.
No, I am not a water person per se (I don’t like to get wet or dirty on the beach) but I love that I can see the expansive sky from there. It makes me feel alive with possibilities. I feel that there’s this journey to nowhere. In fact, growing up, I was always a mountains person (maybe cos I was in Delhi?) and I think this shift in the love for the beach happened after I moved to Mumbai. Now that I am contemplating moving to a different country, I want to be able to have some water body, some ocean, some expansive sky to stare at.
So that.
2/ Self-love 101
In one of my consultations with a FOXO doc, I was made aware of my disdain for self. I may be using a stronger word (or maybe, its milder) but in my personality, there is an apparent and visible lack of self love. And I’ve been told to work on it to fix it. Funny cos even Kunal, without any provocation brought this up.
So if two different people, each without a common connection can see that I have a problem with self-love, I better listen to them. And work on it. After all, acknowledging the problem is the first step.
But then when I read about the way to fix it, my science-first brain was unable to fathom the tools and methods and practices that I need to engage with to get better. And mind you, these are coming from folks who’ve spent decades in research on the human mind and human condition. And despite this mountain of scientific evidence, I am unable to bring myself to work on it.
So that.
But, but, but… I will work on it.
After all, when two unrelated, smart and well read people tell me the same thing, I take them serious. So, over the next few updates you will see me talking about my experiments with self-love.
3/ Rage-bait
Staying on my personality quirks, the next thing is rage-bait.
On wikipedia, it is defined as…
…rage-baiting (also ragebaiting, rage-farming, or rage-seeding) is the manipulative tactic of eliciting outrage with the goal of increasing internet traffic, online engagement, and revenue, as well as attracting new subscribers, followers, or supporters. This manipulation occurs through offensive or inflammatory headlines, memes, tropes, or comments that provoke users to respond in kind.
So, one of the smartest young people I know (I wish I could work with them at some point in time), told me that when I talk, I ragebait.
When I was told this, my first instinct was to reject it. After all, rage-baiting is the lowest form of human interaction and I would rather become a hermit than relying on rage-baiting to get to where I want to be.
But since this person is smart, I took a beat.
Thought about it.
And while I was unable to see any example of me rage-baiting, I decided that I will ask people around and talk to them. So here we are. If you read this and you know me, do you think I rage-bait?
I will tell you what I know for sure…
- I know that my opinions and life choices and decisions are not per norms of the world we live in.
- I know that I am a big fan of what we call, “toxic positivity”. The world takes it as negative. I dont. I think if in this one life we dont experience everything, what’s the point? And if we dont push ourselves, who will? And if not now, when?
- I know that I am not a believer in the idea of work-life balance. Rather, I love the idea of work-life harmony. I also like Naval’s idea of working like a lion (see this and this).
- I can be passionate when I speak. This means I tend to lean into my conversations. And some people find it rude and off-putting.
- I have been told that I am often dismissive of people who dont believe in my world-view. I dont agree. But I have been told this often and thus I am aware.
I am sure there are more things that make my personality a bit extreme, a bit negative. But among all things that I know (or dont know), I dont want to be the one rage-baiting anyone.
So, if you think I rage-bait, PLEASE let me know and I will work to fix it.
4/ Poker
The week gone by, I played poker.
After a while.
And it was good.
I had fun!
I didnt really play well (in case you are curious, I didnt lose) but I did enjoy being on the table. The dream of being a professional poker player was rekindled. I even made a video about it. No, it was not the best and I want to do more nuanced conversation on Poker. Let’s see when.
But, the point is, I played.
And I had fun.
I need to find a way to slip it in, in my routine.
And no, I dont enjoy online games. I love the idea of being on the table.
Lets see when I get to play next.
5/ sgWasHere.com is live!
Over the last week, I used Claude to bring sgWasHere.com to life.
I plan to make that my writing hub.
And seek one or two large projects each year.
These projects must allow me to meet great people doing grand things.
These could be in shape of a ghostwritten biography, a long-form article, a speech, a note or something. Over the next few weeks, I will try to market this and get feedback. And once I get the conviction, will put this out on the internet.
Please do see the website and lemme know what you think.
PS: To be honest, I want to get sgWrites.com or something but I didnt want to wait and wanted to optimise the domains I had. sgWasHere.com sounded nice to me and I went ahead. And anyhow I’ve had the domain since I saw Brooks Was Here.
6/ Podcast with SheR
Of all the friends I’ve made on Internet, Seena and Reyana would be up there!
The two of them run SheR, a communication agency focused sharply on helping brands work on their community efforts. Their website is WIP but you must check their LinkedIn posts. They are onto something really interesting and I am in awe of their ability to have this laser-sharp focus.
The other day, they invited me on their podcast to talk about my thoughts on community. I went and spoke. I dont know if I made sense but I had a lot of fun. They made me think a lot and the things that I spoke with them sparked lot of ideas.
I am gonna take the transcript from that podcast and turn that into my 101 for community building.
PS: This was after a while when I was doing a gyaan session (on a podcast) and I must say, I loved it.
PPS: Must push more for more podcast conversations.
7/ Money Matters
I was talking to AK the other day and I realised that I suck at understanding of money. I make some. I lose some. And I save some. But I am unable to tame it.
I’ve read all books that you can imagine – Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Morgan Housel, Vishal Khandelwal and more. And yet I am unable to tame it. I think I don’t value it enough and like all good things that you don’t value, you lose them. I know that till I learn how to tame it, I will (shall?) remain a slave.
And no, I dont have action points here. I know I need to fix my relationship with money. I need to understand money. I know my friends are very good with it. Just that I dont know what to do. Maybe I will use some AI LLM to help me with it.
Any ideas?
PS: No, I don’t have a problem in making money. I make enough to live a middle-class life and not rent my time. Just that I am unable to have it work for me.
8/ Young People
C4E needs to hire a project manager. And to help them, I decided to be the first port of call. So, I met a few young people. And I must say, it was good. Makes you realise where you are in life.
Also, it was after a while that I was meeting people. And while the average quality of folks I am meeting has gone down, one or two were really good. Its sad that it wont work out with them cos most of them are stuck to being in their hometowns, are fixated on not making C4E their priority and in one case, C4E wont be able to afford them.
Must find a way to meet more people.
9/ Work
The month of March is coming to an end. And I had given myself this period (Q1, 2026) to figure out where I applied myself to. And I dont have a clue. There are many explorations, many ideas, but nothing is concrete.
The only pattern that seems to be emerging is that I dont want to be in India. I dont have the resources or the plan to be out. But I will be deliberate about it.
Let’s see.
10/ Misc Things
This has things that I am thinking about but I want to add them to one large list with one line each.
- Boman Irani Sir’s Competition. At Spiral Bound, Boman Sir is running a screenplay competition. Its been more than a month that he announced it and I have not moved a needle on it. They are write that time flies!
- Miss plays, pickle and Poo.
- BKK. In the month of April, I will spend 10 odd days in Bangkok. I am with some folks from C4E. And then I am with some friends from MDI. I typically dont get excited about travel but this trip, I am looking forward to!
- I will use a Nokia phone for all of April. I will carry my iPhone but I will use it as less as I can. I will carry cash, I will hand carry my groceries, I will use ricks in a regular manner. When I am in BKK, I will be with someone or the other and I will lean on to them. Let’s see how it goes.
- At home, things are not the best. Will figure.
- Stumbled onto Mehdi Hasan and his genius and how he speaks. A big fan. See this tribute from him, to his father. You will hopefully hear more from him.
- Staying at the how to speak well, saw this video of the lecture by Prof Patrick Winston and WOW! You must see this.
- AI. No mention of AI in this post at all! Probably a rare one where I’ve not used these two words. And thus I had to put the keyword.
- Fitness. I increasingly find myself thinking about and taking no action about my fitness.
- I want to do a clone of NPR’s Tiny Desk. Come on, universe!
- Promises – People. I had written this in my notes but I forgot what this was about. We shall never know.
Phew!
🈺 Photos from the past few days
Here are some.
I think this is the last week when I share this. Unless something grand happens in the next 7 days.
🈺 Trackers…
Back with the trackers. Not perfect. Not 100% there. But back. Tell me what you see…
Clearly, I’ve been all over the place and I need to pull my socks.
Same as the digital one. I started using this one cos I wanted to rely less on the laptop and the phone once I woke up. Clearly that’s not happening.
🈺 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.
☑️ 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. As you see from the notes above, I havent been able to make any progress.
- C4E / Work. I want to shortlist some idea that I want to work on. I dont know what would I do. But I have started to move in some direction.
- Brand SG / Distribution. No action on this. If you could the SheR podcast and daily live, maybe yes!
- People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc). No action.
- Book2. I want to start with this. No action.
- Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc). Played poker 🙂
🏃🏻♂️➡️ 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 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.
A few things.
- Update C4E’s Culture Book. This is still WIP.
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?
Activity.
Not action.
YKIYK.
The other words for this year have been: 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:
PPS: Please do point typos.
PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.