6 PM, 21 Dec 2025
Starbucks, Versova

I cant believe it. We are in the 51st week of 2025. What started as an experiment is nearing a year. I’ve missed some 10 weeks (week numbers 9, 15, 17, 22, 24, 41, 43, 45, 48, 49) but I showed up the other 40. And I poured my heart and head out on this blog. For the world to see. World in this case is those 2 people who come here each week (I get an average of 23 impressions each 90 days and thus translates into about 2 people per week). The audience is beside the point. The point is that I’ve been able to become that person who does his actions and is detached from the outcomes. This itself is a loaded statement. If I am truly detached from the outcomes, what keeps me going. And I dont know the answer. I guess that’s for me to discover along the way.

Ok, without further ado, let’s get on with the review of the week gone by. I will use the “freewriting” format that I used last time (unlike what I’ve been using thru the year).

Let’s go.

Oh wait, the music for this post is the Lootera Theme.

Ok, lets go…

💭 Highlights, reflections, updates and notes

As always, these are not in any order.

A/ Ayesha at Filmfare OTT

Shikha and Nihit’s film, Ayesha got a Filmfare for the best short film.

By association, I am now a producer of a film that has won the coveted Black Lady. And while on paper, I may have won a Filmfare, truth be told, I didnt do an iota of work on this. Except maybe helping with some money. So the award is Shikha and Nihit and team’s.

Love when my people do well.

I hope they go onto to many more grand things. I am and will remain a cheerleader.

B/ Lal Babu

I now have Lal Babu in my life. He’s a cook on hire and used to work at a friend’s place. And I hired him.

Today was his day 1.

And even though he made some baingan ka bharta and egg curry, I did eat kachra from outside. I will stop it from tomorrow. Ok not tomorrow. I have a team dinner. But I have a cook now. After ALL the mehnat to find someone to cook for me and take care of my diet, I now have someone.

And with that, now I do NOT have a single excuse to not do well on the health department. If now I am unable to get them 6 packs and those marathons and all that, I have no one to blame.

C/ Unseen (the Deepinder Goyal biography)

I finished reading Unseen. And I did a session of sorts where I talked about my reflections from the book. I will also make a blogpost about it. But meanwhile, here are my notes (access only to friends).

Among the things that am taking away are…

1. Naina‘s website and System’s Thinking. I don’t know shit about either and I will invest time and energy to read more about them.
2. Focus. Not saying anything else.
3. A stack of notes where I will write my values and look at them everyday. I do have a tiny notebook where I note these things. I carried it to the Everest Base Camp as well. But I dont see it everyday. I need to make that.
4. I need to build a space and a place that’s like a sanctuary where I get to spend time with myself. At this point, I am unable to afford one but I need to build this. Like a base. Where I come back to even when I am on the road a lot. So, in 2026, after I’ve paid back the loan and secured the life and money for my people, I will build this. I dont know. May or may not be Mumbai. Let’s see.

D/ Hareesh Tibrewala

I met Hareesh Sir after a while.

Each time I meet him, I am more inspired to do more with my life. And operate from more equanimity. And do more things from an impact lens. Impact not as in social service. But from the space of doing meaningful things.

Oh, among other things, he’s putting up Manabu Labs. If you need help and inputs on implementing AI for your teams, he’s your man.

E/ Pickle Ball

I played Pickle Ball the other day with O-A-C. And I must admit it was good to be in a sporting arena. Lol, sporting arena!

Pickle probably is that thing that I had a VERY strong opinion about but was loosely held. I now think there is merit in all the hype about it. I should’ve spotted it early on. Could’ve built a business around it. Anyhow.

Vivek has been raving about it for months. I ignored it as an elitist phenomenon (which it is – each session is like 1500 bucks). But now that I have seen that it probably works for me, I will invest more time and energy in it. I see myself going back to court many times. In fact I was telling C that she should earmark days and dates in calendar for pickle sessions.

Oh, I played it a few nights ago. My legs are hurting till date. So, if nothing else, its good movement and cardio. Let’s see how many times can I go in the coming week. I am setting myself a target of 3 outings to the court. I know I am not going on Monday for sure. So, maybe will block Tuesday already?

F/ Misc things

In no order…

1. Photos from the week gone by are here.
2. Met Shweta and talked about reviving Party of 9
3. Met Karishma and talked about how I want to network with people who can give me a crore and forget about it.
4. While talking to AK, I talked about how much I loved Apollo Tyres’s Road is a Friend. See it here. I wish we had more advertising writers like this. And more brands like Apollo Tyres.
5. My daily morning solocasts series has now reached a number of 17. Tiny win for the month.
6. Spoke to Vanita after a while. And as always, it was the most human conversation I’ve had in a while. The questions were deeply personal and I dont really talk about those to a lot of people. No more comments apart from that. So that’s that.
7. Thinking about a podcast about storytelling. I am just worried that I dont load myself a lot with random things, in a year when I want to focus.
8. This tweet and the related thread about how one must always create even if you are old. Charlie was working till a few days before he died.
9. I am traveling to Chennai in Jan 2026 #jan2026. The primary agenda is to visit Sri Ramana Ashram. I will have lot of time and if you are there or know someone there that I must meet, please do let me know.
10. I am taking my time with Year Compass. I am halfway thru it. And I am yet to start the review of 2025 and plan for 2026.

Guess this is it for the week.

See you next week. Till then, peace!

—
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 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 44, 46, 47

I’ve missed the following weeks: 9, 15, 17, 22, 24, 41, 43, 45, 48, 49

PPS: Please do point typos.
Grammarly is not working with WordPress 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.