Wk 51-25 – Weekly Notes

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.

Music from Lootera

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…

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.
Focus. Not saying anything else.
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.
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…

Photos from the week gone by are here.
Met Shweta and talked about reviving Party of 9
Met Karishma and talked about how I want to network with people who can give me a crore and forget about it.
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.
My daily morning solocasts series has now reached a number of 17. Tiny win for the month.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

150121 – Morning Pages

I talk about how yesterday was a bad day and how I need to write about films and may be, make a quick trip to Mumbai.

7:34 AM. I had a disappointing day yesterday. More than external factors that I can easily pin blame on, I think it was me. A couple of really important meetings got canceled (no, this is not my fault). I missed sending an email to a prospective client (I should’ve been more careful). Another client call got fucked cos my internet sucked (I could’ve been at a co-working space rather than at a cafe). The two projects that I am thinking hard about – Shumbur and TRS in Goa, both are proving to be tough to crack. Both of these depend on other people saying yes and it’s a task to first find those, pitch to those, and then close. Of course, it is fun to do these but still. Life should be easier. I stress-ate crap like Doritos and chocolates and Chips and all. Despite eating well for a large part of the day. And promising to myself that I will not eat. All it took was a few taps on Swiggy. Even though it’s not installed on my phone.

I hope today is better. Even though am groggy and sore in the back and neck and joints (is this a result of eating crap?). I do have quite a few things lined up for the day. I plan to check out this new co-working cafe that has come up in Anjuna (Felix). Clay is anyway fun, just that the phone does not work there at all and I can’t do video calls. If I can get another alternative in Felix, why not! PS: While looking for directions to Felix, I figured, there’s another one – Nomad. Should’ve tried that as well! I did not know there would be so many coworking places in Goa. I have to get going with that Ultimate Guide to Remote Working from Goa.

So that’s the rant on how the day yesterday was.

Coming to what am thinking on. The favorite part of these morning pages for me. While talking to Shikha yesterday about TRS and where it could go, I realized that I want to write about films and Bollywood, and more. Though I am not as well-informed or well-read or well-researched about it, I think films have the power like no other medium. For most people, it is the most immersive, easiest to comprehend and understand the medium. And that gives filmmakers power like nothing else. While I am far from making films, I can definitely talk about this power. And how filmmakers are leveraging (and even wasting) the opportunity they have. I can’t talk about the craft per se. I can’t talk about deep, thinking filmmakers that have shown alternative realities to us. I am not even aware of world cinema. I am a mere aam aadmi that finds my escape in a film that is made well and I want to write about that. Of course, I do want to point out the problematic things they paddle in their films (body-shaming, hate-mongering, casual sexism, stereotyping et al). Films, after all, have to reflect the times we live in, talk about how can we move forward, and communicate things that simpletons like me do not understand. The good part is that in The Red Sparrow, I have access to a film platform that reaches far and wide. However, this access is not really a free pass. I still need to pass through the editorial filters of the team that manages it. I can’t bypass that. Even if I could, I don’t want to. The platform is bigger than an individual.

The other thing am thinking is that I need a trip to the chaos of Mumbai soon. I’ve been here 45 days. I know how it is to live here and I know the issues and I know the good things. I need to now decide on where I want to be. I want to make a trip to Mumbai before I do that.

On that trip, I can see if I like the comforts of Mumbai better. Or if I like the open expanses of Goa. If I decide on Goa, I can even wrap up the house and belongings in Mumbai. And if I do that, I will have to find a hostel or something that I can use when I travel there for these “break” trips from the peace of Goa. Let’s see when that happens. Plus, if I want to be in Goa, I will have to find a house for myself in Goa. I can of course use Rajesh sir’s house. He’s cool like that. But I don’t want to take advantage of his kindness. And if I choose to be here, I am reasonably sure that I want to be in Anjuna, Assagaon, or thereabouts. It has to be North. Beyond Baga and the touristy stretches and yet close to places where people hang out. I could go even further to Mandrem / Ashwen etc. but that would make me very far from almost everything.

Lol. I think I am getting ahead of myself. The entire para above is essentially me getting ahead of myself with things. Take a deep breath, Mr. Garg. I think it’s all the carbs that I ate last night that are talking. I don’t even know where would my work take me. What if work picks up in Mumbai? Or Delhi? Even Chennai for that matter? What if projects that am thinking about do not materialize in Goa? That’s something that I don’t have an answer to. I need to think. Let’s see.

So that.

Onto #freewriting for #book2. It is 8:31. I will write till 9. Let’s see how many words do I get in.

Blue.

The color of the sea.

Every time I see the sea, I am fascinated by the vastness of it. It is so infinite, so never-ending that it would have only taken the ingenuity of a human to navigate. I don’t think any of God’s creation has what it takes to circumnavigate all the waters that we are surrounded by. True, some fishes are known to travel more than 12000 KMs in search of food and warmth, and better seasons. They still do not come close to us. We may not have the fins or coated eyes of gills or large lungs or whatever. But we do have a thumb that moves perpendicular to the other 4 fingers. And we have the wheel. And we have tamed the fire. And we have sharp tools to make whatever we want to. And we have made them boats that tear around the sea and take us places.

I’ve never been close to one. I grew up in Punjab and while we did dip around in the lakes and canals and the rivers that dotted the state, I never knew of the infinite that an ocean is. Funny that I think about it from the closed confines of the cell that I am locked in. Often when the sea is in a mood and the winds are strong, they carry the smells from the faraway lands. On the nights when the ocean is angry and dueling with the rock, we are on the top of, the moans and the cacophony of the crashes drown even the voices in the head. That’s what all of us want in life. No? Drown them voices in the head? To get out of the shackles and the traps that our own minds have bound us in?

There were no easy answers for Raunak.

On one side, he was in jail for the rest of his life, without a possibility of a bail. Who would bail him anyway? There was no next of kin. No one even knew if he was alive.

And on the other, he held the secret to the greatest treasure known to mankind.

***

Ok, that’s about it for the day. More tomorrow.