Tag: Thejesh GN

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

The entrance to the Ashram.

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.

The midwit curve.

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.

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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?

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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.

Guess what made Beeple famous?

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!

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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.

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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).

Red hearts pro max!

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

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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.

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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.

  1. 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.
  2. I love being in flights. They allow me to think hard and deep about things. Need to make more such caves.
  3. 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.
  4. I am not even an petty thief!
  5. What do I focus on this year – yet to find out. I have options – events, defi, Helio.
  6. Live a life where I work hard, get paid well and I pay people well. Sanket told me this first. So that.

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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!

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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?

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10/ Misc things from this week

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

  1. 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.
  2. This group of musicians, Patiala Mehfil, has my heart. Each time I see a great music act, I want to get into that business.
  3. This campaign by Plum is KICKASS. I wrote about it here. If you are a marketer, please take note.
  4. 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.

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🈺 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.

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🈺 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.

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🈺 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…

  1. Book2
  2. Human Flag Pole
  3. 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.

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☑️ 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…

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

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🏃🏻‍♂️‍➡️ 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.

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

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🧠 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.

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🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Downtime.

The other words for this year have been: Journey.

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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.

Wk 42-25 – Weekly Notes

Updates from Week 41 and 42 of 2025.

5:30 PM. Oct 18, 2025, Starbucks, Versova.
6:40 AM. Oct 19, 2025, Mumbai Airport.
6:30 PM. Oct 19, 2025, Home (DG).

So, I am back to writing these notes after a week.

The last two weeks have not been the best and I a lot of it was things that I couldnt control. The good part is that I was travelling and I was reading (I read Morgan Housel’s new book; more on that later). And thus I was ok.

I think there’s a lot to unpack today. So, lets get going.

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💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week

PS: As always, these are not in any order.

A/ Most thanked person in Oscar Acceptance Speeches
I was talking to AD and someone else and I happened to mention that one of the lifegoals is to impact lives of so many people at such large level that I get to compete with Steven.

For context, Steven Spielberg is THE most thanked person at the Oscars.

Spielberg is THE most thanked person in Oscar acceptance speeches.

I would love to be in this club some day! I mean can you imagine the effort and the hard work it would’ve taken for a Steven to have these many people in gratitude?

Oh, and apart from just this, I would like to be in the acknowledgements page of books and biographies. So far, I am in a few and I would want to have chapters dedicated in there. And no, the point is not a shot at legacy or immortality, but at enabling more people do more.

And this reminds me of another tweet that I saw…

Tweets from MJS’ handle delete and thus had to take a screenshot.

Peter Keating anyone? SoG?

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B/ Postcard Club.
Another idea from Thej that I am stealing.
Read his post here.

The premise is simple. I will send postcards, with stamps and all that to folks who opt-in to receive it. And at some point in time, I would invite other folks to send postcards to more people. And then we shall see where it goes.

Here are the first two postcards I sent.

From a restaurant in Goa.

In case you want to be a part of this club, DM me. And disclaimer – like most things that I think a lot about, there are no guarantees that I will do this.

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C/ Morgan Housel’s Art of Spending Money
Read this book over the last few days.

Way too many notes.
Underlined a large part of the book.

A lot of what I read, I knew that already but there was a lot of reaffirmation and at times that’s the value of what you read. And since a lot of words were clustered together in the book and I was in the thinking zone, the reading was even more impactful. I think thats the point of reading books. Dense content about one topic. And reinforcement of the same via multiple examples and stories and chapters.

I think I will write an entire post on this, assuming I get time. I even did a YT live today. Not so happy but I did it and here it is.

On the live, at the peak, I 6 people joining in. At some point, I want to have a lot more people listening in. Not because I crave for an audience but because I want a platform large enough for me to have a large impact in life.

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D/ 43
The other day, someone asked they wanted to create a meetup of young people. And I commented on it and said, if 43-year olds are allowed and young at heart are welcome I would love to be in.

Right after I posted this, I feel awkward and weird and sad. It sucked that I am having to justify that age is a number. I think it’s about time I accept that I am a never-was.

So that!

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E/ AI Film Festival
Some kids are doing this AI Film Festival in Mumbai.
And wow.
Many emotions.
Here’s a list.

  • We had the same idea at C4E but we couldn’t do it. This is nothing but a slap on the face. I need to build a stronger muscle for action. Plus I need to inspire my people to do more. And do so faster. And ensure that we followup on action. And I want to encourage them to think larger. Each thing we start, we start with a small vision. I encourage that. And I want to change it.
  • I love the fact that AI is democratizing otherwise gatekept industries. Of course incumbents will catch up and bring things back to the mud but some new folks will arrive, shine and make hay!
  • My bachpan ka want of making films resurfaced. I made attempts with Red Carbon. But I was unable to sustain the partnership. I was very very hopeful when we did the tnks trailer. But I was unable to inspire my people to actually do. Maybe I should start taking matters and things in my own hands and being a pesky boss?
  • Glad that someone is doing it. Even better that young people. More power to them and other young folks. I am so very often reminded that so many young people are so fearless and so action oriented and so resourceful that I am often left ashamed and gawking at their greatness. Must surround myself with more young people.

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F/ Updated the Vision Board
Here.
Not open for public access.
Made update in the Wheel of Life and while I did that, I realised that this is the tiniest I’ve been in my life!

Here’s the template that you may want to use to fill yours.

Saw this first on a Tony Robbins video

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G/ Made a list of Regrets in life. Here.
This is WIP at this time.
Will evolve this as I go along.

The idea is that I want to live an open life and I want to not hide anything about myself from anyone at anytime. And this must include the goods and the bads, and the highs and the lows, the wins and the losses and everything in the middle.

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H/ Theatre
One of the things I really enjoy in life, is, to indulge in theatre. You know, live performances.

While I love the feeling sitting face to face with the performers, I dont understand why the theatre artists invest their time and energy in theatre. Each ticket is like 200 bucks and even on great days, you hardly get some 100 people in the audience. So, a crew of 10 will make like 20K per show. And if they were to divide all the money between them (not even the expenses), they would get like 2K per day. And it’s pittance!

I dont get why people so this.

I asked some of my friends. And the answers weren’t very convincing. There are two plausible ones.

Someone mentioned that its the pitstop needed to get to Bollywood. But even in that, the possibility of a great outcome is like negligible. The returns are way too asymmetric to be logical about it!

Someone else mentioned that its the way of life and the purest artwork there is. Again, I am not convinced about that. I am sure there are other means to feel alive?

Neither is convincing enough to me. Any clues?

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I/ Focus
One of these days, on my way back from Starbucks, I was walking with C and we were reflecting about life and all.

I popped a question.

If I were to look at 100 of the most successful people in the world and we listed top 5 traits that they had, at the most I will get a list of 500 traits and if there is a perfect overlap of traits, I would have 5 traits only.

I asked some LLMs about and this is what they had to say. So, lets say there are 20 traits that are shared by a lot of successful people.

Here is a list I made (a combination of what I learnt from AI and from my intuition).

I can say with a large certainty, that the list of traits would have things like hard work, ambition, focus, creativity, persuasion, discipline, growth mindset, perseverance, people skills, confidence, self-belief, humility and all that. 

And then I said to myself, I seem to have almost ALL of these and yet I am not even a mild success. I even tweeted about it.

I could make a mental nod against each thing and I could demonstrate actions and all against each. Except one.

Focus.

I’ve been told since I was child that I am way too all over the place and I need to focus. And I have strongly objected to any sort of focus ever. I have laughed at people who’ve told me to focus. I have even blamed it on my undetected ADHD.

And maybe, just maybe, I will focus on focus!

Lol!

So, may be, I will focus and see what I would achieve if I did one thing for one year.

PS: The effort on Meru has been as focussed as they come – I have not thought about anything else since late last year. While it is not yet any close to success but thanks to HT, MK, KP, VS and others, I am certain that it would be LARGE!

Bonus: Here’s my library of quotes around focus.

Bonus 2: Here’s a list of my values, as suggested by friends and others.

Bonus 3: Another tweet from a D2C founder.

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J/ Self Cringe
Riya has been working hard to help me build distribution. And its incredible how much effort that young girl is putting! I am beyond inspired! Yet another case of young people doing superhuman things that make you wide eyed!

The only trouble is, I get cringed out each time I see myself.

For starters, I don’t like to see my face. And then a deeper reason – I’ve not done anything large or substantial to be able to give gyaan to people. Plus I am making tall promises to “teach” people to do more. I am not sure if this is correct!

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K/ Mahabharata Series has crossed 25 posts
A few days ago, I promised that I will write a post a day on linkedin. And I thought it would be a good idea to write about management lesson from Mahabharata. It would kill many birds.

Some are…

  • I would get to explore Mahabharata as a subject. I love it and this will force me to carve time to read more, discuss more and think more.
  • I will get the daily writing Riyaaz.
  • I will get to build my distribution on linkedin – something that I’ve thought a lot about.
  • I will meet more people via this.

And somehow, I’ve been very very consistent with it. Yesterday I posted the 26th update. This link has all posts.

But, the series is not performing well. I have not seen a bumper jump in my followers. There are hardly any comments or shares. I havent made new connections.

Maybe I need to accept that I dont write well?

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L/ SG’s Patrons. AKA LifeIPO
I’ve been thinking about Patrons and 1000 True Fans. And I think I am ready to take the experiment to the next stage. See this tweet.

A few weeks ago, I asked for 1000 bucks a month, in exchange of gratitude. I got two subscribers (Prak and Shruti). Now I want to offer a 1% of my life for 10 lakhs. You pay me 10 lakhs to get one share of my life (there are a total of 100 shares outstanding) and you get 1% of my time here on (you must use it yearly) and 1% of my future earnings and assets. Imagine if I become a billionaire, your 1% could be worth 10 million.

Think of this as any startup raising money. You have an idea. You peg that idea to a value. Then you add execution risk on top of it. And then you invest in the idea. That!

I am yet to get into specifics (risks, reputation, relationships, liquidity, legality etc) but I am warming up to the idea.

What do you think?

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M/ Grok’s interpretation of my content
I asked Gork to analyse my recent tweets. This is what it had to say.

I love how we can use these tools to spot patterns. Over the next few days I want to use more tools to discover more about me. At some point in time I want to explore the possibility of having my second brain uploaded on the internet and then analyse data from there on.

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N/ Goa
I was in Goa almost after a year. This time around, I spent more time going out to the temples, local beaches, eating at vegetarian restaurants, and all that. I didnt do any of my regular things. And that made me realise a few things. Here’s a list.

  • I love modern conveniences and comforts. And this means I would want to be at places that have reliable connectivity, fast internet, public transport, high-trust economy and a density of great talent.
  • I am not a naturist. I do not get excited by beaches or greens or mountains or anything like that. If need be, I would like to be in not so extreme weathers.
  • I love vibrance around me. So, I can not be at a place that is secluded.
  • I am an early bird. I love places that are open early. Once Mumbai starts 24X7 operations, I will find cafes that are open at 430 AM and make them into my havens.

As I start to think about where I want to live, these things are at the top of my head!

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O/ Fear of Flying
I would have taken at least 500 flights in life, if not 1000. And I’ve taken them in all sorts of planes (including helicopters) for all sorts of durations (from 30 minutes to 14 hours) and since 2005 (I think my first flight was from Del to Blr, though I am not sure). And I’ve experienced all kinds of turbulence and even air pockets. Though I’ve never had oxygen masks deployed and I have never been on slides.

And I have not been afraid ever. In fact, I would find excuses to get onto flights to give people hugs!

However, lately, I am afraid to fly. What if the plane goes down? I know the odds of that are a one in a million or whatever but when that one occurrence happens, the loss is 100%!

I am afraid that if that happens, it would be such a colossal waste of life and a stupid way to go! I anyway have mixed feelings towards the concept of death (I know its important but I dont get the reason why we spend so much time and effort and energy to learn things and then when the times comes to capitalise on it and be of service to the world, your time is almost up).

Ok, I digressed. The point is, I have this thing deep in the pit of my stomach or conscious or whatever each time I have to fly. And this is a new feeling! And no, I don’t enjoy this. I have wanted to live my life free of fear. And in chase of excitement and adventure. This fear bit is not core to my identity! And I need to work on it and change it.

PS: I am writing this from a comfortable, business class seat of a fairly new Air India plane and from my seat I saw that there are three pilots in the cockpit – all three fit and alert and had their spines straight, including the lady who’s the captain on this flight. So, I am hopefully safe on this one!

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I had imagined I would have a lot more to write. But clearly I dont.

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📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Some photos that I took and saved in the last two weeks are here. And if I had to pick one, I would say, this would be it…

I was in Goa and sent this postcard to AK and C. Will start a postcard club soon!

Show me some of your photos?

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🈺 LARGE objective from the week gone by?

I had two large things when I started this year. Book 2 and a yearly plan (that I’ve been writing for a long time. This year I couldn’t). And I just added health a few weeks ago.

Book 2 – There was no movement.
Nothing to report.

Yearly Plan – I dropped it long ago.
Now its time to think about the plan for the next year. Lol.

Health – I have made small changes in how I eat and what I eat. I am also walking more. I did some 5 pushups a couple of days. I now take stairs. Small steps. Nothing large. But I remain committed. I will ensure that come November, I am a gym and I am running.

PS: I track my health updates here, in case.

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☑️ So, what did I get done last 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.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health. Was a bad one. All over the place. Not just the physical health but also mental health. So, a -1.

Meru. Incredible progress. LOVE the hard work being put in by all the people. I wish I knew this team earlier. Most days I am left in awe of all that we do, despite everything. Oh, still no launch. And thus a 0.

C4E. No action from my side. No comments. A 0.

Brand SG. Riya has been shipping consistently. I am not sure I like how things are going out. I would let that continue till end of this month. And then take a call. I would give this a +1. Only because of Riya.

People. No action on this. 0.

Book 2. Nothing. -1.

Shauk. No action. No time. But not beating myself over it. So, 0.

So the overall score for the week is -1

Few weeks ago, I had decided that I want to get a positive score each week. I had to organise my life but I havent been able to. I will try in the coming week. Will report once I do.

.

📊 The tracker from the last week

Here is the tracker for the last two weeks…

Tracker from weeks 41 and 42

The last two weeks have been tough. And I have fallen off the radar. I am not keeping up on what I am eating, neither am I being good when it comes to tracking. I am on the road next week as well. And I expect similar all-over-the-place-ness.

.

🏃🏻‍♂️‍➡️ Health

I added Health as a key section some days ago. I am still discovering what to cover here. Let’s see how it goes.

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. Also, I log a few things at these links – food log, my daily health log channel.

This week, I am skipping reporting on this as for the last two weeks, this has been all over the place.

Will get back to this after the Diwali week.

.

📖 Interesting Reads / Views

Since this is for two weeks, I have a LOT of links to share. I am thinking how to fit all these here and make things useful. Lemme try.

And no, not in any order.

1/ This is an incredible read. Titled, “Taylor Swift, Sora, and Slop vs. Substance”, I dont want to give you a TLDR on this one (hint, it talks of Taste as well). Touches many interesting facets.

2/ This piece from Finshots talks about how and why Rakesh Gangwal chose to step away from Indigo. Must read how people still stand for principles in this day and age. While on this, also read this piece on the friendship of the two founders.

3/ Harnidh is soon evolving into my favorite Internet writer. She wrote about PR-FAQ. Incredible read. Here.

4/ This piece about Prashant Kishore tells me that he charges 11 crores for 2 hours. I refuse to believe that he added that much value! 

5/ This document talks about maxims from Kunal Shah. Which is your favorite?

6/ One of the BEST investigative reads that I’ve read in a while. I think I would love to build something GFM once I get to a point when I have enough. Do read.

7/ This piece from New Yorker talks about how all of us have started to think the same. Prak would love this piece. This is also the reason why all apps seems to look similar (have you noticed those purple websites?) and there is this insane use of em-dashes?

8/ Kevin Kelly, in yet another incredible essay makes a very convincing argument on why he wants AI to read his books. Read here.

9/ Kuldeep (or KD, as he is known all over the internet) wrote about the history of Whatsapp. Incredible read. He writes so well that I want to get him to quit everything and and just write! Another bonus read from him is this.

10/ This ad by Apple caught my eye. To a point that I want to embed this here.

11/ This hierarchy of “traits” of a top-performer is incredible. Do see.

12/ This piece about impatience and sense of urgency. I’ve read so much about this that I dont know how to not work at speed. And yet…

13/ Each thing from Ashutosh Rana, I dig! In this video, he talks about what made him do things that he did. I wish I had more folks who would listen to me. And I need to find a way to meet more young people.

There was a time when I would get a lot of people write into me. Lately that flow has died. And I need to restart that. Somehow.

Do see this.

14/ This piece by the creator of Oatmeal about AI and Art. Very very interesting read. He says, “consuming AI art is like eating styrofoam”. He goes onto make a lot of more convincing arguments about how and why AI is good or bad.

15/ If you are young, in your 20s, this piece of advice by the CEO of Palantir is incredible. Read here.

He says,

I’ve never met someone successful who had a great social life at 20. If that’s what you want, that’s great. But you’re not going to be successful, and don’t blame anyone else.

I cant say I agree to this (who am I to agree – I am not successful)

16/ This intro of Steve. Uff. Here.

17/ This post about what makes YC, YC.
For all the hate it gets, I love that they’ve been able to institutionalize starting up. I would love to go thru it. I mean I may not be able to anymore, age is not on my side. But I love them and their impact.

18/ This piece by Karthik about the public outcry from the founder of LuluLemon (Chip Wilson) about how that company has lost direction is a must read.

19/ I’ve been thinking a lot about Punit Pania and his work. Saw this insta reel and had to share.

Phew!

I am left wondering, what is the point of all these links. I get like three people to read these. Unless I find a way to internalise these. No?

.

🧠 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.

I’ve been skipping this for a while now.
Lets see when I get back to this.

.

🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Unsettling.

There is no other word that I would use for the two weeks gone by. Close people have quit on me, I have fallen off the grid, I am not taking notes, not reflecting on life and things, money seems to be a problem, fitness is a problem. I mean, each thing that I can think of seems to be not working for me!

I hope I am back in black soon.

Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Regular, Grind, Sad, Tough, Routine, Routine, Busy, Grind, Blur, Stress, Numb, Blur, Fast, Uncool, Disappeared, Experience, Grind, Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

—
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

I’ve missed the following weeks: 9, 15, 17, 22, 24, 41

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.

Wk 20-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes, thoughts, reflections and everything else from Week 20 of 2025.

Adding additional content (Saurabh Garg) for SEO ;P

May 18
6:34 AM

I started writing this yesterday at a Starbucks and then life happened and I moved along. And then I am back in the morning today to get this done. Oh, and I am listening to this as I write this.

Let’s go!

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

A/ TDL Accountabiltiy Group
I have joined a WA group of some folks who post their daily todo list. And then at the end of the day, check on things they’ve done. I am starting it today. Made my list. And let’s see where it goes.

Here’s the list from day 1…

B/ Lessons from Hareesh Tibrewala
I will make a seperate page on this, tbh. I get to learn so much from him that I curse myself for not being with him sooner.

Here are some lessons from this week alone…

  1. Any team member, how so ever bad their sitaution be, if they dont contrinbute to the team, they are better removed. Of course you must have empathy and support and everything else. But you need to think team first. This also echos with the idea people vs people people thing that I read elsewhere. Also, see point C.
  2. Ask for accountability. As a leader of a team, my only job is to ask for accountabilility. Everything else follows from there on. All you need to is ask “what” and “why” and enable your people to deliver on those.
  3. Stop sharam. He asked us to focus on the outcome and leave behind the sharam and all that. This also coupled with this video from Gary Vee. Must be more shameless when seeking work. In fact this is one of those earliest things that Suvi taught me – never ask for work from friends and family. And I will have to unlearn it. I will have to learn the skill to seek work. One life, man!

C/ Idea People vs People People
This is the biggest lesson from the week gone by. And thanks to Thej for sharing this link. While the context and meaning is tad different in this piece, I am taking away something else altoghter. Which is as follows.

I know that the world is a tansient place. This too shall pass. And I know that in grand scheme of things, all pursuits are purposeless and with our lifespans in double-digits, whatever we may do, as a collective, will all not amount to much. You know, Pale Blue Dot.

At the same time, I also know that the journey is all we have (thanks, Naval). I thus try to invest all my time, attention and energy in to being present in the phase of journey I am in.

Wait, I am rambled.

The point is, I can either work towards caring for people or for caring for ideas. All my life, I have cared for people, at the risk of reputation, work, money etc. However after I read the post, I have made this mental switch where I will focus on ideas. No, I will not stop caring for people. But I will become a lot more ideas oriented.

D/ Start with Hi
This is the greatest life hack in the world.

All the things you ever want and ever seek are on the other side of a simple hi. If you make a goal to say hi to 10 strnagers everyday, you would be unbeatable. Reminds me of this talk by Jia Jiang.

Thanks to AD for this.

E/ Reflections from a Life Coaching Call
A person from MDI is taking up coaching as a profession. She wanted to complete her hours and to help her, I spoke to her.

While I spoke, a lot of things came out. I am listing those here.

  1. I am in flux. A lot is changing about me – work, age, emotions etc etc
  2. Deep down, I have become a stoic. Mostly. I still have a long way to go.
  3. I am not motivated by money or anything. But by access.
  4. In life, most things happen in tandem. If I am doing well at one part of life, I am doing ok at most parts.

F/ 15504 Steps
I made a bet that I will average 12K steps per day in 2025. As of today (day 137), I have averaged about 7500 steps per day. And if I have to get to an average of 12K, I need to do 15504 everyday for the rest of 228 days of the year.

Looks tough. But I know that we would hit the baarish mausam soon and I am hopeful that would help.

G/ I need a faster laptop
Even though this is a “new” machine (I use a M1 that got for a colleague and I took it from her when she moved on), it has started to give me trouble.

H/ Toughest thing first
I was talking to C abotu something yesterday. I told her that if you have a task list, start with the toughest one (not the longest one). The one that you are dreading the most. Do it. And the dopamine you get from that, take it to the second toughest. And so on and so forth.

I/ 5 pushups
Inspired by Shruti, I did 5 pushups today! If I can do this for a week, I will get into the habit. Someone inspire me!

In fact, I will stay on this thread. This week, I was talking to Mihir about how we need to change our identity as that of a “healthy person” and then build a life around it. And then I reaslied that it may be easier said than done.

I am gonna make tiny changes in the way I operate. And that means I will not eat anything crappy and I will walk (lol) and I will be more disciplined with food and I…

Lol!

J/ Parallels between C4E and CS
Yesterday, I recorded a solocast and I drew parallels between CS and C4E. Ambition, Aim, Resources, Team, Strategy, Execution and all that. And I realisesd that sports team, armies, event teams etc etc can become very effective tools to deliver lessons to people.

K/ Excuse as a roadblock 
One of the biggest lessons I “gave” out to NG and VM is that they need to stop hiding behind an excuse.

Heres the back story…

I gave them a small project to work on, and when they were working on it, they came back to me saying they didn’t have the footage for that product. They told me this after 3 days, and it took me 3 days to know that the project is not moving forward.

Essentially, they were hiding behind an excuse to get their work done. Which is not something that we can live with because we are a small company. In life, I think we could either have excuses or progress.

L/ C4E – Past.
While wandering thru Roam, was looking at my notes and spotted this email I wrote to a friend in 2017 about how I look at C4E as a business. As of today, 8, 9 years have since passed and nothing seems to have changed. Except that we are no longer an events agency. And that’s a good thing and a bad thing! Anyhow, in case you want to read, ask for access. 

M/ Here are other things that dont fall in any category.

  1. I am still looking for someone to join me at Meru. See this post. And this one.
  2. The time has come for the kids to go back. I hope they learnt a few things while they were here.
  3. I want to start some mini-IPs that are clones of Sofar Sounds, TED talks, My Next Guest etc.
  4. I am mindfucked with all the garmi all around me and I dont know what do about it.
  5. I see the importance of having a large group of friends – at work and elsewhere. I’ve been shy about it and I want to get good at it. If you are reading this, how do you make new friends? Especially when you are in early 40s.
  6. I want to get memberships at all exclusive and boujee places like Soho, MCA, Quorum etc. I dont know if I will even go to these places but I want to have the option of going!
  7. Made a tiny investment (~1 lakh) in a friend’s startup. Its a tiny number but this is my attempt to show my confidence in the friend.

So that was from the week!
Phew!

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from the week 20.

I thought I had clicked a lot more. But clearly I was wrong.

🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by? And the next week!

2025 Plan and Book 2

I have dropped the plan.

On book2, despite multiple attempts, I’ve not been able to make any progress. And no, I dont want to let go of that. If you are reading this, please stay patient. Let’s see when I am back.

☑️ What did I get done this week?

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

At this point, the following things are important to me (I know too many but…) and these are IN ORDER.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health. I’d say I would give myself a 0. I didnt work out but I was mindful of what I ate. The week saw me struggle with garmi but I think I was ok more or less.
So, 0.

Meru. Not so good week. I moved things but I am not happy with the progress. Two critical tasks that I had to do – website and hiring – are open. And that means this was a step back. I will give myself a -1.
So, a -1.

C4E. No action from me. In fact, I saw the team struggling in my absence. C is doing what she can but we are not moving. So another -1.
So, a -1

Brand SG. No action on this either. But some action. So a 0.
0.

People. No action on this. Last week I had a lot of friends and family. This week nothing.
So, a 1

Book 2. Sigh!
-1

Shauk. 0 action. And thus a -1.
So, -1

So the overall score is 0 for this week.

Trends from the previous weeks: -4, 0, -4, -5, -5, -3, -2, -1
The max I can get is 7 in a week. Let’s see when I get to it.

📊 The tracker from the last week

Tracked most days! So that’s a win. Here’s the tracker…

Lemme know what you see.

📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

I spent a lot of time reading and reflecting. In fact, I would say that this was a good week when it comes to reading. Here are some pieces…

  1. Utsav on Taste. Link.
  2. Vivek and Molly on People over Ideas.
  3. This conversation between Jony Ive and Collision.
  4. Seth on systems.
  5. The “other” Saurabh Garg on How to Start a Startup.
  6. This post on X that talks about how Qatar happened to become what it has become.
  7. Someone compiled Kunal Shah’s content. Here’s the list. Since this is a compilation, this will not attract as much attention as a scarce piece would. Go figure why!
  8. This thread (old but worth it’s weight).

I had thought I would have more than 8 things to share!

🧠 Reminders from last week

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

Here are things from the past few weeks that I want to remember. And no, this may not be a comprehensive list. In categories.

  1. Long term
    • Professional pool / snooker / poker – no action.
  2. Health
    • Kitchen setup (incomplete)
    • Gym membership (incomplete)
  3. C4E things (I will stop tracking these things and have C do these)
    • C4E Base
    • Design
    • Borderless agency
    • Adding films
  4. Shauk / Personal
    • Use of money to buy time – on this!
    • Better dressed – lol
    • Find love – lol!
    • Demand more from life
    • Speak better!

In case you know me, lemme know if I have missed something.

🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Regular.
It was a regular week with regular work and regular things and regular inputs and outputs.

Oh and in the previous weeks, it’s been Getting back to action. Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

—
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, 09 (missed), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (missed), 16, 17 (missed), 18, 19

PPS: Please do point typos. Grammarly is not working well 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.

A challenge of blog questions

So Thej tagged me and Pradeep on a post asking some questions about blogs. If you don’t know the two men, well, you don’t know them. To me, both have been incredible people to know. I’ve learnt a lot from both of them and I wish I could be closer friend to them!

Here are the questions and my answers…

Why did you start blogging in the first place?

My first published blogpost, that continues to be around, is from Jan 2004.

No, I dint make a typo. Been 20+ years. Prior to that I used to write on some Yahoo services. These are not online anymore.

Since this is long ago, I may not recall what I was thinking. I can go read those posts but I am not inclined to. I don’t want to delve in the past.

I can speculate why I would have started writing. Lemme postulate.

1/ At the time, I wanted to be famous. I thought writing could make me famous. I think Chetan Bhagat had just release his book around the same time, if I am not wrong. I must have thought if he can, why cant I.

Oh, I was enamored by the chase of fame for a long time, to be honest. But then life happened and I realised my foolishness and naivety.

2/ I wanted to see my name on a book (which eventually happened!). No, this is not same as being famous. Book was going to be a tool but I also wanted to share my thoughts to whoever was listening. I would joke often about just two or three people reading my texts.

3/ I grew up in the days of dial-up models, ICQ , Yahoo Messenger, Orkut etc. And that had made me love the medium of texting. Writing was a natural progression. There was probably no grand plan or reason about why I started writing. But, oh boy, am I grateful?

4/ I was (and still am) an self-concious, self-sabotaging introvert. I have had many connections but very few friends. And thus writing probably became the outlet.

I think this.

What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it? Have you blogged on other platforms before?

Right now, I am on a self-hosted wordpress. I dont know much about it but I get by.

I chose it because, well, everyone else chose it.

In the past, I’ve used blogger, typepad and others. Again, am not a good person when it comes to answering about past.

I used to be a tech person back in the day. Now, even though its easy, I dont want to be. So, wordpress is ok.

How do you write your posts? For example, in a local editing tool, or in a panel/dashboard that’s part of your blog?

This depends.

Like this post, I opened wordpress, opened a new post and started writing. Some posts, I write on notepad and then copy paste. Often I write on flights. I write those in notes / Google Notes offline and then copy paste.

So there is no standard method.

When do you feel most inspired to write?

I can answer this in many ways. There are many times when I am inspired to write.

1/ When I am mindfucked, I try to write. Often I will not write about things that I am mindfucked by. But writing helps.

2/ When I see that I am failing at this game of life, I write. I get a bout of inspirartion and then I write. Hoping that it would inspire someone, somewhere and I would get the rub off. And I would get some unfair, God Mode advantage.

3/ When the time to write is here, I write. For example, I publish a weekly note (again, inspired by Thej) and I know that I have to write it over the weekend. So I carve out time to write.

4/ I write for work. If I see something incredible that is happening around me and I feel the need to pass on my opinion on that, I write. For example, I wrote a memo when the Steve Jobs book came out.

So that.

I’ll also mention when I cant write.

  • When I am bored, I cant write.
  • When I am ASKED to write something, I cant write. Even this post has been on my mind for a few days and today I am writing becuase, well, I dont know 😀

Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?

In most cases, yes, I hit the button right after I am done. This done could happen in one sitting (like this post) or could take multiple (most of my weekly notes). This post will get published as soon as I am done answering. I wrote this in one go, on a saturday morning.

In some cases, I show the draft to few people and take inputs.

In rare cases, I revist what I’ve written. I let that simmer. I then edit and then publish.

Oh, I almost never read again what I’ve published. Unless someone points a large flaw in my thinking. Like recently Pavithra made me think about one of the things I had published.

What’s your favorite post on your blog?

None.

I am indiffernet towards what I’ve created. Once I hit the publish button, I dont care what happens to it. When I get some feedback, I often go back edit. Often I dont. Depends on my mood, to be honest.

Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?

I would like it to be designed better but i dont have the time to do that.

I am ok with WordPress. I dont want to move.

I would like to add a feature that allows people to subscirbe to my posts. Its such a simple process and tool that I am ashamed that I have not been able to figure this out.

Oh, I would like to import all my posts from blogger into this wordpress website. I tried many tools, plugins etc and I failed. Apparantly, my blog on blogger is way too big to be imported. In case someone can help on that, I would be grategul!

Who’s next?

I’d say Derek. I will email him and see if he is inspired to write 🙂

This is it. Was good fun!

Wk 03-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes from Week 3 of 2025. I talk about things I did, things I learnt and things I am thinking about.


9:05. 19 Jan.
Starbucks, Versova

The week gone by was long. Busy. Hard. To the point that Poo called to check in if I were ok. Two other friends wrote in to check if I was okay. I will talk more about this shortly. But lemme follow the format that I sort of discovered last week.

What I was supposed to do in the week gone by. And my report on the same.

1/ I said I will work on my 2025 plan.
I failed at it. The year is upon me and how. And I didn’t even think about it. This means that the review letter is also delayed.

2/ I said each time I open insta, I will do three push-ups.
No, I didn’t do push-ups when I opened insta. So I failed on this.
I will implement this from today. And keep a track. Will add it to my tracker.

3/ I said that I would delete food delivery apps.
I did for a couple of days.
But then, installed it again.
Convenience is a tough trap to get out of.

4/ I had to write the #dateSG doc.
I didn’t.
I won’t call this a fail cos this is not high on priority.

The tracker from the week that went by.

The tracker from the week gone by is attached.

I am glad to report that I have tracked almost all things. No, I didn’t really get any better. But tracking is an important first step. And yay to self for that. #win

You can see that I had a rough one.
But now, we seem to be doing ok.

Some realizations...

1/ For a one-person house I run and with my kind of lifestyle, I spend a lot of money. I need to check my spends.

2/ My day emotions are off the charts. I need to do something about it.

3/ I am consuming a lot of coffee. What’s not on this is that I don’t have coffee after 12. But, this much is not good. I will try and stop.

Ok, moving on.

Photos from the week

This week was bad.
Couldnt take too many. Here’s a link, in case.
Will get back to this next week.

Highlights from the week gone by…

This is a little different from what I did last week. Let’s see which one sticks.

1/ Made it to Thej’s weekly notes.
In fact these weekly notes are inspired by Thej’s. And this is the second thing that I have taken away from him. The other being SoG Grant. A good reminder that I need to move the needle on that.

2/ Spent time with Manish.
I am grateful that he takes the time to coach C and me. I don’t know what I’ve done to get kindness from so many people. I can only promise myself that when I have something going for me, I will pay it forward.

3/ Warikoo revealed his earnings from the year gone by.
The highlight was this part. I quote…

From Jan-Dec 2024 we earned Rs. 48.22L (USD 56K) in affiliate income. 100% of the affiliate we have earned (and will earn in the future) goes towards the education of kids who cannot afford it.

It is a simple process. Students email me, we ask for their student ID, college details, Aadhaar and a link to pay the school/college directly. And we make the transfer.

Last year, we contributed 43L towards the education of 104 kids and since existence we have contributed nearly 1.7Cr (USD $200K) towards the education of 397 kids.

I will do something similar.
I will channel a source of my income towards this. May be for SoG Grant. I don’t know yet. I will think on this.

4/ AK’s thought about C4E Culture.
She pointed out that when we get new people at C4E, they don’t get time to ramp up. And that needs to change. No person will ever go back from C4E with a sore experience.

Oh, while am on AK, the girl has made 7 posts so far. I think she will get her AirPods Pro Max at this rate.

5/ I am learning a lot about myself with this new startup.
Some things worth noting are…

  • On this one, I am not the captain. I am merely one of the charioteers at Mahabharata. And its good to see that am able to navigate it well.
  • I thought since there are heavy weights, I would not be able to speak. But I surprised myself with my actions. I was not sure I had it in me to speak in a room like that. I did. And I made eloquent conversations. Humbling and proud. And a #win.

6/ I want to be well-known (and not famous)
I wrote about this on my Twitter today. And I found a good articulation. That I want to have the respect of the ones that I respect. And this respect must give me access to any room that I want to get into. Simple.

I will repeat what I wrote today morning. I’ve been the kinds to always shy away from spotlight. I have wanted to be a kingmaker (not the king). I want to have a band (and not a solo act). I want to help run a village (and not be the mukhiya). I want to be a Krishna (and not Arjuna).

But I do want to be a famous Krishna. I also mentioned that I want to be on the thank you page of 1000 books, 100 Oscar speeches and more. I really want to be the person that offers shoulders to giants.

I don’t know how I will get to it. But this realisation is interesting to have. May be this is what growing up is?

Oh, as part of this, I will build the ability to do small talk with people.

7/ I failed to deliver something simple to a senior that I look up to. At the same time, in a review of C4E, our board member mentioned that we are in a poor place at C4E.

These were the large reasons why I was so fucked in the head the whole week.

I will ofc try and fix but I didn’t like that I failed so bad.

I want to note that I didnt let the heat come to my team. If I could just not overreact and eat random crap, I would have handled the crisis well. I need to work on self-control.

8/ At C4E, we are going to be more process-oriented.
Again, this is a thing that I’ve known for a long time and I’ve always stayed away from. Gokul taught me in detail. And I ignored. Manish reinforced this when we met him in December. And I ignored. But now I am learning that both of them were right all along.

Ok.
That.
Moving on.

One large takeaway from the week?

I think I have discovered the word for 2025.

Consistency.

Everything else that I need or want is on the other side of just one thing. Consistency. All the magic – compounding including – happens on the other side of consistency. Wish I had learnt this earlier.

I am going to embrace it.
I’ve even added this to the Knock on C4E’s door. See if you can spot it.

I know I know.
People have opinions and thoughts about YOLO and FOMO and how you ought to experience life and all that. But I think there is merit in being consistent and living a life built on top of discipline, long-term thinking, small actions, and consistency!

I guess this is about it.

As I close this, I am thinking, how is this weekly note different from the daily journal that I am writing on twitter? Maybe with time, I will publish more than these streams of consciousness? Maybe with time, I will have these two evolve into separate things – one to talk about things on a day-to-day basis and the other from a helicopter lens where things are a little more broad and large? Let’s see.

Ok, I have a long day ahead.
A lot to be done.
Gotta go.
See you around.

Oh, here are the previous editions: Wk 01, Wk 02

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes.

Wk 01-25 – Weekly Notes

Inspired by Thej and his weekly notes, am starting this weekend, a series of weekly notes. I plan to do this every week and I plan to capture what I’ve done in the week gone by. I have earmarked two hours every Sunday for this on my calendar and once something goes my calendar, well…

Welcome to Weekly Notes!

Snce this is the first time I am doing this, I dont have a structure yet but I hope with time I will evolve. I did write a lot of morning pages back in the day and I did arrive at some structure.

And now, first things first.
Why am I doing this?

Well, many reasons.
Here’s a no-filter, stream-of-consciousness list.

  1. I love writing
  2. I haven’t been writing as much as I want to. To blame is work, travel, life, and in general fuckery
  3. I want to be internet famous. This means I need to be known by more people. Dont ask me why I want to be internet famous. But I want to be. And I dont know any other way to do so apart from writing.
  4. This is like therapy to me. Most people in my age need someone to talk to and unlike others, I don’t have any one. So I use my writing as my therapist.
  5. I love the idea of living a “quantified self” life and while I am not a nerd about it, I like to track what am thinking, what am doing etc etc. Writing morning pages, journals etc has been helpful in the past. I can go back to this date and see what I was thinking! In fact, I have public blogposts going back to Jan 2004!

So that.

Ok, coming to notes from the week.

This was the first week of 2025 and I think I’ve had a good start. I’ve largely been consistent. Keyword is largely. I want to be 100%. I want to be like the JILA clock. Always on time. Always doing what it’s supposed to do. I have a long way to go on that.

What did I learn / realised / discovered etc etc?

In one line, a lot!
Too much to capture but I will try.

A/ Someone said that the world is a malleable place.
This gets reinforced each time I see someone make things happen. In this case, the startup I am trying to build, the oldest member there pushes us more than I thought anyone else could!

If he can, why can’t I?

B/ I love the idea of giving gifts to people.
I dont know what need of mine am I trying to fulfil with this. Often these are the gifts that I can’t afford even for myself. But that’s ok.

C/ I realised that dressing well can actually pay off.
I dont know how to find better dresses. But let’s see. Oh, this realisation came to me after I saw a post from Anthony Bourdain about linen shirts and leather jackets. I didn’t save it and thus I can’t find it.

D/ I need to stop the ‘Garg NGO‘ – my offer for help for free.
While I dont want to charge anyone anything that they cant afford, I need to be more protective and mindful of my time and offer help to only those who deserve.

E/ I am not the only one who finds Taleb uncool.
He recently got in a spat with Bryan Johnson and Bryan is not wrong. And yeah, this is important cos Taleb has blocked me on Twitter.

F/ Respect needs to be earned and not demanded.
Can’t get into specifics but it’s on my Roam. Ask me if you know me 😀

What went well for me? for C4E? for my village?

In general am a tad harsh on myself.
So this part would mostly be empty.

A/ I am working on a new startup.
And things are moving fast on that. We may annouce it to be the world as early as end of Jan.

I have known one of the co-founders for almost 10 years now. He’s someone I’ve worked for and is someone I’d like to work for me. Plus, one of the investors is part of the unofficial board of C4E. C needs to decide if she wants him on the official board.

Once this takes shape and we announce, I will officially hand over the C4E baton to C. I had thought I would retire with C4E on my epitaph. But as life would have it, never say never 🙂

B/ I have started to live in public.
Here’s a tracker I fill in most days. So far, I’ve NOT missed a single day. I am also updating this thread, in case. I think I will get someone to put this on LinkedIn as well. Let’s see.

C/ I got paid by a client AFTER 6 months!
One of my clients had not paid me in over 6 months. They finally paid me. This has helped me pay back part of the loan that I had to take to run my business. The ambition now is to get to a point where I am able to pay back all the loan.

What didn’t go well?

A lot.
Like I said, am a tad harsh on myself.
So read with that lens.

A/ Nothing on #in2025
I haven’t had the time to write my 2025 goals (this includes my review of the past year) and to me this is a BIG BIG loss.

I am very very big on planning my life and time and all that – been doing this for a while. And I want to do this asap. So may in the coming week.

If you are bored, you may want to read my #in2024 goals.

B/ I wasted time on conversing about cricket
The last few days, the chatter about cricket was maddening (India vs Australia ofc). Even though I have blocked the words from all the places I hang out at, the chatter was so pervasive and palpable that I gave in.

The worst part is that I dont even follow the game and I dont know the names of more than 5 players. And yet, I engaged in meaningless watching of cricket. Must exercise more control and restraint.

C/ No workout etc etc
I had decided that I will work out (at least do yoga) but it’s been 5 days and I have not done shit about it.

The only saving grace is that I am eating in moderation. Today, as I write this, I feel bloated for some reason but otherwise, last few days I’ve been ok.

D/ I dont like to wear pants 😀
Even though I’ve said above that I would like to be better dressed, I’ve realised that I dont like garmi. At this point, I am ok but in a few weeks, I will need to find a solution for that.

E/ One of the C4E Villagers quit
While this shouldn’t affect me, I am affected to a point that it has made to this list. One of the people who I wanted to work with for the rest of my life chose to walk out. And while I should be ok about it, I am not. I want to give each of my people a life that they have to think VERY hard before moving on from. So when someone leaves me, I feel bad and sad and I get into a spiral that is tough to get out of. In fact it was so bad that on Saturday, I merely vegetated for like 3 hours!

PS: After I published this, some people pointed flaws in my thinking. I am grateful for that. I will change!

Ok, coming to what I look forward in the next week

Two things.

A/ The biggest thing for the next week would be work on the aforementioned startup. And succession planning for C4E, if it comes to that.

B/ I will also try and make time to write my #in2025 piece. I’ve started on it but it’s nowhere close to where I want it to be.

I think these two things are all for the next week.

Also, to be honest, more often than not, I dont really have any large attachments to any outcomes or anything like that.

If you’d like to get these in your mailbox directly, please subscribe here…

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I think this is it for the week.
Lemme know what you think!
Over and out.

The SoG Grant (draft)

SoG Grant – a no strings attached grant to individuals to pursue a creative project of their liking.

This is the first draft of this. Publishing to seek feedback from people. Please do let me know what you think. I aim to release this around the end of Jan 2023 Feb 2024.

TLDR: I am committing Rs. 100K a year of my money to create a microgrant for people who may need money to pursue any project of their liking. Read more for more details.

Hello! Lemme talk about some themes that have shaped me and my life.

A. This couplet by Kabir.
I don’t know when or where I read this first, but this couplet resonates with me like nothing else has ever. Here it goes…

Sai itna dijiye, jaame kutumb samaay,
main bhookha naa rahoon, sadhu na bhookha jaaye

Attributed to the poet Kabir, though I am not sure.

This translates loosely into, “Oh, Lord, give me enough to take care of my family. Enough that I don’t sleep hungry and yet have enough left to support others that may ask me for it.”

B. Giants, their shoulders, and their kindness.
All my life, I have benefitted immensely from the kindness, generosity, and shoulders of strangers and giants. Whatever little I know or whatever tiny I have has come to me because I was a beneficiary of an unexpected gift. Each time, some chance brought me close to strangers and they were unnaturally kind to support me and literally changed the trajectory of life altogether. From my admission into MDI to my first real “education” with Raj at CLA; to the startup with Kunal; to Suvi’s blind faith in me; to the mad dream that we had at 5X5; to Social Wavelength’s risky bet on me; to Rajesh Sir’s support for C4E and me, each “career” move happened because these literal strangers trusted me and allowed me to make mistakes. I was on a long leash and I could learn all that I wanted to. and countless others that have helped me do things.

Even in terms of people that sort of mentored me (the list is a mile long and if I were to make that in public, this post would run in hundreds of pages), they did so without expecting anything in return. They were truly the giants that gave me their shoulders to stand on and look farther. The following quote, again I dont know by who describes me the best…

“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”

More about it here.

It essentially means that giants (and strangers) who have achieved a lot more than me have allowed me to learn from their experiences and build my life on top of their work.

Isn’t this what life is all about?
Arent all great innovations not built on top of what others have done prior? That.

C. I stumbled on this post from Thejesh where he has created a “no strings attached” microgrant in memory of his mother.
The idea is fairly simple. He created a tiny corpus from his savings to create opportunities for people that are little less lucky than him. He says, “I am creating a yearly $1000₹80,000 ₹1,00,000 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.”

This inspired me AF.

I have always thought about giving back paying it forward, even though my own house has never been in order. All the “projects” I created as C4E partnerships were attempts at paying it forward. However, since I know that that model is essentially broken, I need to find an alternative to continuing to pay forward. Thejesh’s post comes at the right time. And thus, the SoG Grant!

So, combining A, B and C, presenting The SoG Grant!

Hello, SoG Grant!

Inspired by Thejesh and others who have created microgrants (see this on Github), I hereby create The SoG Grant.

What is The SoG Grant?
SoG Grant is an attempt to pay it forward by supporting the ones who are less fortunate than I.

What is the corpus of this grant?
I will start with a total corpus of Rs. 100K from my personal savings.

If I get more people to back this up, I will add on top of this. If you want to help me grow this basket, lemme know.

Update (4 Apr 2021): Krishna from Tezi.app has agreed to add another 20K to the corpus. He wants to support people building for SMEs in India.

So, as of now, it’s Rs. 120K per year. This could be given to one person or split among at most three.

Who can apply for this? Who is eligible?
I really really want this grant to help people that need it. I am not sure how I would validate the financial status but I will find a way as I go along.

No, it will NOT be easy for you to get this grant. I will make the selection process extremely difficult to weed out non-serious applicants.

Who is NOT eligible?
You have to prove your intention. While I am a dreamer and chase lofty goals that are beyond my reach, for the grant, I want to support people that are damn serious about it. You will have to prove that you have skin in the game.

What kind of projects / people would I support?
You could be whoever and you may want to do whatever. However, I’ll admit that I have a bias towards creators and education. So if you seek money for creating something or pursuing some course / education, I am more likely to support you.

Some projects that are a great fit for this are…

  1. You want to take up a course that you can’t afford
  2. You want to cut a music album and need money to pay for the studio etc.
  3. You want to write a book / script etc and need to pay your bills while you write it.

Please note that this is an indicative list only and the grant is available to anyone under the sun. As long as I believe what you do has the potential to make a difference.

Who can apply?
Anyone. From India.
I don’t know how to do the logistics of expanding it beyond borders.

What’s the catch?
No catch. I dont want you to thank me. I dont want you to include the C4E logo in what you do. I dont care if you forget me. All I care for is that you are accountable to me. That’s it. And no, I dont care about output. As long as you are good with the input, I am ok.

How can you apply?
I will announce more details over the next few days. I am hoping for the following timelines…

These timelines are broken. Apologies for this.

  • Applications Open: April July 2021 Jan 2023 Feb 2024
  • Application Deadline: May Aug 2021 Mar 2023 Feb 2024
  • Decision and Disbursal: June Sep 2021 17 Mar 2024 – 31 Mar 2024

In case you need this money urgently, do write in and I will make exceptions.

So that’s about it. Do let me know should you have any questions. More on this over the next few days.

Thank You!

Housekeeping and version history…

  • Update. On 13 Jan 2024. I will FINALLY push this in the world by the end of Jan 2024.
  • Update. On 30 Sep 2022. I hope to get to this in 2023. Have been busy with work and 2022 went like a whirlwind!
  • Previous Update. On 11 Dec 2021. I am running way behind on this. Sincere apologies. Will pick this up #in2022.

140321 – Morning Pages

Quick and dirty update from how I spent Saturday. Wish I the time to write more. The day was among the best.

6:24 AM, Mumbai.
Completed this somewhere on the Nashik highway at 10ish.

This is going to be one of those pages where I want to write a lot (I think I have a lot to write) but since I am short of time, I will not be able to get a lot of words in. I have to be at someplace real early. I had to be out and about by 6 AM, to be honest, but thanks to some snafu, I am still at home and that means I can get some words in. If not a lot, I can at least get a ToC of sorts in. Yeah, I have a table of contents of things that I want to talk about.

Here it is.

A. SG’s interview. There’s apparently some interview that I gave when #tnks came out where I have bared my soul. A stranger can read that and get to know who I am and what I think about. In that, I have even talked about my hatred for pets! To make matters worse, it has my photo on it. I need to do something about it. I can’t have my opinions floating around on the Internet like that. Lol. The entire life has been lived in making my life an open and public affair with this blog 😀

Need to find that interview and “fix” it.

B. Poker. A few days ago I was in this weird mood where I did not know what to do. None of my friends was around. Taarak Mehta felt like a drag. Brooklyn Nine-Nine was not funny no more. I couldn’t sleep. I had had enough of everything. I somehow remembered my love for Poker and after I don’t know how many months, I put money on a poker game. It was on Pokerstars and I sucked as bad I did when I played regularly.

Poker is one of those things that I think I can be really good at. There is an element of luck but you can control it to a large part. It just needs two things – knack for the game and the time required to build that knack. I suspect poker is like chess. You need to have some sort of inclination and “gift” for it and then you need to back it with consistent and focussed effort. You know, more you play, better you get.

Wait. Isnt this true with everything and anything? I guess!

C. SoG Grant. I saw a post on my Instagram last night and I reached this page on Thejesh GN’s blog. He’s started a grant in his mother’s name where he’s supporting independent creators on anything that they want to work on. I love the idea. I am so inspired that I decided on the spot that I want to start something. When I was growing up, I did not have the patron or the resources to chase what I wanted to. Now that I have some resources, I want to support others. An annual grant could be a great thing. Need to put things in motion. #note2self

D. Swiggy. Last night I was hungry and I decided to order something to eat. Good thing is that I ordered on Swiggy and that means the order was never delivered. Which is ok. I understand the business is run by people and they can often fuck up. But the way they handle these things is what needs fixing. The customer service is non-existent and the way they speak with you, they lack empathy. They assume that an order is a physical thing and if you refund the money, the customer is ok. They forget that it’s food delivery and the person on the other side could be hungry. And its well known fact across the world that when you are hungry, you are not the person you are. And you need to talk to hungry, angry, irate people in a different tone / manner etc. I promise I will make it a mini-project and try and teach these people how to be customer-centric and have some empathy.

So that.

E. NA. I also want to talk about this woman, NA, that I met via Lunchclub yesterday. Out of 30 odd people that LC has matched me with, she was only the second that I had wanted to meet.

And I goaded her into meeting me.
And we met.
And it was awesome.
NA is one of the finds of this year so far for me. I hope I can become friends with her and get her to do something with me. More about her on some other day. Today am kinda short of time.

F. Misc. Things that I want to talk about but don’t have time for. 1, I pet a dog at a friend’s place. My first time ever. 2, The realization that I am #foreverAlone and unlucky in love. Every woman that I seem to get close to tends to get away from me. The pattern repeats where these women think that am a loser and move on. 3, The feeling of heaviness and general lethargy and my desperate attempts to get over those. 4, Hunt for a new house (which I am hoping is a little better than the one I am on). 5, I am not sure. I forgot 😀

G. Streaks. Here.

  • Morning Pages – 92
  • #aPicADay – XX (will count at some later date)
  • 10K steps a day – 1
  • OMAD – 3 (thanks to Swiggy, the streak remains unbroken)
  • #noCoffee – 5
  • #noCoke – 5
  • 10 mins of meditation – 0 (adding this from today on)
  • #book2 – 0 (I REALLY need to start on this!)

So yeah, thats about it. More tomorrow. On a Monday.