Urban Poor Archives

Wk 16-26 – Weekly Note

Notes, thoughts and highlights from Week 16 of 2026.

18 April 2026
Writing this from BKK.
And I am writing this in parts.
From Drink Coffee. And from Bo’s. And from a Pacamara. And of course, Starbucks. Must say, Bangkok has some incredible coffee game. Incredible in terms of looks, taste, hospitality, looks, taste, hospitality and all.

In this weeks, edition, I plan to not use the “structure” per se. Rather a brain dump of all that I’ve been thinking. This will be the closest to my morning pages thing.

Let’s go.

1/ Skincare Routine

I’ve decided that I am gonna be a man with a skincare routine. I’ve got a shopping list made on Sephora. And since it was expensive, I bought “similar” things on Amazon and Nykaa.

In case anyone is curious, here are the lists. Anyone wants to judge and give me inputs?

2/ Senior People

A lot of senior people from advertising industry have been impacted by AI. I’ve got frantic calls by friends and former colleagues – each with 15+ years of experience and each asking for opportunities. These are writers, designer, film producers, creative directors and the works. The ones who’ve not called so far are the suits (account management folks). The ones who moved to peripheral work (microdramas, “client” side et al) are ok. And not one has not been impacted by AI and the “efficiency” brought in about AI.

Now, on one side, I can blame my friends for not adapting. And on the other, I can try and help them. And since I recently learnt that when someone is drowning, you throw them a rope and not a swimming lesson, I will throw a life vest and a rope. And I will take an entire barge to fish them out of trouble.

3/ Love Language.

First, see this…

Now, I will implement this.

I know that I am a dreamer. I know that I like to build and take things from 0 to 1. I have done it many times and I will do it again. And my love language is helping my people do more and see more.

And so far, I have not been able to subject them to grind and sacrifice. And I will change that.

I will demand from my people that they show up and change patterns. And I will change those for myself as well. I will become more strict about timelines, work and money. I will operate with a three strike rule. I will continue to love you but I will not let that love blind me when it comes to work. And while I do that I will not be moved by emotions. My inability to push you to do better hampers my inability to do better for all of the village. And I will remove drain on resources – time, opportunities, money etc.

So, if you see me “change”, so be it.

All I ask for at this time is support and encouragement.

4/ The next few months

I have some ideas that I will chase in the next few months. These are not large billion dollar ideas but substantial ideas nonetheless.

I will drive Chandni and Aarya to run those. And I will lean onto everyone else in my closest system to help me drive all of us. I will operate in the war-time mode. And thanks to a lesson from Pritam, reorient myself to work on 2-week sprints. This means I will do hard calls and reviews every two weeks. For each project, I want things to move in 2-week windows and if there is no movement in 2 weeks, I will shut.

I will make some fundamental shifts in how I work. I’ve made a list of some principles that will guide me. I will also update work with saurabh page.

Some of these are…

Living a deliberate life. This means that each thing I do will come from deep thought. Right now, I merely go with my vibes. I will continue to do so but I will also be lot more deliberate about each thing I do. And as part of this, I will offer and seek accountability. And I will drive myself and others around me.
Focus and presence (and intensity). I dont know how to focus but I will try. And i will being my 100% presence to each thing I do. If I am playing pool, I am only playing pool and that with the intensity of a man obsessed with it.
Relentlessness
Sense of urgency
Play to win and to win-win. All my life I’ve been a “nice guy” and I’ve of course not been the first. I’ve cut from my heart to let others have what they seek. I’ve tried to please everyone (and may I say I’ve been successful at this) but going forward, I will be ok if I am unable to please others. And, I dont want to be a bad person but I will play to win. And no, my winning doesnt mean that other would lose.
Global life. I want to live a life thats not contained by borders. I dont enjoy flying as much as I did when I was younger. But that’s one inconvenience I am willing to live with. I also need to make money to be able to live ok. So that.

Lemme know what you think

5/ Comparative Poverty

Gokul had made me realise that all poverty is subjective. Lemme elaborate.

I write this from a fancy coffee shop in a fancy part of Bangkok, the city of angels. And I feel poor. Because the last few days I was with friends from MDI who are now honchos and are in a different SEC classification of their own. And I know each time I hangout with them, I will be and feel poor.

While in India, in a Starbucks and on the road, this class difference is not as visible. But here, it was. And I need to either be ok with this (that I will not get to travel with my friends) or hustle harder to be equal with them.

And no, in friendship the class difference doesn’t disappear. I mean I can not open a 9000 rupee wine bottle for breakfast just because the restaurant is down the road from where I am staying at.

Also, just before this trip with folks from college, I was with folks from C4E. I planned the C4E trip and I did nothing on the MDI one. And I think I liked the one I planned (hotel, city centre, lots of free time etc). I’ve also reaffirmed that I dont like BnBs. I like the idea of a cleaning service and a water-on-call service and the optionality to change the room in case I dont like.

6/ Walks

I love walking. And even though its hot AF, I walked a lot. I’ve averaged 13K steps over the last few days with at least 3 days with more than 20K steps. I can see a noticeable bulge in the calves.

I must make it a point to walk more.

I dont get to walk in Mumbai because I am not sure where to go. Maybe I will walk on the beach EACH day from 6 PM to 8 PM or whatever. And I will ensure that I dont need to be on any calls in that window.

Lol!

I’ve made many plans like these but none to fruition. Lemme not ahead of myself. I will see if I can keep my walking momentum.

Let’s go.

7/ What I wrote published in the week gone by?

This is the only “progress” piece that I am talking about this week. More so because I am glad I was able to get these going. Three things…

LinkedIn post on Zone of Genius
Post on Freelancing in 2026, in the post-AI world. Here.
Some copy-tweaks on sgwashere.com

I want to be able to write more. Even in this video-first world. This allows me to think deeper. And allows me to communicate more with more people. Video helps with communication as well. I’ll probably get more active on that. Let’s see.

So… this is it for this week gone by. Not the best of the reviews but I am glad I wrote.

As I end this, here’s the “footer”…

One word that defines the week gone by?

Whiling time.
Not the kinds that I would like but the one where I was moving.
Physically.
Which is ok.

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

—
Phew!
Lemme know what you think.
See you around.

Oh, and this too shall pass!

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

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

PPS: Please do point typos.

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

Wk 47-25 – Weekly Notes

Nov 23-24, 2025
Various times, various places.

I had a busy week. Not busy but hectic. I was about town and had some work. Here’s notes and thoughts from the week gone by.

PS: I was half in the mind to not do this (because I am already on Monday night) but then I thought, jaisa bhi hai, karte hai.

💭 Highlights, reflections, updates and notes from the past two weeks

And no, these are not in any order.

1/ Year Compass

It’s that time of the year where I will take print-outs of Year Compass and fill it in.

I’ve been using it for a while to figure how the year went by and what I plan to do in the next. If you are also the productivity kinds and like to reflect, this could be an interesting tool. At least I have benefitted from this. You may want to check this out.

I find the tool very very useful. It makes me go thru my calendar, photos, conversations, notes, thoughts etc and allows me to spot my mistakes. This also keeps me on track in terms of what I want to do and how far I am.

Most years, I make elaborate plans and from whatever I plan, I only get to do a fraction of things and that’s ok. I am hard on myself and unless I have goals that are larger than myself and my aukaat, no point putting those goals in place.

Even if this this is not for you, I urge you to see it once.

Pro Tip: Download the Digital-A4 version, take two sets of printouts and work with a pen and paper (not iPad / Comp). And on the first, write everything. And on the second refine. And use the second one as your report card for 2025 and then the roadmap for 2026. And if you do take this advice and work on it, please share your plan with me. May be we can help each other get to those goals?

2/ No Coffee

See this tweet.

I am glad to report that I didnt have coffee this week. And, as I write this, today’s monday evening and I am yet to have coffee!

And I went to Starbucks only twice. I did goto other coffee shops (but did not order coffee).

To be honest, I dont miss coffee as much as I miss the feeling of sitting at a table and working on things. I am trying to make my home the place where I sit and work but I like to see some chaos around me. I think co-working spaces are the best bet for me. I need to find a good one around me. And around wherever I go.

So, do I want to continue not having coffee? I am not sure.

I want to not be a leech and I want Starbucks to survive their India journey. The other day I read that even though they’ve been here 12 years, they are still in the investment mode! Wow! If they were backed by a VC, I am not sure they’d survive this long. They would already be on the death bed!

3/ Death bed

See this tweet.

I said, When I am on my death bed, who would I want to be next to me? And who are the people who would drop everything and come see me on my death bed?

This means that while I will have friends and acquaintances and all that, going forward I would allow a very small number of people to get thru the defences.

Also, the point is moot. I dont think I would want to have anyone next to me when my time comes. I would rather be with strangers and all that and not have any of my loved ones see me.

So that.

4/ Warikoo’s Team’s Salary

Warikoo made his team’s salaries public. Many things came from there on. Here’s a list.

I pay more than Warikoo! And yet I am unable to find great talent.
I love the radical transparency with which he runs the business. I run mine with a lot of transparency as well but he takes the cake.
Great people (I know at least one person who works for Warikoo and I made an offer to pay her 2X of what she makes) choose to work with people who have great personal brands. I dont have it. I need to work on it.
As much as people are important, performance is important as well. This has been a problem for me. I need to index higher on performance. I will do that going forward. It will be tough – primarily because I dont know how to go about it – I’ve never known how to do this. Plus its not something that I can read from book. Its about people and thats messy and all.

There was more but I forgot. I may come back to this.

5/ Magic of IRL meetings and Power of Handshakes

I bumped into a former client the other day. And it was a fantastic meeting. From getting to see his scars to seeing the human side of him to getting a new opportunity, I saw all of those happen in one one-hour interaction!

This is one of those things that COVID-19 has taken away from us – the magic of in-person conversations. While its more efficient I wish we can bring back these IRL meetings, handshakes and texture of people!

In fact, I had started to say no to IRL meetups (cos why travel) but I will get back to these IRL meetings. I will still figure the time and travel and all that.

6/ Nath Saab

For context on him, read this.

Another lesson I learnt from him is the idea of panna faadna. I wrote about it here (section B). I think it needs a page on this blog but for the time being, I will replicate here.

Imagine our life is a notebook. Each person in our life is a page. And you can add as many pages in that notebook (once you meet new people). And then the page can extend to any length (depending on your relationship with them). And like any well-used journal or notepad, it can extend in all directions.

However, once you sort of break your relationship with someone (say, someone moves away from your life, someone does something uncool etc etc) you tear their page from your notebook. And then that’s that. You stop bothering about them. They become a stranger. You operate from a place of indifference. You are kind to the world, you are kind to them. You wish them success but you shall not partake in that. If they need help, you are not proactive. You let them come to you. So on and so forth.

He of course has a far deeper reason and philosophy. What I wrote is mine.

And yesterday, I tore one more page off my book. I wish the individual all the luck. I continue to love but I am no longer invested.

So, that.

This week, I tore two more pages from my life’s book. Both pages are relatively fresh and yet I cared deeply for them. One I’ve known for 2-3 years. The about 18 months. Both seemed to have outgrown me and took my patronage for granted. I dont expect that people I support put me on a pedestal but I expect them to be polite and respectful towards me.

Not worth ruminating. Made a note in my Roam. There are now 4 people there. I should re-read Meditations.

7/ Inevitable future

The world is changing fast and I dont know how to navigate. I am thinking, do I create a group of people I trust and talk about things there?

Some themes I see emerging…

Network
Atoms vs Bits
Personal Brand
Personalized Health
Hard Skills and Soft Skills
Interdisciplinary intelligence

I am sure there are many that I am missing.

So, I am thinking I will add people who I trust and who I was to be on my death bed. The idea will be to spot where we are (as individuals, as a group and as society) and what we could do as a collective to be a part of this inevitable future. I am not sure what shape would it take and who would I include in it. But this has been simmering in my head.

Give me thoughts?
Ask me questions?

8/ Urban Poverty of Time

I was talking to C about something and I happened to mention Urban Poor. In one line, its the people who don’t have the resources and yet take on debt to appear of a certain strata to appease people around them.

Lately I’ve started to spot people who are poor with their time. You know, young people who are perpetually short of time and yet are travelling for concerts, going to meetups, joining board game groups, attending festivals that they have no clue about.

I see so many young people waste so much of their time on doing things that would seemingly get them acceptance and approval from the world around them. And then after they come back from these social dos, they are left scrambling to get things done and all that.

PS: I want to develop this idea a little more. Lets see where I get.

9/ On saying yes!

See this tweet.

I have lived a life of “always yes” till I was 40. And my excuse was lack of focus. And undiagnosed ADHD. This served me ok – I learnt a lot. But in societal measures, this didnt serve me well.

And despite that, I continue to believe that one must say yes to everything. And I know a lot of people who are sharply focussed even at the age of 20.

So, you do what serves you (yes or no) and what has served your people. But this is worth reading and thinking.

10/ Harada Method

See this tweet. I have been a fan of Ohtani and how he’s built a deliberate life. I did not know that he was following Harada all this while.

Since then multiple tools and apps have popped up that help you visualise this Harada method. I have used goalpillars.com to visualise quiet a few. Here’s one.

The point?

You must try the method to build a map for your success.

Ok enough!

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Some photos that I took and save over the last week are here.

🈺 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.

No update from the last week. Plus now that we are close to the end of this year and I am working on Year Compass, I will probably make updates to this as we go along.

☑️ 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.

On this as well, I dont have an update for the last weeks.

📊 The tracker from the last week

Here’s the tracker. Publishing this after a while. Took a lot of effort 😀

What do you see?

🏃🏻‍♂️‍➡️ Health

I am not publishing this at this time.

The food log, my daily health log channel continue to be active.

📖 Interesting Reads / Views

Not too many. And whatever I had, I have covered those in the note above. You are welcome to join this WA group where I post updates often.

🧠 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?

Blur.

I dont even know where this week went. And there is no better word than this to capture that emotion.

Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Sad, Getting Back, Unsettling, 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.

This week was not

—
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

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

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.

141021 – Morning Pages

A rambling, long post on how I spent yesterday and whatever was clouding my head. Read on.

7:58. Home. After three days I think. Not that I missed it. Not that I hoped I would have any better. But home nonetheless.

So I have a lot planned for today. Essentially it is catching up with all the things that I have been procrastinating for the last few days. In fact, like this entire week has been, yesterday was a blur. I was stuck till about 8 in a situation that I could not wring myself out of. And then I was stuck in traffic. And then when I reached home, I was mindfucked like a mad man. I even put an emo tweet out. See this. Of course, I learned instantly that these emo tweets dont help. While you put those because you want to share and there is no one else that you want to share things with, you also somewhere expect that dark cloud would part and some light will shine through. And no, strangers dont text you and give you validation. God doesn’t appear and gives you a magic potion of happiness. Whatever you seek, it is not forthcoming. You need to get over things yourself. So that’s a lesson!

In fact, reminds me, till a few years ago, I would not filter any of my thoughts and rant like a bitch on twitter and blog and everywhere else. You know, I was living in public to an extreme level! But I was in my early 30s, I wanted to make a dent (still want to) and I would take a lot of inputs and adapt myself. A lot of well-meaning people told me that by putting things out like that, I come across as an overly emotional person and that means the kind of opportunities I want and seek dont come my way. This also meant that I was exploding my gullible nature to the world and I got taken for a ride. And thus I stopped.

But, as I am growing older, I am realizing that even if the world takes me for a ride, I want to live authentic, honest and public life. I dont want to be in the rat race. And I want to live for myself. And do things for myself. And I want to make a billion dollars while I do that. And more.

So, back to emo, shit posting. Tolerate it. Or ignore it.

Ok. Moving on.

Last night when I was on my way back home, I was pukish! I know what it was. A lot of coffee (I must have had some 20 cups, if not more). Very less food (ate literally nothing). Pollution (I must have travelled some 100 KMs within the city).

And I did not like it at all. In fact, I hated it. So, today on, even if I am dying, I shall not have coffee. Or coke. And everything I eat will be done with mindfulness and with an assumption that my body is my temple and everything that goes in needs to be carefully vetted.

Finally, the last large thing that happened yesterday was when I was talking to a friend. In a casual conversation, I was talking about how I am and what I do, I happened to talk about money. And the responses made me sick. I realised that I am one of those urban poor. You know, the world (and my friends and contacts) assumes that I am this rich person with a lot of assets and money and all that. In fact I live like that (you know, Starbucks, Apple, Nike etc). However, IRL, I may not be that. No, the money is not important. Important is that the people dont understand me.

Wait. Why should they? Who are they? What do they owe you? After all, its your life and you need to find your way around things.

Ok, final thing about today. I just realised I love it when I am alone. I am home and I am not liking the movement around me. You know, the helps and non-stop door bell and all that. I am dying to step out. But then the nearest Starbucks is like 12 KMs away! Plus this time of the day, right after I wake up, this time is the most important time of the day for me. I get some things done. I catch up on email. I write these morning pages. I think about things to be done. I make grand plans for things. I hate the failures. I mean I go thru thus wide range of emotions on a day to day basis and I think the time in the morning the one that I need the most. I dont know what to do preserve it. Except stepping out as soon as I wake up ;P

Ok, enough. Here’s the journal.

Emoticon: :|. Was feeling shitty for last 2-3 days. Ok now.
Mindful Index (on a scale of 10): 1.
Things that I am grateful for
1. Back home to my parents. I may want to be alone but this is where I belong. Need to find a balance.
2. The ability to stay calm in most dire situations.
Things that would make my today great
1. I think my work means the world to me. More than anything else. I need to thus find a way to get things done. And if I do that, I would be happy and today would be great.
2. I will step out at some point in time today. When I do that, I will probably goto a Starbucks and I would want to NOT order a coffee while I am there. If I can stay away from coffee and coke, it would be great.
A daily affirmation
I am the master of my time. I need to give it to others and when I do give it out, I will do so at my terms.
Amazing things that happened yesterday?
1. The cab ride back home was good. Even though I was pukish, I enjoyed it a lot!
2. I had the office machine-wali coffee yesterday. Had some 10 cups. I enjoyed the taste of sugar and milk-powder and all that. I got pukish as well. The Amazing thing is that I now know what I need to avoid.
3. Another ex-client called and wanted to offer me work. It is less than what I would want to charge for a 3-day project. But it’s work nonetheless. Yet to decide if I am taking it up. Let’s see.
What could have made yesterday better?
1. If I reacted better to the news and things around me, it would’ve been better.
Quote for the day
“I wasn’t much of a petty thief. I wanted the whole world or nothing.” – Charles Bukowski. I even tweeted this yesterday.

And here’s the streaks…

OMAD – 0
#book2 – 0
NOFAP – 0
#noCoke – 0. Had a few. Wont have today on.
#noCoffee – 0. Had a few. Wont have today on.
#aPicADay – 7. Here is today’s.
Daily Journal – 7
Money spent – Did not track. Must have spent 500 odd except the hotel bill.
Killer Boogie – 0
10K steps a day – 0
Surya Namaskar – 0
Daily Mail to #teamSG – 7
10 mins of meditation – 0
Minimaslism Counter – -3 +1.
Morning Pages / Meditations – 7. Making it 7 to help track things easy. Most things I do thus get in the sync.