2 May, 2026
Started writing this at Silk Road Coffee Company and continued at other places.
Today’s M’s birthday. One of those rare people in the world that I love. And I gave Poo a hug. Again, another rare person that I love.
And I write this from a table where I am with AK, Prak, Naman and C. My people. The ones I want to live with and grow old with. Grateful that I have these people around me. If I were to zoom out, I think I would agree that my greatest achievement has been my mastery over my time. I am able to choose who I want to spend my time with and what I do with that time. I am mostly ok on the money front as well, though it could be better.
So that.
The week gone by saw a lot of action. There are a few things that I even delivered (yay!) and I shall talk about those shortly.
The song for the week is Lucky Ali’s Dekha Hai Aise Bhi. And this version of Iris.
And with that, let’s go.
.
Highlights, reflections, updates, notes and thoughts from the week gone by.
In no order…
1/ Bunked a Work Meeting
Some context. I live in Andheri West. I had to meet a mentor at Nariman Point. For some work. And life updates.
Nariman Point is as far as you can go, if you travel South from Andheri. And typically takes about an hour early in the morning. And I had to meet him at his office. This means I had to wear pants. And do more superhuman things like that.
I did all of it.
Wore a shirt.
Wore pants.
Left home at 7:30 am to bear and beat traffic.
Reached a Starbucks close to his office at 8:30.
For a meeting at 10:30.
And then, I didnt go.
And no, I am not proud of it.
And I must talk about it.
The thing is, I had to go there to update him about work I’ve done in the past few months. And I didn’t really have a lot of new things to show him. Which is ok. No update is also an update. But while thinking about what to tell him, I realised, I am a hack. I havent dont anything by myself. All that I had to talk about was other people, doing things that I would have taken credit for. And I would have made pretenses about how I made those things happen.
Yes, ladies and gents, imposter syndrome is a real thing.
No, I dont need. I will be ok.
2/ Money
I will not get into too many details but I have feel the financial pressure. And I dont see it easing in the next few months. And I know that the next few things would be expensive. So, we shall see what do we do about it.
One option is to go extreme eco mode. But then I dont want that to hamper my ability to ship things. Case in point, I put up $200 to buy Claude Max (you will read about it shortly) to help me do more things.
So that.
3/ Spiral Bound
If you are from the films space, you would know Spiral Bound, the screenwriting thing that Boman Irani Sir runs. Last week they held a dinner and party of sorts for the students. And I was invited.
Here’s a photo from the event. Look at that talent on the stage!
And no points for guessing, I didnt go.
And I hate it. This is the second thing that I shouldve gone to but I didnt. I wish I was more social and I had it in me to attend these things.
Oh the highlight was that for this, I had to write 11 pages of a screenplay. Which I did. And I am grateful. I am gonna develop it further into a full feature script. In this month itself. Ofc with the help of AI.
I call it 56 Hours.
Ask me about it next time you meet me.
Also, side note: I am thinking, is this writing of the script a distraction? I should be hyper-focussed on making money and fixing my home before I think about others. But then, that would be the rational thing to do and if there’s one thing I’ve learnt, it is that I am not rational. Heck, I am not even rationalising.
Also, also, this brings me to my next point.
4/ Film Making and Offline Business.
I love the business of films.
Even though it has changed drastically in this post-AI world (in writing, music, design, even production and direction), the core tenet that we are all about stories has NOT changed. The tools available have. The barriers to entry have gone down even more. And the only thing standing between who you are and what you could do is your ability to actually do!
And I love the business of live events. And while I’ve not done a lot of these in the recent past, I think I must rethink about it. For the sheer love of things that it allows me to do – travel, solve problem, stay in the moment, operate in a high-stress environment and more.
And Pradeep has been insistent that I must do both of these. On the films, he says that I must make one (all by myself) and then decide if I want to do more or not. And on the offline events space, he’s been after my life to get into it head first. The world seems to be moving offline, people are getting lonely and people need a detox from devices and AI.
So, why not.
Let’s see.
5/ Lessons from Kay Khoo
I met Kay over the weekend for a coffee.
Hands down, this was one of the most incredible meetings I’ve had in long long time. For a large part of the time I spent with him, I felt I was out of my depth. Which is incredible. I would love to be in more rooms like that.
Here are some lessons I took away. Words are mine.
A/ Do Large Things
Kay mentioned that when he gets on a project, his mind first expands to figure the grandest picture that he can. Even if its impossible, improbable, unrealistic et al. And then he sets about seeing how to make it happen.
Wow!
B/ Pick things you want to work on
Kay was abundantly clear that he wants to cheery pick projects that he puts his mind to. Ofc, he’s at a place where he can pick and choose things. I am not. But from what I could imagine, he would’ve been like this since a lot of time to come to this point.
A pursuit worth investing energy into.
C/ Have opinions
This.
He comes from the design space and he has opinions. Which is not unheard of. But he had a rational reason for EACH of his opinions. And he could put those forth in simple words.
Unlike me where I say I dont “vibe” with things. Must learn how to be more articulate and clear and have rational, simple explanations.
D/ Choose your words.
I was with him for about two hours and in that time he dint use a single profanity. In a world where we take pride in being “brash” and “bindaas” and “chalta hai”, the man chose his words, spoke well and didn’t have to lean onto expletives to put his point forth.
So that.
I wish I met more people like Kay.
I hope I get to spend more time with him.
6/ Tale of 2 Maxes
This past week saw me “invest” in two Maxes.
Airpods Pro Max for about 50K
Claude Max for $200 per MONTH!
And at least with Claude Max, in the three days I’ve had it, I’ve seen a remarkable shift in life. I am running three tasks at the same time and I can see my brain expanding. Right now, a lot of my usage is about writing and design. I am yet to get to the code part (for that, am using TRAE)
Both are out of aukaat for me (in terms of money) but I think I wanted both. And now that I have put in money, I will see if I continue to be excited about it. Oh, and these two happen to the most expensive purchases for myself in a while. And also, the belief that its expensive to be poor has been reinforced. And thus, must make more money.
7/ The shattered rickshaw
Lemme start this one by saying that I am grateful for my privilege.
So, a couple of days ago, I was coming back from Versova and on one of the intersections, I saw a rickshaw that was apparently in an accident and was shattered so bad that it would get scrapped.
And next to it, crouched, was the driver. I don’t know if he was the owner or the renter but he looked devastated. He had his face in his hands (I couldnt see more) and was shaking. There were people around him but they were all in various stages of helplessness. And like it happens with such incidents, a crowd had gathered.
I didnt see this scene for more than a couple of minutes cos the rick I was in was ushered by the traffic cops but I realised what wa happening. The rick that was shattered was probably the only way for the driver to make his living. More than that, it was probably a large part of his networth and worldly possession. He had his entire world shattered in front of his eyes!
The last time I felt like that was when we were demonetized and there was this image of a old man from a tier 2 (or 3) location with his hands on his forehead. I cant forget that visual. I wont forget this rick person. The helplessness on these people. The shattered rickshaw could probably get fixed but what about the man? In one second, his entire life would’ve changed. You know, when life leaks one strand at a time from your soul, you dont realize. My business has been bleeding for last two years and on a day to day basis, I dont get to see the impact. But when you lose everything you have in one snap, I dont know how that would feel. Like I said, life’s been kind to me and I am grateful.
I remember one time Paras lost that he had built in a fire. Paras being Paras bounced back. I am not sure of this rick person. Neither am I aware of what happened to that old man.
Made me guilty of my privilege. Made me sick. Made me think. Made me question the reason. Made me want to work harder.
8/ HT’s book
Ok, coming back to things that I did, with the help of Claude Max, I’ve been able to deliver a book that am ghostwriting for a mentor. Ahead of time. And yes, I used AI liberally.
As we speak, the book is at the review stage and some folks are reading to give their inputs. Lets see what they say. Needless to say, I am damn excited about it.
9/ ShipShit
I shipped.
Shit.
See it here. I didn’t intend to shit it on shipshit but that was the only domain available that was not being used. And thus I ready fired aim the domain. And it is ready. In some shape.
Oh and I worked on this with TRAE and NOT Claude. Lol!
So, if you are a screenwriter and you want to take the tool for a spin, please lemme know. And in case you dont want to let me know, you can easily sign up and play. In either case, please do give me feedback.
Disclaimer: This is WIP and thus PLEASE do NOT use this for commercial work. There are bugs and you will lose progress.
10/ Work
I dont have a lot to say here. I was to pick a thing to apply myself to by the end of April. I still dont have an answer. I did have a few thoughts but dont think they are panning out. I now have the following options…
- Toss a coin (I dont have two options but you get the drift)
- Ask my Village and I will do whatever they tell me to
- Give myself one more month. But I had decided I will not make my timelines flexible
So, I dont know which one to choose. You help me.
11/ Instagram
I got back on Insta last night (I am on altSaurabh).
And after a month.
And oh man, it is a hellhole. Before I knew it, I had spent 2 hours on it. Doing inane things. Scrolling profiles of my crushes. Getting envious of perfect lives of pseudo-strangers. Thinking about all the things that I could’ve done.
If for the brain expansion that happened with Claude Max, these two hours with Insta were so terrible that I wanted to puke.
But… there’s always a but…
I realised that I need it.
For work.
The world has, for some sad reason, moved to Insta as their primary vehicle for content and news consumption. It’s a necessary evil that you have to live with, to put your point forth and connect with more people.
But is there a way to do it without wasting time on it?
Maybe use it only from a browser?
Are there any wise answers?
11/ Other minor updates
No minor updates from this past week.
.
📷 Photos from the week gone by
Stopped this as few weeks ago.
In case you want to get photos from me, DM me.
.
📈 Trackers…
Lemme start from Whoop….
And then.
The steps…
Then, the weekly…
I am glad that screentime is not tru the roof.
Finally, the larger tracker…
I see a lot of red flags. Lemme know what you see.
.
✅ Action on LARGE objectives for the year
In this section, I will capture my progress on large objectives for the year.
In 2026, I plan to do the following three things…
- Book2
- Human Flag Pole
- Save a million dollars
With Claude Max, I made some effort on second book.
And I love it!
Let’s see if I can carve time to actually write more.
I am giving till end of May to get the draft ready. The best part of Claude is that it can act as a solid research assistant and help me. And even if it hallucinates, I am ok. After all, we are working on a fiction project.
The other two are still sus.
.
📌 So, what did I get done last few weeks? And what will I do next week?
This is a one-line report on progress I made on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.
So, this year, I want to track the following…
- Health. I will work on sleep, food and movement. Was not a good week at all. I will work on it in the coming week.
- C4E / Work. I want to shortlist some idea that I want to work on. I still dont have it. I have one more day on this. And in case I dont get it, then I dont know. And I am sad about it 🙁
- Brand SG / Distribution. No action on this.
- People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc). No action.
- Book2. I want to start with this. Did some work.
- Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc). No action.
.
🏃➡️ 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.
This week was REALLY bad.
Bad sleep.
Bad food.
Bad energy.
I need to put in some work on this.
.
⏲️ Reminders from last few days
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 am revisitng htis after a while
A few things…
- Update C4E’s Culture Book. This is still WIP.
- C4E’s website. This is new and WIP.
- Sparring Partner as a Service. Added this new thing.
I have a suspicion that this list will grow and will become unmanageable in a few weeks. I will find a solution when I get to it. For the time being, here’s a sheet where I track my actions.
Here are the things that I’ve closed previously…
Start a podcast with C and AK. This remains open and will probably get shut. I dont see the excitement in the three of us.Storytelling presentation for the session on the 7th March. I missed this. And I will do this in March. Maybe on the 28th or the 29th? I missed this again. I dont think am doing this. So closing and moving on.
.
🗓️ So, one thing that defines the past week?
Embarrassment.
Yeah. That’s the word I want to use. I did a few good things but the highlight (the lowlight actually) has to be my conduct with Boman Sir and Arun Sir. I am quite embarrassed about how I conducted myself this week.
And I will fix it.
The other words for this year have been: Blur, Whiling, 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 from 2026 are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 (missed these three), 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
PPS: Please do point typos.
PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.
PPPPS: I am not really happy about this update. But I guess we will live with this and aspire to do better in the next one.