Morning!
Of afternoon. Or evening. Or whatever time you read this at.
This week and the next week’s edition will be not as detailed as I would like them to be. I am on the road and may not be able to carve time to reflect on how I spent time. But an edition nonetheless. You know, progress > perfection. So, yay!
So, the H2 of 2025 is here.
This has been one of the most “interesting” years.
Interesting from multiple lenses.
Exciting.
Challenging.
Full of changes.
One of the rare years when I didnt do my regular yearly plans.
But then I went with the flow and learnt a lot.
I even saw a large change in my personality and decision making (you know, from people person to ideas person). I am sure there is more.
While I want to write about this year, today is not the time and here is not the place. Right now I want to publish this weekly note.
Oh, I am listening to this as I write. By Twin Strings and Raghav Chaitanya.
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Ok, lets go!
💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week
PS: As always, these are not in any order.
1/ Mann Ko Bhaya to Accha, Na Bhaya to Aur Bhi Achcha
I saw this first as a status message of Hareesh Sir. And then I read more about it and reaslised that this is by Harivansh Rai Bachchan. Salute to both the men.
Over time I have started to try and internalise this. And I think I am successful to some extent. And it has been one of the most liberating ways to live life. I no longer think about the good or the bad. I think of things without attaching any emotion. Guruji from Vipassana would be proud.
Of course I am yet to build that in to daily practise but I try on a day to day basis. And I am lot more about not attaching the emotion and outcome.
PS: Lol, Mr Garg. See point #9.
Oh, if Marcus was the kinds to write Hindi poetry, he would’ve probably written this.
Any how.
The point is, mann ko bhaya to accha, na bhaya to aur bhi achcha.
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2/ From Chaand Taare to Kutumb
If you’d had met me a few years ago and asked me what my trip in life was, I would have said…
Saari daulat saari taaqat
Saari duniya par hukumat
If you live under the rock, this is from this song.
And if you dont know, in one of the shots in this track, SRK is actually passing by what would eventually become Mannat.
But lately, my want of taaqat and hukumat has changed to…
Sai itna dijiye, jaame kutumb samaay,
main bhookha naa rahoon, sadhu na bhookha jaaye
This is by Kabir.
And this has been the cornerstone of my life and decision making in a while.
This implies that rather than having all of it, I want enough to take care of myself and my village. This also indirectly implies that I will reduce my wants (not needs) and I will try and help my people to do more.
Oh, and this epiphany happened when I was meeting AP. More on our interaction in a bit (point #8). But this is what defines me now.
Make of it what you will.
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3/ Its expensive to be poor
I read this somewhere once that its expensive to be poor and I have now seen this in action. If you are rich, you can “buy” time and use that to do whatever.
Here’s an example – say you have to travel between Mumbai and Delhi. The poor (aka middle class) will probably take the train and invest 15-18 hours for this. If you are better off, say me, you would take a 2-hour flight. You may spend another couple of hours to reach the airport and check-in and all that.
Just because you can afford the flight, you saved 13 hours.
Now, thats where the imagination of most people will end.
Indulge me a bit more.
Imagine you were uber-rich. I am talking SRK level rich. You could take a private plane and save another two hours.
And then if you are even more rich, say Ambani rich, you can question the very reason of travel and call whoever you want to, to, to your place and save all the time.
Now, extrapolate that for everything. Food you eat, healthcare you have access to, people you meet, education you get, opportunties that come to you, access to private deals and everything else.
Get the drift?
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4/ Posture
I’ve realised that I need to fix my posture.
I have this lingering pain in my back all the time. I think I can blame it on sitting hunched over my laptop for like 42 years. I really want to fix this.
So, from today on, I will ensure that my back is ALWAYS stuck to a support structure. Or it is straight. As I write this, my lower back hurts and I have some giving me a backrub!
And as I edit this, my back is hurting but I am resting it against a backrest at a cafe that is blasting AC air on my face at 18 degrees. Wow!
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5/ WSOP
WSOP is on as we speak.
I REALLY want to get the ME Bracelet some day. And I know that I dont have a lot of time left. A, age. And B, AI. I mean its probably a matter of time (unless already) before AI-enabled and coached people come in and with superhuman intelligence start to whoop asses of poker players.
In fact, it would be interesting to see KidPoker take on some AI bots. Has this been tried? Adding to my #todo
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6/ Aadmi Ka Zeher by Srilal Shukla.
It’s after a while that I’ve read a whodunnit.
And I enjoyed it. Buy here.
Looking forward to a Jeffery Archer that I took from Ankit last week.
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7/ How to write your autobiography
As part of learning more about active seniors (for Meru), I’ve been running tiny experiements.
This week I started with a small one – to help active seniors write their autobiographies.
Now, this is tough.
For a simple reason – I have not lived the experiences they have. Plus I know that I am not the most effective communicator. And I know that I have not helped other write an autobiography. Yes I have ghostwritten a few. Yes I’ve written a lot of books. But I have never “taught” anyone to write an autobiography.
So, lets see how that adds up.
But then, this a also new thing that am trying and I am very very excited about it! I’ve had one session so far. Let’s see how the next one goes.
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8/ Akanksha Pandey (AP)
I know of AP for a while now.
I first met her to see if we can work together. At the time we couldnt make it work. But she is one of the smartest young people I know. And I had to stay in touch. And we did.
So, I met her in the last week. And I realised that AP’s great IRL as well! Here are some notes from our meeting…
- I asked her to look at “couples” like [Bonnie + Clyde], [Shilpa Shetty +Raj Kundra], [Donna + Harvey] and others. The point? Large things get built when you are with someone for long and have shared madness for things.
- The Godfather and his principles of living life – loyalty, frienship, winning people.
- 1000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly
- Sex and the Cash Theory by Hugh
- Kunal Shah’s Forbes interview
I know these links without nuance and context wont be of much use to people reading this but I wanted to share here. And I am sure there’s a lot more but these are what I recall from the top of my head (and from my notes). Maybe some day I will edit this and add more.
But meeting AP has to be one of the highlight of the week so far.
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9/ Respect
This week, two of my fav kids crossed lines.
In two independent places.
At two different times.
Now this is a tough one to write and I will not.
But I want to catalog it here. More on my echochamber.
Also see point #1.
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10/ Deepak Ravindran (DR)
Lemme start with a disclaimer. I dont know DR personally.
However, he’s recently started a new startup (Kirana Pro) and it’s been all over the news. But this post is not about that. This is about how he’s running his personal brand. You just can NOT miss it. The corner of the internet I spend time at, I get to see and hear a lot about him. A lot means, A LOT.
And naturally, like most people I am enamored by and want to get to know, I followed him across socials. And then I reached his WA group where he and his buddies chat with each other.
And, O.M.G.!
The group opened up another dimension in the brain. A lot of chatter there is techbros nerding over the new things. I am unable to understand a lot of things there but the rare things I can fathom, I love it. Each post there is a lesson (to a point that a lot of saves in the photos from this week are from his group). Each chatter there is about building (some are delusional as well, but well…).
Ok, the point is, I need to surround myself with more people like that.
Bas itna hi.
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📷 Some Photos from the week gone by
Here are some photos from week 27.
The one I want to post on this blog is…
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Made me think hard.
To a point that my head hurt.
Or may it did cos I was on a long flight. Lol.
I dont know what my myth is. But I know what my myth is not. And that’s a good place to start. I need to now work towards finding it.
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🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by?
Book 2
No action.
I am thinking, should I drop this?
What do you think?
PLEASE let me know.
PS: Dropped 2025 Plan a few weeks ago.
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☑️ What did I get done last week?
This is 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.
I may not have a lot to add this week (and the next) but here is a report nonetheless.
At this point, the following things are important to me and these are IN ORDER.
- Health
- Meru
- C4E
- Brand SG
- People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
- Book2
- Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)
Health. No action. 0.
Meru. Same as last week. Tried to move the needle. But not as much as I would have wanted to. So, a 0.
C4E. No action. 0.
Next week on, I will remove this from this tracker.
Brand SG. No action. 0.
People. No action on this either. I’d say 0.
Book 2. Lol! -1
Shauk. Nothing. So, a 0.
So the overall score is -1 for this week, like it has been for the last 2 weeks.
Trends from the previous weeks: -1, -1, 3, 0, -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.
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📊 The tracker from the last week
This is the tracker for the last week.
All the amber is becuase I am on the road.
The week was better in terms of steps, sleep, food and recovery. But was terrible in terms of mood. Hope the coming week is better.
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📖 Interesting Reads from the last week
No large inputs here. I did read a few things but I dont have the time to update those. I will get back to this section once am back on ground.
In the meantime, the best place to get these updates is via my TIL WA group. It is inspired by Sunanda’s fabulous book, TIL, and on this WhatsApp group, I aim to post VERY VERY VERY frequently. Like MULTIPLE times a day. About things personal (rants, overshares, thoughts etc), what I read, what I want to think about, what I need help on etc. Join here.
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🧠 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.
I will skip this section this and the next week. I will get back to this in the week of 14th July.
From previous weeks, here are things that I want to remember. And no, this may not be a comprehensive list. In categories…
- Long term
- Professional pool / snooker / poker. No action.
- Health
- Kitchen setup (incomplete)
- Gym membership (incomplete)
- C4E things (Will stop tracking these)
- C4E Base
- Design
- Borderless agency
- Adding films
- Shauk / Personal
- Use of money to buy time – doing this already.
- Better dressed – lol
- Find love – lol!
- Demand more from life
- Speak better!
- Money (adding this on Jun 29)
- Passive income
In case you know me, lemme know if I have missed something.
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🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?
Uncool.
That’s the world I would use for the last week.
Wont talk too much here but it was not the coolest week. The good thing is that this happened after a long long time!
Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Disappeared, Experience, Grind, Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.
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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. 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, 20, 21, 22 (missed), 23, 24 (missed), 25, 26
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.