july 2026
Good Monday Morning folks,
Y’all have no idea how happy I am to be sitting on my computer writing this for a second time. Most habits I start (or try to, at least) don’t survive past their first attempt/iteration.
In either case, there’s nothing major that happened this last week. I started reading two new books though — The Cold Start Problem by Andrew Chen and Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. Both of them itch a corner of my brain I didn’t know existed. One of them’s about how to start and scale network effects, written by a GP at a16z. Feels like a book of the 21st century. The other one’s a fictional book about a guy born at the exact hour of India’s independence from the Britishers and how he has telepathic powers that link him to the newly formed nation’s destiny and the other children born at the same hour as him. This one was written by a magical-realist (? is that what it’s called?) author who’s survived an assassination attempt and has written a book banned in more than a dozen countries. Pretty badass if you ask me.
In either case, I highly recommend reading both of these books, but be warned that my recommendation is based on reading only the first couple dozen pages of both books and as such, might change in a couple weeks or so.
I’m also visiting my high-school today. It’s not been that long since I last saw my teachers but I don’t think I’ll get to see them for a while considering my long-term schedule for the next eighteen months or so (?). I think it’s quite easy for people to fall to the background of your lives despite them having made a significant difference in it unless you make an active effort to prevent that.
I honestly think my English teacher changed my life. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to point down on what he changed but the last two years of high-school with him modified my brain chemistry in a way I think improved my self? being? persona? for the better. There’s very few people in this world who only speak when its necessary, and even fewer who also only speak non-bullshit-information. I’m not one of those people — I don’t think I ever will be. This man was is. If I were to rank all the people in the world from whom I wish I could extract all their wisdom from, he would definitely make top five.
Enough glaze for someone who’s never going to read this.
I’m also back home in Bhopal. I don’t think any other place in the city will feel as home-y as this city. Living in Mumbai for a month gave me more than enough exposure to the big-city life and I think I’ve made a make a pretty substantiated decision of never wanting to live there again in my entire life. It’s too loud, too drenched, too hasty.
I’m also going to try and get better at poker and DJing this week. Should be enough to keep me busy for a week before I fly back to the US.
Anyway, that was about everything that was worth mentioning. The weeks after this are going to be significantly more interesting (hopefully).