Hello, hello!

I spent 2.5-ish days writing my annual stakeholder report this week. And my top realisation was that I had not written much this year. Online. Or for myself. Or documenting lessons/progress at work.

And the consequence? 2025 feels like a lost blur. I know a lot has happened. But here’s the thing — a lot has happened. I don’t think I have happened. Been intentional. Aware. Mindful. All that. I basically let my habits, emotions, laziness, etc get the better of me. Now, naturally, I want to change that in 2026. I will write twice a week going forward – from what I understand, for the rest of my life. But it starts today.

This piece might be a little less fun to write. And yes, I see the presumption that the older ones were more (or any) interesting to begin with. However, writing has been a little rusty and I’m typing with my long, almond acrylics. Both of which I do not recommend if you’re going to be doing a lot of writing. For work, I like to use Whispr. But for this, I don’t think I can reflect and document at the pace of my speaking. One day.

ANYHOW.

Here are some things for my week.

One. Sundays and not-Sundays.

About two years ago, I had chosen to stop looking at Sundays as absolute days off. The idea was simply to not give into an arbitrary calendar. That easy. Just the kind of life I wanted.

This week, I have had many people ask me why I’m working on a weekend. And feel sorry for me. Some I try to reason with or explain. Some I just tell I took a day off on the weekdays, so I’m catching up. Some take it as a pleasant surprise. I like the pleasant, I don’t like the surprise. The empty roads are great though.

But I’m sure that’s the way life is designed for most people. You clock is long hours at work, ideally working, on the weekdays. And the weekends you don’t do much. Or you do something you enjoy and make something of life. And the argument is – My work/life/office, et al is like this. Most people have chosen it. And didn’t want any other way badly enough.

I am yet to find a way to talk about this and not make it rant. So this much shall do for now. But hey — Sundays are not necessarily days off. And you can choose a life that isn’t designed that way, if you don’t want it. By designing it. And, don’t be concerned. I’m alright.

Two. Played some pickle this week.

A few months back, I went for a night match of pickle with some friends and plus ones. I’ve never played any racquet games in my life. Don’t think I have the knack for it either. But I am definitely excited about it. I’ve always wanted to go back since then. This week, I went for two games. With people from the C4E village. And found the same joy.

I’ve also considered getting a membership and going everyday. BUT — pickle is a two person sport. And, one of them should be able to play. And, it is not as effective as the gym for my fitness goals today. So, I’m going to use it as a reward thing. If I’ve done 5x gym sessions in a week, I earn myself an hour of pickle. And the right to pester one of my friends to go with me.

Three. A thousand people Secret-Santa.

On Decoding Draupadi’s community, we have 2.5k members now. It’s starting to feel like a biggish thing. A lot of things have helped. Regular online catchups. Dosti with the active members. Little gifts and fastest-fingers-first kind of giveaways. You know, doing things that don’t necessarily scale.

One of those things was hosting a round of Secret Santa. We have 2500 unique humans on the group. Imagine having to do co-ordinate joining the group, addresses, phone numbers, addresses, preferences, missed delays, keeping it an actual secret, ALLLLLL THAT.

I know big companies and their HRs somehow manage that. I don’t want to spend my time doing that. But I’m very interested to learn how they do it anyway. My bet is it’s not the most efficient.

SO, what does a girl with a 2.5 member community who wants to host a secret santa do? She turns to AI. Meet https://secret-santa-opal.vercel.app/. Ya, it does not have a name. (But what’s in a name?) This will let you make a group – share with your friends – they put in their names, emails, phone number, addresses, etc – it does a random matching – you draw when you’re ready – sends the Santas an email with their matches. All sorted.

Data security? Everything remains with me. Nothing I don’t have already. And, people have opted in to share information with their Santas. Plus, we have rigorously vetted members on the community.

What if they make a typo? Phone, email, talk to admin (me). Now that I think of it, I can also match profiles with the original community sign-up info, flag discrepancies, and then I can pick the right. Might be overkill for my use-case.

What if someone does not send a gift? a. Lemme trust they will. b. I’ll find out.

SO, that.

Really excited about it.

And lastly. A list of other random-things.

• Thought a lot about how my grandma has always told me — Do whatever you want when you make your own money. Not, when you get married.
• Learning No a lot more often. My fear is disappointing people. But, let me assume the right ones will understand. Plus, it will open my calendar + headspace for quality time with work and people. Skipped three different hangs to write this, and I feel better in life already.
• I really want to clone intros.club. Maybe not even a huge app, but for Decoding Draupadi internally.
• Want to take mummy to a candle light concert. Soon.
• I also want one day of a nice staycation. Swim. Sit in the sun. Eat lots of seafood. Sleep. And a massage.
• Iced Caramel Macchiato is SO GOOD. Blonde roast. But the milk and the sugar wreak havoc on my skin.
• Watching the Taylor Swift Eras Tour docuseries. I’ve always been a fan of the person. However, I’ve now grown to only fan-girl over the music. The person — I see the business and process and rigour now. And more than starry eyes, I have respect. That’s the real show.

Okay, I could go on with this. But that’s all.

Anshika – on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Ps: I share interesting links and stories that tickle my brain through the day on this WhatsApp group. Most of it doesn’t make it to these blogs, but should you like to join — here.

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