GOOOOOOOOOD MORNING!

It is precisely a month to my birthday. I realised this only when I typed out the date for this document. The past few years, I’ve lost the eagerness I had for my birthdays. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy getting together with people I love and dancing, playing, walking, the jazz. But I’m no longer counting down.

Maybe it’s because I have stopped planning “cool” things for it. Should I, perhaps, plan a trip or an exciting adventure now? Has coming of age happened? We’d know this year when I cut my next cake.

Coming back. Good morning. I woke up WAY later than I planned. Maybe because of my two steamed idlis at 10 PM. But the calendar was clear, so I was less sad. Got ready — I have a beef with linen. Why is the fabric so high maintenance? Anyway, I chose to not iron my shorts. Skipped breakfast because the dishes were not done, and that is one household chore I despise having to do. So here I am in my local Starbucks at 12:05 PM: fasted, very well-slept and if my camera tells me right, looking pretty :p

For today’s blog, I know at least one thing I want to write about. The rest shall reveal itself.

One. Everyone must get hot ✨ once.

There are two kinds of hot — the traditional, sexual kind. That’s plain old hot. And the healthy, happy, well-adjusted human kind. Hot ✨ I mean the latter.

Here’s my thought. Most of us are born average babies. Feed like average babies. Live the average lifestyle. And royally fuck up our bodies. Credits to the food, air, water and most importantly, habits. The outcome of that is — you do not show up to life 100%. You’re aching, low-energy, moody, slowly losing cognitive function, all that.

But all you have is one life. And a huge world. And so much you could make of it. Do you really want your mind and body — and on a deeper level, your habits — stop you from all that? And sure, there is a lot of sexy, hedonistic joy to be found as well. You pick and choose. I’d rather live an 80% disciplined life to enjoy the 20% of non-discipline without any guilt whatsoever.

Let me give you a very average, tiny example. Imagine two people in an office. One who works out regularly post their 9-5. Skips a few fun things for it. Does not snack every single day. Feeds themselves well-optimised meals. All that. You get me. The second one is not like that. Wants to get fitter, does not commit, finds excuses, all that. Now think of them on a dinner table on that vacation. Who will find more net joy from that meal? That.

That is one thing.

Next one would be: hot privilege. Pretty privilege is one thing and works for a lot of people. Fit privilege is another. A mix of those + people skills is what I call hot privilege. In the right circles, and frankly in all circles, you will get it. We’ve all got some cards to begin with. There are some you can earn for yourself. And if there’s a high ROI card you can get with regular, boring effort — go get it???

Last: A LONG LIFE. More time to live = more time to do or not do or to make something out of this life you got. Who does not want it?

And just seeing what life looks when you’re hot ✨ once, I’m sure you would not want to go back. I have many more thoughts on this. And much more from my life + mind. In case you are curious — I’m up for some lemonade!

Two. Accolades vs Input.

I have SG sitting across me talking to a young(-ER) person about work, life and all in between. Many interesting things. I just realised I have not been in a lot of these conversations off late.

Anyhow, one of the things I overheard is on how SG would like to be involved on projects, particularly when he’s the greyest hair (?) And I noticed, this is also what I have done with Decoding Draupadi so far. That I have never been offered validation or a “good job.” I do ask for inputs. I can choose whether or not to include them in my iterations. And run with it. We don’t top-down. And every thing can be a discussion. And difference of opinions often end up in a disagree-and-commit state.

Of course, I have often freaked myself over little things and asked folks on our team to check/confirm/validate/tell me if I am doing something wrong. Most times they have told me it’s nothing I can’t handle.

Point is: We’re a ready-fire-aim team. And action-first. And always striving for greater agency. This is a manifestation of that.

Three. Omne trium perfectum.

There is this writing rule omne trium perfectum. Which means: Everything that comes in three is perfect. Also, years of reading, watching, writing and being has trained me to find anything else really odd. Which is why, even for these blogs, I try to finish my threes. At least.

Today I am pulling a blank on my third. But I am a women with a commitment to herself. And thus, this fun fact about otp shall have to do. Now, I am no writing expert or someone with great original insight on why this is how you must write. You can look it up.

What I will however do is leave you with a list of 3 things I found interesting yesterday:

1. A curios question I looked up: Do you know why a laundry list is called a laundry list? Back when people sent clothes to a laundromat, they’d include a written list of EVERY item so nothing got lost. That detailed inventory was called a laundry list. And then, every long list came to be called that.
2. An opinion that occurred: The future of brunches is showing your friends pictures and videos of your AI Personas/Influencers. Like they do babies and dogs right now. “Look, mine can sit on a pile of laundry now” “Oh, mine got her first brand deal this week” “Ramya’s AI is just learning to hold hands, how sad”
3. A fun thing I learnt about: Gruns. I knew nothing about Gruns until Shaan and Sam chatted to Chad about the business. MFM is my go-to lunch-break iPad-time watch, btw. I’ve only watched half the video so far, but this dude + the business story seem interesting. Yet to do my research. What caught my attention is: When I look at the website, I don’t think Unilever would buy this out for $1.2 Billion. But they did. So — much to learn on my taste + RFA + ops from them. I’m sure they have a VERY strong fit + marketing machinery. Will look it up!

And, this is all from me today.

It is 1:47 now. I have spent 2 hours writing this. Which is sad. But this writing/thinking/reflecting regularly and fast and well is a skill I want to hold on to. And get better at. Plus, I have been able to do it okay-well in the past. So, I shall keep at it — despite the huge time investment it takes.

See you tomorrow dosto!

Ciao 💌

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.

And oh, write back. I love getting messages 💌