Hello from the Carter Road Starbucks. Here’s a postcard before we begin:

So, April went by faster than fairies and faster than witches. That’s the funny thing about life. If you do not sit down for a minute, look back and ask yourself a couple of difficult questions, you risk losing your footing. Thus, this Stakeholder Report.

I send out one every month with thoughts on the following:

1. Updates from the previous month
   1. Work
   2. Interesting life experiences
2. Goals for the coming month + what I will do to achieve them
   1. Personal goals
   2. Decoding Draupadi goals
3. A short list of things I need help with

Let’s go.

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Updates from the previous month

I met Ashish Hemrajani????

Our itch to do a women-only festival, Femela, picked and dropped Chandni and I to Ashish Hemrajani’s office. Ashish is the founder + CEO of Book My Show.

Here are some thoughts from this:

0/ He was not meeting us. Not directly anyway.

C and I had reached out to 2 female entrepreneurs to bring back a grand women-only event IP they created 6 years ago. We wanted to work on this together and had been figuring out what we could do + how. That’s how we got the meeting.

1/ I was a mere sponge + fly on the wall in this meeting. And there was so much to learn see, think about, hope for myself and, well yeah, learn.

No tangibles. But Ashish had a presence.

Sharp. Knows his shit and lets people know he does. Really, really affirmative. First to call out bullshit. Fiercely mindful of his time. All that.

And then, of course, I picked up on some lingo and concepts and things. Some filters for when events happen, why a venue works or doesn’t, all the tiny little things a Coldplay or The Beatles or any of the people I blast on my Spotify would care for when planning a show, how they take events from a concept to a real thing, all that. And more. I might have some 5 pages of notes – everything was new information.

2/ Here’s a vision board I made recently. The second thing on this is to produce a concert at The Sphere. Sometimes, I laugh at it myself. I am far from it. VERY FAR. But I also strongly believe that I will be able to do it. One day, very soon.

Having said that, to hear AH talk about the events they had done + are planning was exciting. The scale, the grandeur, the exciting concepts, the actual bloody ability to pull them off – I was a tiny bit enamoured, I’ll confess.

I WANT TO THINK OF A LOLLAPALOOZA AND RUN IT TOO?????

I think it was just to good to see and know these things happen. Maybe believe that if one person can pull this off – and since our worlds collided somehow – it might not be impossible for me too. I can at least take my shots.

3/ If you write to me on ak@c4e.in, we could get coffee and I could tell you a 1000 more things.

Anchor tasks and focus

A/ Some day I heard Saurabh saying, “I do not know what I am supposed to do when I wake up in the morning. There are 100s of things, but what are you supposed to do?” And I realised, I do not know that for myself too.

B/ For my last Stakeholder Report, Saraswati reached out to me with a very timely suggestion. That I should narrow down to one big goal, instead of spreading myself too thin. And that the rest will follow. But there needs to be, as Mochary says, your Top Goal.

C/ I have Naval’s Almanack on my bedside table. I flip through any random pages once in a while — I think it rewires my brain for better. And one of these days, I landed on the page that talks about how peace comes from being happy/content with the present. And success comes from being unhappy/dissatisfied. Because you strive/desire for more. Now, you can pick one huge desire (goal) and choose to be unhappy. Too many goals are a distraction + a sign you haven’t picked a big enough battle and have the gall to double dip. (This last line might very much be mine, I’m not sure.)

Now, as an outcome of these, I have decided to restructure my To-Do list + my orientation towards getting work done. Will pick one Top Goal. And whenever I sit down on my desk in the morning, that’s the first thing I will work towards. The thing with building something you love + care about + are super excited for every single day is that everything seems super important. And that the world might implode if I don’t attend to it. And thus, Monkey Brain.

However, I am ready to let the world implode for the Top Goal. So, that can be my chosen battle. The focus. And there needs to be one anchor task. Something to design my life around. As of May 1, 11:32 AM: It is to walk 10k active steps every single day. So, while these things happen, I think I will sleep at night. (Not sleep okay, just sleep – there’s way more that I need to do for that.)

Poorly managed projects

The most exciting part of my life today is all the new and interesting projects I can help take life. And I am super grateful for that. However, at present, I can see a number of open things which did not go as well as they could. In terms of the timelines, output, impact, etc.

This is nothing but an honest confession. Need to be better – be on top of things + follow through + do the harder conversations, all that. Need to move things. Need to get shit done. Need to be way more accountable.

Good thing is, now I have a chance. Plus, no excuse to not do it. Read on.

School’s over, we’re free days!

Basically, I finished my 2nd year and now I have a summer break. More time to, well, do anything. I have not put my mind to what I want to do with all this time. Anyone who wants to help a really enthusiastic + motivated + determined kid make the best use of her time, youth, energy and summer break? Write back maybe?

Visited Blr for one weekend

Not much to report from here, honestly. Had a sweet time, found some time for myself all by myself, no-agenda wandering, etc. Met some people from the Internet. Could not meet some. If I am being honest, I think I could have made better use of this time. Need to be mindful + do better.

Had two weeks of assignment season

Now, this was stressful. I want to do a good job with my grades and so, for the two weeks I have tests and presentations, I get pretty wired. This time, I scored well. And it was on my goal-list from last month. So, mini-win. Yay!

For a brief moment, I was wondering if I take this too seriously and if I should “chill out.” Like, I think, most people do. Saurabh told me: You must discharge your duties well. I think it makes sense.

My Dakshinayan day

One day, I made a trip to Dakshinayan for research on my Digital Transformation assignment. We had to suggest feasible uses of AI and IoT for the assigned business. It was a nice time. Our proposal was to use IoT devices for fermentation tracking, amongst other things. I quite liked it :p

Oh, and this was also a day-off for me. And I realised all the perks of not having to go to college. Long, uninterrupted hours. No traffic blues. Can wear skorts. No dusty roads I’ve to pass. Can accomodate all my moods through the day and get stuff done. All that.

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Goals for May 2024

AK Goals:

1. I will sit down to work at 8 AM everyday, so that I do not waste my mornings. How? Sleep at the same time everyday. Do my morning swims or runs and anchor my days around it.
2. I have to become a fit person. That’s it. Eat cleaner. Not default to junk. Portion control. Sleep schedule is WAY better than last month’s – that’s one thing I was able to manage.
3. Build distribution. Be more present online. The idea is to put more things out and consistently, whatever that takes.
4. Zero in on the one big goal for this summer break and do it. I think, I might choose to bring The Last Straw to life. Yet to mull over + hash out the details. Whatever it is, I am beyond excited.
5. Meet more people. I do not have a number yet. Or a plan. But could I be at more events and meet-ups? Do more things with people – Sunset Club, for example? Reach out for coffee-chats?

Building DD Goals:

1. Content + communities: Regular content across all pages and platforms.
2. DAIS: Build a new database (we messed up our old one) + keep in touch with all the people we’ve talked to already.
3. The Dais Podcast: Record 20 new episodes + publish them. (From what I’ve learnt, the publishing is the harder part :p)
4. Launch DD’s first book: In The Folds Of Our Truths: Women and Their Many Lives – An Anthology

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A short list of things I need help with:

1. If you spend time with me, push me to make better food/lifestyle choices. I have to become a fitter person.
2. My next big struggle is to tune out my moods. I want to be able to cross-off things on my To-Do List, no matter how I am feeling. I think this is just something you choose to do. I want to choose this more often. I do not know how you can help me with this — but any thoughts, ideas, advice, suggestions?
3. Point out all gaps in my thinking + give me any and all thoughts you might have on this report. This is essentially all I am up to in life, how I am thinking, all that. So, this will be really helpful!

That’s all,

Anshika <3