SCT - YCT

The stem cell film we produced for YCT is out. 

Released the exact day the NMMC revoked the license of and sealed one hospital in Navi Mumbai that was using stem cell therapy to offer cures for autism. 

Watch it here - 

Film one of another campaign releases tomorrow. That's on neurodivergent entrepreneurship. 

And then a short vacay! Cannot wait <3 

DD shaadi hall run edition

Aditi and me are in a hotel room. She says she has to leave and catch a flight to Indore. She's got a revolver which I help and put away properly in her handbag. I'm kind of freaking out about the revolver but Aditi is confident they'll let her carry it on the plane. I think about how risky it is to have a revolver around. Her dad has given it to her for self protection. 

We call for a cab but 2 or 3 guys cancel. 4th guy agrees and we tell him we'll meet him at the market circle near a popular wedding hall. He says he got his cousin married there. He's a Marathi guy. Awfully polite. I have to shout while speaking to him because the crowd is so loud. 

So we get there, but I can't spot the driver. It's a big circle with lots of street vendors peddling shaadi jewelry, food and other stuff. Suddenly we're inside the marriage hall. It's too crowded. It's got many, many lanes inside and each lane has one or two technicians fixing wires and other stuff. Aditi and I call someone to help, and a woman turns up. She's in formal business attire and can't hold eye contact. It's RS. She's part of the community. 

Now we're desperately looking for a way out but can't find the exit. The wedding party is huge. While looking around one area I pass by AK, who has suddenly appeared there out of nowhere. One uncle says we can't get out now, the entrance has been shut but I say fuck you to him, take Aditi by the arm and rush to the exit. I push through the crowd and get out, and AK comes out with us. We look around and find the cab guy. 

I put Aditi in the cab. She goes to the airport, and some guy called Vasant (who's a software developer), AK and I go to a nearby cafe for coffee and chitchat. 

Google doing its auto collage thingy is fun

So Google Photos randomly throws up these photo collages that it makes, sneaking through my photo library. Sometimes it's irritating, because privacy. But sometimes it makes these really cute collages. 

This is one I got recently. Pics from over the past 3 years, across our different apartments, cities, occasions, moods, everything. 

Fun little thing. Think I'll make posting these here a thing. Cuz why not. 

Clockwise from L-R

1. Powai

2. Mulund

3. Shaadi shopping

4. Sahara Star

5. Shaadi party eve

6. Shaadi day

7. Mangalore

8. Indore

9. Indore

10. Enroute to Ujjain

11. Mulund

12. Mulund

13. Mangalore

14. Bandra

15. Donno 

Also, my wife is so frickin cute 💗 

Valentine's Day release

So we did a calendar piece. It was a Valentine's Day special with Aniket Kadam and Deepti Gandhi, an autistic-ADHD couple we've been connected with through one of the many WhatsApp groups we're on. 

Even though I'm not on the group anymore, we're in touch with a bunch of people who are active on it. So this time we were discussing who we could profile for V Day, and theirs was one of the names that came up. 

Being that they were from Mumbai and the shoot would be relatively easy to set up, we called them to Bandra and shot with them over a Sunday afternoon. Good fun. We had vegan sandwiches and pizza later. 

Here's Part 1. There's easily enough material for another 20-min episode, but don't know when we're going to have the bandwidth to put that one out. 

Here goes: 

 

Been working nonstop ya but what to do ya

कुछ नशे सा है मौसम में, 

शायद समा इश्क़ में महरूफ़ है।

एक हम ही काम के हैं दीवाने, 

दफ़्तर से दिल लगा बैठे हैं।

Pretty excited about tomorrow’s shoot. Gon’ be fun. Will post some pics here. 

Now listening to हंगामा है क्यूँ बरपा। Saw the Ray episode also today only. It's quite good. 

Also, released the V Day video trailer today. Got a good response in our circles 🖖🏻 

Sleep

Goddamn falling asleep shouldn't be this difficult. Staying asleep shouldn't be this difficult. The mornings don't feel nice and refreshing, and the tiredness sets in way too early in the evenings. Melatonin helps a bit, but also makes me sweat through the night. The sweating wakes me up, and I switch on the AC for a while, and the chill wakes Aditi up. So both of us are groggy through the day. Me despite drinking three-four cups of strong black coffee. 

The right sleep temperature is so critical but so hard to achieve. The room's either too cold or too hot. And if I wake up in the middle of the night, I'm definitely going to get some bizarre work-related dream when (if) I fall asleep again. 

The mind's busy even when I'm trying to fall asleep. I can feel my thoughts racing in my mind. They're jumping frantically from one topic to another. Have I replied to this email... what am I going to say? Do I talk sense when I make pitches? Can we invent a whole new way to do pitches? Is invention real at all or just a makeover of old things tried and tested? 

Was talking to AP yesterday and telling him about a recent incident where I didn't tell someone something I wanted to. And AP went, “Arre you should have, yaar. Itna kaun sochta hai!”

Makes sense. इतना सच में कोई नही सोचता। सिर्फ़ हम सोचते हैं, और फिर पछताते हैं। 

किसी दिन पछतावे पर कुछ मज़ेदार लिखना है। जैसे राकेश ओमप्रकाश मेहरा जी ने अपने किताब में लिखी है। 

नींद पर भी। पछतावा और नींद। के पछतावे के कारण नींद नही आती या फिर नींद नही आने के कारण पछतावा होता है। पता नही भई। मुझे सोने दो। 

Yes. That's what it's going to be called. 

V Day shoot & ASK event

Yesterday we shot all day with Aniket and Dipti at ROMP. The shoot was about Valentine's Day. It went pretty well, the two spoke really well about their relationship. 

At 4:30 we reached Title Waves for the launch of the ASK website. The event was held by Advocate Abha Singh to congratulate her three clients - all wives of men who lost their lives doing scavenging work. 

Also in attendance were ROM, Adv Susieben Shah (Congress leader and chairperson of Maharashtra Commission for Protection of Child Rights), YP Singh (former IPS and CBI officer) and some other people. 

After the event we went up to Susieben Shah to tell her about us. ROM and Abha Singh, along with a bunch of law students, walked up to us, and ROM says: “These guys are doing some fantastic work. Bhairavi is so kicked about their content.“ Which felt really good lol. 

Then we spoke to YP Singh for a bit, about some cases he’s currently fighting. Ate some sandwiches and came back home. 

Damn tired, but managed to sneak in a couple of episodes of Unfiltered by Samdish. Raghav Chadda, Rahul Gandhi, and Anurag Kashyap. 

Much much

It was about 4:55 pm on a cool February evening. I must've been about 15 or 16. 

We were standing outside our tuition class, waiting for the ongoing class to end so ours could begin at 5 pm. 

My friend - I don't remember who it was - and I were talking. Let's call him Mu. 

I thought this would be a good moment to tell Mu that I found maths really hard, because it required way too much focus. That my mind had been finding it difficult to concentrate on studies ever since this big incident at home. Something I had buried deep down inside me and decided never to tell anyone. 

Being vulnerable came to me very naturally. To my mind, it was the easiest way to make a genuine connection. It had been my fallback since childhood. Not everyone thought this way. 

“You know, ever since that day, I've found it so hard to concentrate,” I said. 

Mu nodded, listening intently. 

“And it's so great to be able to tell you this. I don’t really talk about it to anyone,” I went on. 

Mu kept on nodding. 

It felt good. 

Other boys found connection in making crude jokes or coming off hyper alpha. 

I found connection in vulnerability. 

A third friend walked up. Mu and I said hi to him. He said hi back to us. Mu took him by the arm. 

“अच्छा हुआ तू आ गया यार। इसका मच मच बंद ही नही हो रहा था,” he said, as they walked away. The third friend laughed. 

‘Much Much’ has stayed with me ever since. 

Much much = vulnerability. 

Much much = finding connections through conversations. 

Much much = friendship, mentorship, comfort, safety, love. 

And I will keep doing मच मच no matter how much anyone laughs at me. It's the only way I know to make a genuine connection with someone.