Last Sunday I was at the Shibpur burning ghat.
My aged uncle had passed away. The family had gathered. There was grief in the air, as there always is at such places. But alongside the grief, there was something else. A quiet, creeping shame.
The infrastructure at that burning ghat was pathetic. I will not dress it up in polite language. Pathetic is the right word. A facility that handles some of the most painful moments of people’s lives looked like it had not seen meaningful attention in decades.
I stood there and thought about my uncle. And then, almost involuntarily, I thought about Bengal.
What it was supposed to be. What it could have been. What it still could become.
And I felt that familiar ache that every Bengali who loves this city carries somewhere deep inside.
I Have Loved This City My Whole Life. Even When It Has Not Made It Easy.
I was born in December 1975.
When I was five years old, my father’s factory was locked down. Trade union strikes. The kind that were happening all over Bengal in those years. My father was not a wealthy man. He was a working man. And when the factory shut, everything shut with it.
I do not say this for sympathy. I say this because it is the truth of what many families in Bengal lived through, and many still live through today.
Getting food twice a day was a struggle in our home until I turned ten. In a city that was once called the cultural capital of India. In a state that had the infrastructure and the intellectual capital to lead this nation.
Like thousands of Bengali young men and women of my generation, I eventually left. Went to Bangalore for studies. Almost stayed. The city had jobs, opportunity, infrastructure that worked, a sense that things were moving forward.
I came back to Kolkata in 2006. A family emergency brought me back. But I made a choice to stay. To build here. And in 2013 I started Brainium in Salt Lake Sector V..
I do not regret that choice for a single day. But I know the cost of it. I know how painfully slow it is to get things done here. I know what poor infrastructure does to ambition. I know what it feels like to watch other cities grow at a pace that makes you quietly wonder why your own city is still not in the same conversation.
I Grew Up Watching Dr. Prannoy Roy On Television.
1989. Lok Sabha elections. A man sitting in a studio with graphs and numbers, predicting outcomes with a precision that felt almost magical to a fourteen-year-old watching at home.
I was hooked from that moment. Not on politics. On the numbers. On the data. On the idea that elections were not just about passion and noise but about patterns and trends and what they revealed about what people truly wanted.
I have loved election number crunching ever since. And with the West Bengal Assembly elections of 2026 heating up, with Kolkata going to polls on 29th, with the air full of promises and counter-promises and noise, I find myself going back to that same instinct.
Strip away the noise. Look at the numbers. Look at the facts. And ask the one question that actually matters.
Are we better off?
There Was A Man Who Had A Plan.
Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy was the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1948 to 1962. He is rightly called the Architect of Modern Bengal.
Think about the context. Bengal had just been torn apart by Partition. Over thirty lakh refugees had poured in. The scars of famine were fresh. The economy was shattered. The social fabric was fraying at every edge.
And into this devastation stepped a man with a blueprint. Not a political blueprint. An engineering blueprint.
He built the Durgapur Steel Plant. He established the Chittaranjan Locomotive Works. He created Durgapur township and Kalyani as planned industrial cities where people could live, work, and study in one place. He established IIT Kharagpur in 1951 and IIM Calcutta in 1961. He expanded Calcutta Medical College, RG Kar, and NRS. He built the Durgapur Barrage. He worked with the Damodar Valley Corporation for flood control and power. He settled thirty lakh refugees with land, schools, and hospitals in areas like Jadavpur, Garia, and Netaji Nagar. He promoted free primary education when it was a radical idea.
He was a doctor. He thought about Bengal the way a doctor thinks about a patient. Diagnose the real problem. Treat the root cause. Build for the long term. Not for the next headline.
His most famous thought was simple: Remember, you are an Indian first.
He did not build for votes. He built for decades.
IIT Kharagpur stands today. IIM Calcutta stands today. Salt Lake City, which he envisioned to decongest Kolkata, stands today. I run my company from there.
He is the reason I have an address.
So What Happened?
I am not going to stand here and point fingers at any party. That is not what this blog is about.
But I am going to ask the question that the data asks.
Bengal was the industrial heartbeat of India at Independence. Today, when people talk about India’s growth story, about the cities driving the economy, about where the jobs are and where the startups are and where the infrastructure investment is flowing, Kolkata is rarely in that conversation.
The brain drain that I lived through personally is not an isolated story. It is a generational pattern. Our best and brightest leave. Some come back, like I did. Most do not.
The factories that my father worked in are largely gone. The industrial base that Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy built has not been replaced with something new. The infrastructure at a burning ghat in Shibpur on a Sunday afternoon in 2026 should not look the way it looked last weekend.
This is not how it was supposed to be.
This is not what he envisioned when he was building steel plants and planned cities and world-class institutions.
Something went wrong somewhere. And every Bengali who loves this state knows it, even if we do not always say it out loud.
But Here Is What I Also Know.
Bengal has everything it needs to be extraordinary.
The intellectual capital is unmatched. The culture runs deep. The hunger for education and achievement is real. I see it every day in the young people who work with me at Brainium. Brilliant, hungry, capable people who want to build something here.
The question is never whether Bengal can. The question is always whether Bengal will be given the conditions to.
Industrialisation. Real jobs. Infrastructure that works. A government that thinks in decades not in election cycles. Policies that invite investment rather than frighten it away. A quality of life that makes our young people want to stay rather than feel they have to leave.
That is not a political manifesto. That is just what every Bengali parent wants for their child.
29th April. Your Turn.
I grew up watching Dr. Prannoy Roy read the numbers on election night.
The numbers always tell you what the people wanted. And what the people want in Bengal, if you strip away all the noise, is simple.
They want to eat well. They want their children to study well. They want jobs that are real and growing. They want infrastructure that works. They want to build their lives here and not feel like leaving is the only option.
Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy understood that. He built for that.
On 29th April, you have a voice.
Do not stay home. Do not get cynical. Do not tell yourself that your vote does not matter.
Go out and vote. Vote for whatever future you believe in. Vote for the Bengal you want your children to grow up in. Vote for the city that should be spoken about in the same breath as Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad but somehow still is not.
We deserve better. Bengal deserves better.
And it starts with showing up.
Tell Me What You Think
Do you believe Bengal can reclaim its place as one of India’s great economic engines?
What do you think is the single biggest thing holding this state back?
Drop it in the comments. I want to have this conversation. Genuinely.
Yesterday afternoon at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, Punjab Kings needed to chase 265 runs to win.
The forecasters had their win probability at 14.83% before the first ball of the second innings was bowled.
Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya walked out and hit 116 runs in the first six overs.
Then Shreyas Iyer came in, got dropped twice by the same fielder in successive overs, and hit sixes immediately after each dropped catch. Punjab Kings chased down 265 with six wickets and seven balls to spare. The highest successful chase in the history of T20 cricket. Ever. KL Rahul had scored an unbeaten 152 off 67 balls for DC, the first Indian to score 150 or more in IPL history. In any other week it would have been the only story. Yesterday it was the losing cause.
I have been watching cricket since 1983. I have never seen a week like this one.
Seven Days. Nine Matches. Records Everywhere.
Let me start where my heart is. Sunday April 19. Eden Gardens. KKR versus Rajasthan Royals.
I have been waiting for this blog entry for four weeks.
Rinku Singh. 53 not out off 34 balls. An unbeaten 76-run seventh-wicket stand with Anukul Roy. KKR chased down 156 with four wickets and two balls to spare. Their first win of the season.
I am not ashamed to tell you I let out a sound that my neighbours probably heard.
RR had been 81 for 0 at one point. Suryavanshi was blazing along at 46 off 28 balls. Then Varun Chakravarthy pulled his length back just enough. Suryavanshi went for it and found Ramandeep Singh stationed perfectly at the rope. Clean catch. The partnership was broken. KKR’s bowlers applied pressure. RR collapsed from that platform to finish at 155 for 9.
And then KKR’s top order did what KKR’s top order has been doing all season. They wobbled. 85 for 6. The old panic started to rise in my chest.
But Rinku Singh does not panic. Rinku Singh never panics.
He hooked a short ball magnificently over fine leg for the winning six. Pure emotion. Pure relief. The whole of Eden Gardens on its feet.
Matheesha Pathirana had also officially joined the squad that morning, finally clearing his NOC from Sri Lanka Cricket. Even the timing of his arrival felt like something shifting.
Also on April 19, Punjab Kings posted 254 for 7 and demolished LSG in Mullanpur. Priyansh Arya and Cooper Connolly put on an unforgettable 182-run partnership for the second wicket in just 13.2 overs. The 11th and 12th overs alone yielded 37 runs. The 13th over against Aiden Markram went for 32. LSG never came close.
Monday April 20. Ahmedabad. GT versus MI. And Tilak Varma.
Kagiso Rabada ripped through the MI top order in the powerplay, taking 3 for 33. MI were in real trouble. Then Tilak Varma and Naman Dhir built a partnership. Dhir made 45. Tilak made 101 not out off 45 balls. Eight boundaries. Seven sixes. Strike rate of 224. His first IPL century. Against a bowling attack that had just embarrassed his team’s top order.
MI posted 199. Bumrah took a first-ball wicket when GT chased. GT were bowled out for 100. MI won by 99 runs.
Tuesday April 21. Hyderabad. SRH versus DC. And Abhishek Sharma produced one of the great individual innings of this IPL.
Abhishek Sharma scored an unbeaten 135 off 68 balls. Ten fours. Ten sixes. SRH posted 242. Eshan Malinga took 4 for 32. DC fell 47 runs short.
An unbeaten 135. And that innings will still be the second or third conversation when people talk about this week.
Wednesday April 22. Lucknow. LSG versus RR. A low-scoring match by this week’s extraordinary standards, but no less dramatic for it.
RR were in tatters at 32 for 3 inside four overs. Mohammed Shami had removed Jaiswal and Jurel. Mohsin Khan got rid of Suryavanshi who made just 8. The teenage sensation who had been unstoppable suddenly looked very human on a seaming, swinging surface.
Into this chaos walked Ravindra Jadeja. Calm. Unhurried. He batted with a revised total in mind and did not take a risk until the last two overs. Between overs 12 and 18 RR hit just three boundaries. Then Jadeja found his range, ransacking 20 off Mayank Yadav’s final over. He finished unbeaten on 43 off 29 balls, pushing RR to 159 for 6.
Jofra Archer then took 3 for 20. Nandre Burger and Brijesh Sharma picked up two wickets each. LSG were bowled out for 119. RR won by 40 runs.
Jadeja was the man of the match. He dedicated it to his wife, the education minister of Gujarat. Only Jadeja.
Thursday April 23. Wankhede Stadium. MI versus CSK. And Sanju Samson scored his second century of the IPL season.
Samson finished unbeaten on 101 off 54 balls. Ten boundaries. Six sixes. CSK posted 207 for 6. Akeal Hosein, introduced as the impact player, then took 4 for 17 and MI were dismissed for 104. CSK won by 103 runs. Their biggest margin of victory in their entire IPL history.
When Samson brought up his century, Bumrah, Hardik and Suryakumar Yadav all came over to congratulate him. In the CSK dressing room, Steven Fleming pulled him into a bear hug.
Two centuries in seven innings for his new franchise. Nobody has made more. The man who came to CSK with question marks hanging over his head is now the most dangerous batter in this tournament.
Friday April 24. Chinnaswamy. RCB versus GT. And Virat Kohli reminded everyone he is still the best chaser in the game. Sai Sudharsan had scored a magnificent 100 off 58 balls for GT, becoming the fastest player to reach 2000 IPL runs. GT posted 205. Kohli then scored 81 off 44 balls and Padikkal made 55 as RCB chased it down by five wickets.
Five centuries in five days. And the week was not finished.
Saturday April 25. Two matches. And the day cricket lost its mind completely.
The first match, DC versus PBKS. I have already told you that story above. KL Rahul’s unbeaten 152 that nobody will remember. The highest successful chase in T20 history. A day that rewrote the record books entirely.
The second match, RR versus SRH in Jaipur. And Suryavanshi scored his second century of IPL 2026.
103 off 37 balls. He reached his century off just 36 balls. He now has the second and third-quickest centuries in the history of the entire IPL. He is 15 years old.
But SRH chased down 229 anyway. Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan firing at the top of the order, both teams combining to put down seven chances in a match that was as chaotic as it was brilliant. Even a Suryavanshi century was not enough on this evening.
The Week That Rewrote Everything
Five individual centuries in one week. The highest successful T20 chase ever. KL Rahul’s unbeaten 152 ending on the losing side. Tilak Varma’s first IPL hundred. Abhishek Sharma’s unbeaten 135 that felt like old news by Friday.
There was a time when 200 was a fortress in T20 cricket. This week, 264 was not enough. Let that land for a moment.
The game has changed. It has changed at the pace of a Prabhsimran Singh cover drive in the first six overs.
And KKR. Finally. Something To Smile About.
Rinku’s 53 not out. Anukul’s calm 29. A win at Eden Gardens. Our first of the season.
It is not enough. We know that. One win from seven games still leaves KKR in serious trouble. The bowling combinations still need answers. The top-order fragility is still very real. But Pathirana being available changes at least one thing.
Last Sunday night, for the first time this season, I went to sleep smiling.
In a week full of records, centuries, and history being made every other evening, that simple feeling of watching Rinku hit that winning six was still the best moment of my week.
Sometimes, after weeks of heartbreak, a win is everything.
Tell Me What You Think
What was your moment of the week?
KL Rahul’s 152 that nobody will talk about? Suryavanshi’s 103 off 37 balls at 15? PBKS chasing 265 and making it look almost routine? Tilak Varma’s hundred that turned a 99-run win? Or Sanju Samson with his second century of the season at Wankhede?
And KKR fans. Tell me. Did you also let out that sound when Rinku hit that winning six at Eden Gardens?
If you missed last week’s blog, read it here.
I met them at a networking event a few weeks ago.
A young couple running a fashion brand. Sharp eye for design. Passionate about their product. The kind of founders who know exactly what they are making and exactly who they are making it for.
We got talking. And somewhere between the second cup of chai and the background noise of the room, they told me something that stopped me mid-sip.
Their sales were growing. Good months, consistently. Customers coming back. Word of mouth picking up. All the signs of a brand finding its feet.
But their ad platform was telling them the opposite.
Declining conversions. Campaigns that looked like they were dying. Numbers that made no sense when they looked at their actual bank account.
So they did what any sensible founder would do. They started cutting ad budgets. Pausing campaigns. Second-guessing every decision.
They were about to slow down a machine that was actually working. Because the dashboard was lying to them.
I asked them one question.
Have you ever heard of server-side tracking?
The blank look told me everything I needed to know.
The Dashboard That Lies
Here is what was actually happening to this couple’s business. And if you run a D2C brand in 2026, there is a real chance it is happening to yours too.
When you run ads on Meta or Google, those platforms track your results using something called a pixel. A small piece of code that sits on your website, watches what your customers do, and reports back to the ad platform.
The problem is that this pixel lives in the customer’s browser. And the customer’s browser in 2026 is a very hostile place for that pixel to live.
Ad blockers kill it. Apple’s privacy settings quietly strangle it. Slow mobile connections cause it to simply not fire at all. And even when it does fire, the cookie it leaves behind often expires within 24 hours. If your customer sees your ad on Monday and buys on Friday, that sale simply disappears from your attribution data. The platform never connects the dots. It thinks the campaign failed. It tells you to stop spending.
Meanwhile your actual business is doing fine.
This is what was happening to my new friends at that networking event. Their sales were real. Their growth was real. But their data was broken. And broken data was about to make them break something that did not need fixing.
The Fix Is Simpler Than It Sounds
Server-side tracking moves the entire conversation away from the customer’s browser. Instead of the pixel trying to survive on the customer’s device, your own server talks directly to Meta or Google. Browser to server. Clean signal. Complete data. Nothing gets blocked. Nothing gets lost.
Every purchase recorded. Every add-to-cart captured. Every customer journey stitched together properly, even if it spans seven days and four devices.
What this does to your business is transformative.
Your ad platform suddenly has accurate data to work with. Its algorithm stops making decisions in the dark. It starts finding the right customers more efficiently. Your cost of acquisition comes down not because you spent less but because the machine finally knows what it is doing.
And that 5:1 LTV to CAC ratio we talked about in the last blog? You cannot even calculate it properly if your tracking is broken. You are essentially flying a plane with a broken altimeter and wondering why you keep nearly crashing.
What I Told Them
I did not give them a technical lecture at that networking event. That would have been the wrong thing to do.
What I told them was simple.
You know your product. You know your customer. You know your numbers. What you do not know is what is happening in the background between your customer and your ad platform. And that gap, that invisible layer between your business and your data, is costing you money and causing you unnecessary panic.
They were relieved more than anything else. The confusion that had been building for months suddenly made sense. The campaigns they had been about to shut down were not failing. They were simply invisible.
We started working together after that conversation.
And the first thing we did was fix the tracking.
Everything else became clearer after that.
The Question To Ask Yourself
If your sales are growing but your ad platform is showing declining conversions, do not panic. And do not cut your budgets.
Ask yourself one question first.
Is my tracking set up to capture the full picture? Or is it leaving half the story on the table?
Because in 2026, the brands that win are not necessarily the ones with the biggest ad budgets. They are the ones with the clearest data. The ones who know exactly what is working, what is not, and why.
The ones who stopped guessing.
This is the second blog in a series I am writing on building a smarter D2C business. If you missed the first one on why your retailer margin is costing you far more than you think, read it here.
If you want to find out whether your tracking is leaking revenue, we can help you audit it.
There is a moment in cricket that stays with you.
Not a six. Not a screaming yorker. Not even a last-ball finish.
It is a golden duck. An over. Three wickets. Gone.
On April 13 in Hyderabad, a 24-year-old fast bowler from Nagpur called Praful Hinge was given the unenviable job of opening the bowling on his IPL debut against Rajasthan Royals’ intimidating pair of Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
SRH bought him for Rs. 30 lakh. Nobody outside hardcore domestic cricket followers knew his name.
He dismissed Suryavanshi on the very first ball. Then Dhruv Jurel. Then Lhuan-dre Pretorius. Three wickets in one over. The first bowler in the history of the IPL to take three wickets in the opening over of an innings. He then dismissed Riyan Parag in his next over to finish with 4 for 18.
His father had pushed him into fast bowling when he initially preferred batting. He fixed an illegal bowling action early in his career. He trained at the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai and at a high-performance camp in Brisbane. He idolises Pat Cummins and had actually manifested this moment. He had written it down somewhere that his first IPL match he would take four or five wickets.
Rs. 30 lakh. First ball of his IPL career. Suryavanshi gone for a golden duck.
But Hinge was only half the story that night.
Sakib Hussain is 21 years old. He comes from Gopalganj, Bihar. His father was a farmer and daily-wage labourer. The family lived an “earn today, eat today” existence. Cricket was never the original plan. He wanted to join the Indian Army.
He was picked up by KKR in the 2024 auction for Rs. 20 lakh, was part of their title-winning squad without playing a single game. He went unsold at the 2025 auction. He went back to domestic cricket, trained harder, took a stunning 6 for 41 against Arunachal Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy, and SRH picked him up for Rs. 30 lakh in 2026.
On debut against RR, Sakib took 4 for 24. He dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal with his first wicket and came back in the 15th over to remove Donovan Ferreira when he was threatening to win the game for RR. The joint-best bowling figures by an Indian on IPL debut.
Two debutants. Rs. 60 lakh between them. Eight wickets shared. RR bowled out for 159 as SRH won by 57 runs.
The boy who had been terrorising every bowling attack in this IPL. The teenager with the 15-ball fifties and the 78 off 26. Out. First ball. Golden duck. To a man earning Rs. 30 lakh on his first day in IPL cricket.
That is not just a cricket story. That is India’s story.
Seven Days. Nine Matches. So Much Happened.
Let me take you through the rest of the week.
Saturday April 12 gave us a double-header and the second match at Wankhede was the one everyone was talking about the next morning.
RCB posted 240 for 4. Phil Salt was breathtaking. Patidar smashed three consecutive sixes to start his innings. Rohit Sharma retired hurt on 19 with a hamstring issue. And then came Sherfane Rutherford in the death overs for MI. The powerful left-hander blasted an unbeaten 71 off just 31 balls, hitting 9 sixes into the Mumbai night sky. Even in defeat, that innings was something to behold. RCB won by 18 runs but Rutherford deserved a standing ovation.
The first match that Saturday, LSG versus GT in Lucknow, was more straightforward. Prasidh Krishna took 4 for 28 to restrict LSG to 164. Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler put on 85 together to chase it down with ease. GT quietly on the move. Nobody talking about them. That is exactly when teams become dangerous.
Then came Monday April 13. Hyderabad. The Hinge and Sakib night I opened this blog with.
Tuesday April 14. Chepauk. CSK versus KKR.
I need a moment here.
I have been a KKR fan since 2008. I have seen bad years. I have lived through the dark seasons where we finished bottom half and I still believed. Next year will be different, I told myself every time.
CSK posted 192. KKR chased and managed only 160. Lost by 32 runs. Noor Ahmad ran through the middle order and KKR lost four wickets for just 14 runs in four overs. Five losses in six games. Still without a win. The only point we have came courtesy of rain.
Wednesday April 15. RCB versus LSG at Chinnaswamy. Young Rasikh Salam Dar took four wickets and Bhuvneshwar Kumar took three as LSG were bowled out for 146. RCB chased it with five overs to spare. Clinical. Ruthless. RCB continue to look like champions defending their title.
Thursday April 16. Wankhede. MI versus PBKS. Rohit missing with that hamstring. Quinton de Kock, promoted up the order, scored an unbeaten 112 off 60 balls to drag MI to 195 from 12 for 2. A magnificent innings. The kind you frame on a wall.
PBKS chased it like they were going for a morning walk. Prabhsimran Singh scored 80 not out off 39 balls. Shreyas Iyer scored 66 off 35. They got there in 16.3 overs with 7 wickets in hand. Against Bumrah. At Wankhede. PBKS simply do not know how to lose.
Friday April 17. Ahmedabad. GT versus KKR.
Cameron Green finally showed his class with 79 off 55 balls. But KKR posted only 180 after losing three wickets in the first four overs. Shubman Gill then scored 86 off 50 and made the chase look like a net session. GT won by five wickets.
Six losses. One rain point. Sitting at the bottom of the table. I do not know how to feel anymore. I truly do not.
Saturday April 18 gave us a double-header to close the week. And David Miller finally buried his ghosts.
Remember that gut-wrenching DC versus GT match a fortnight ago? Where Miller needed 2 off the final ball and missed? Where Buttler ran out his partner and GT won by one run?
Last evening at Chinnaswamy, DC were chasing RCB’s 175 and needed 15 off the final over bowled by Romario Shepherd. Miller walked across and smashed two sixes and a boundary. DC won by 6 wickets with one ball to spare.
KL Rahul scored 57 and Tristan Stubbs made an anchoring 60 to set it up. Miller just finished it.
Cricket gives redemption. Slowly. Painfully. But it gives it.
The second match that evening in Hyderabad, Abhishek Sharma blazed a fifty and SRH beat CSK by 10 runs. CSK’s playoff hopes are now under genuine pressure.
Where Things Stand
PBKS and RCB are the real deal this season. Both have batting depth, bowling options, and genuine belief. The race between them for the top spot will define the second half of the league stage.
RR have had their first stumble. Suryavanshi will bounce back. He is 15. He has nothing to be afraid of. But that Hinge and Sakib night was a reminder that this tournament humbles everyone eventually.
And KKR.
Six games. One point. Bottom of the table.
Today is KKR versus RR at Eden Gardens. A home game. Our ground. Our crowd.
I want to believe. I always do.
But this KKR needs to find something urgently. A win. Any win. Before the season disappears completely.
Tell Me What You Think
What was your moment of this week?
Hinge’s golden duck first ball? Sakib’s 4 for 24 on debut? Rutherford’s 9-six blitz in a losing cause? Or Miller’s redemption at Chinnaswamy?
And fellow KKR fans. Tell me honestly. Are you still believing? Because I am trying very hard to.
Drop it in the comments. I read every single one.
If you missed last week’s blog, read it here.
A few weeks ago I was on a call with a founder.
Smart person. Passionate about the product. Running a niche FMCG business that genuinely deserved to be bigger than it was. Selling through offline retailers and on Amazon and Flipkart. Decent volumes. Growing steadily.
I asked him if he had thought about building his own online store.
There was a pause.
Then he said something that I have been thinking about ever since.
“Sourav, if I go direct, what will my retailers think?”
I understood the fear immediately. Retailers are relationships. They are people you have built trust with over years. You do not want to upset them. You do not want to be seen as going behind their back. In India especially, that relationship feels sacred. You protect it.
But here is what I wanted to tell him. And what I am going to tell you today.
That fear is costing you far more than you realise.
The Margin You See. And The Margin You Don’t.
When you sell through a retailer, you see the margin you give away very clearly. It is right there on the invoice. You know exactly what you charged the retailer and what the product will sell for on the shelf. That gap is visible. Painful sometimes, but visible.
When you sell on Amazon or Flipkart, same thing. The platform fee, the fulfilment cost, the advertising spend to get discovered. All visible. All accounted for.
What you do not see is the invisible cost.
Every time a customer buys your product from a retailer or a marketplace, that customer belongs to the platform. Not to you. Amazon knows who bought your product. Flipkart knows. Your retailer has a relationship with the customer who walks into their shop. You have none of that.
So the next time that customer wants to buy your product again, what happens?
They go back to Amazon. They search. Maybe they find you. Maybe they find your competitor who is spending more on ads that day. Maybe Amazon’s algorithm has changed and you are now on page two. Maybe there is a new brand with a lower price point sitting right above you.
You have to win that customer all over again. Every single time. At full acquisition cost.
That is the invisible tax. And it compounds every month.
The Math That Changes Everything.
There is a concept in the D2C world called the LTV to CAC ratio. LTV is the total revenue a customer generates over their lifetime with your brand. CAC is what it costs you to acquire that customer in the first place.
For years the rule of thumb was 3:1. Spend one rupee acquiring a customer, earn three rupees back over time. That was considered healthy.
In 2026, with platform costs rising, ad costs volatile, and competition for attention more expensive than ever, 3:1 barely keeps the lights on. The brands that are genuinely building something are targeting 5:1 and beyond.
The difference between 3:1 and 5:1 is not just a harder target. It is a completely different way of thinking about your customer.
At 3:1 you are a marketing-led business. You spend to acquire. You hope they come back. You spend again when they don’t.
At 5:1 you own the relationship. You know who your customer is. You know what they bought, when they bought it, and when they are likely to need it again. You talk to them directly. You bring them back at almost zero cost. Your LTV grows without your CAC growing with it.
That is the power of owning your customer.
What I Told The Founder.
I did not tell him to abandon his retailers. That would be naive and frankly bad advice. Retailer relationships have real value, especially in FMCG where shelf presence and local trust matter enormously.
What I told him was this.
Your retailers give you distribution. But they cannot give you data. They cannot give you a direct relationship with the person who uses your product every day. They cannot tell you why someone tried your product once and never came back. They cannot help you build a community around what you are making.
A D2C store does not replace your retailers. It gives you something your retailers cannot. It gives you the customer.
When someone buys directly from your store, you know their name. You have their email. You know what they bought and when. You can send them a personalised message three weeks later. You can tell them about a new variant. You can ask them how they liked it. You can bring them back for a fraction of the cost of finding a new customer.
Over time that relationship is worth multiples of what you earn from a single transaction.
He listened. He asked questions. By the end of the call he was willing to explore.
That was enough for me.
The Real Question.
If you are a founder selling through retailers or marketplaces, I am not asking you to burn those relationships.
I am asking you one question.
Do you know who your customer is?
Not approximately. Not the demographic your retailer serves. The actual person who picks up your product, uses it, and decides whether to come back or not.
If the answer is no, you are building a business on borrowed ground. The platform owns the relationship. You own the product. And every time that customer comes back, you are paying to reach them all over again.
That is not growth. That is a treadmill.
The founders who figure this out early are the ones who build something that lasts. The ones who don’t will keep growing their revenue while wondering why the margins never improve.
Your retailers are not your enemy. But they are not your moat either.
Your customer is your moat. Go own them.
If you are thinking about building your own D2C store, we can help you get started.
Yesterday night I watched Sanju Samson walk out to bat for CSK against Delhi Capitals at Chepauk.
Three games into his CSK career. Scores of 6, 7 and 9. The boos had not started yet but the murmurs had. People were beginning to question the trade. Whether leaving Rajasthan Royals made sense. Whether the pressure of a new franchise had gotten to him.
I have watched Sanju bat for many years now. I know what he looks like when he is troubled. And I know what he looks like when he has made up his mind.
Yesterday, he had made up his mind.
He took Mukesh Kumar for consecutive fours in the first over. He launched Kuldeep Yadav for a six over extra cover. CSK raced to 62 in the powerplay. He never looked back. He finished on an unbeaten 115 off 56 balls.
IPL 2026 had its first centurion. And he chose the perfect night to do it.
CSK won by 23 runs. Jamie Overton took 4 for 18. First points of the season. The relief was written all over Ruturaj Gaikwad’s face at the end.
Never doubt Sanju Samson. He always answers. Eventually.
Seven Days. Nine Matches. Where Do I Even Begin.
April 5 started with a double-header.
The first match in Hyderabad. SRH versus LSG. Mohammed Shami dismantled the SRH top order, removing Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head cheaply to leave them reeling at 26 for 4 after eight overs. From there, Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy rescued SRH with a 116-run fifth-wicket partnership in 63 balls, the highest for SRH in IPL history, to get them to 156.
Still not enough. Rishabh Pant stayed calm through LSG’s middle-order wobble and finished the chase with three boundaries off the last over, winning it with one ball to spare. Classic Pant. Makes it look impossible until the very last moment, then makes it look easy.
The second match that evening at Chinnaswamy. RCB versus CSK. And RCB were simply brutal. Tim David scored 70 not out off 25 balls with 8 sixes. Patidar smashed 48 off 19. RCB posted 250 for 3, the highest ever by any team against CSK in IPL history. CSK were bowled out for 207 and lost by 43 runs, their third consecutive defeat.
CSK looked broken after that evening. They were not. But we did not know that yet.
April 6. Eden Gardens. My team. My city. And the rain.
KKR were 25 for 2 in 3.4 overs when the match was abandoned. Xavier Bartlett had already removed Finn Allen and Cameron Green. Both teams took a point.
So KKR’s first point of the season came courtesy of a Kolkata thunderstorm. SRK appeared on the balcony and waved to the crowd. That was the highlight of the evening. I will say no more.
April 7 in Guwahati. Rain again, this time cutting the match to 11 overs a side. But shorter did not mean quieter.
Suryavanshi and Jaiswal put on an 80-run opening stand. Suryavanshi scored 39. Jaiswal finished unbeaten on 77 off 32 balls. RR posted 150 for 3 and bowled MI out to win by 27 runs. Bumrah bowled. Suryavanshi hit him anyway. Jaiswal said after the game that watching Suryavanshi take on Bumrah in the first over released the pressure for the whole team. That sentence tells you everything about what this 15-year-old is doing to opposition bowlers’ minds.
April 8. Delhi. DC versus GT. The first real last-ball finish of the week.
GT posted 210. KL Rahul scored 92 off 52 for DC. David Miller, facing his former side, brought the equation down to 2 needed off the final ball. He missed. Jos Buttler ran out Kuldeep Yadav attempting a desperate bye. GT won by 1 run.
One run. The cruelty of this game. Rahul deserved a winning side that night. He did not get one.
April 9. Eden Gardens again. KKR versus LSG. And the most painful kind of loss.
KKR posted 181. LSG were 104 for 5. Mukul Choudhary walked in and scored 54 off 27 balls with seven sixes. He and Avesh Khan added 54 for the eighth wicket. With one needed off the final ball, Choudhary swung, missed, ran through. Raghuvanshi’s throw missed the stumps. LSG won by three wickets.
I turned off the television at that point. I could not watch the celebrations.
KKR posted 181 and it should have been enough. But the death bowling fell apart completely in those final four overs. With no Harshit Rana and Pathirana still unavailable, the lack of experienced death bowling options showed badly when it mattered most. When a team has no genuine pace threat at the death, lower-order batters like Choudhary start looking like match-winners. And that is exactly what happened.
The hard truth is this. Without Harshit Rana and Pathirana, KKR have no reliable death bowling identity. Sunil Narine at 37 may genuinely be their best option in those final overs. That is not a plan. That is a prayer.
April 10 in Guwahati. RR versus the defending champions RCB. And Suryavanshi again. This time against the best bowling attack in the tournament.
RCB posted 201. Suryavanshi came out and scored 78 off 26 balls, with 7 sixes and 8 fours, reaching his fifty off just 15 balls. Dhruv Jurel followed with an unbeaten 81 off 43 balls. RR chased 202 with two overs to spare. RCB’s first loss of the season. RR’s fourth consecutive win. Suryavanshi now leads the Orange Cap with 200 runs in four matches at a strike rate of 266.
After the match, Virat Kohli sent him a personal message of appreciation. When Kohli reaches out to you specifically, you know you have done something truly special.
April 11 gave us a double-header to close the week. First, SRH blazed to 105 for 0 in the powerplay, the third-highest powerplay total in IPL history, with Abhishek Sharma smashing 74 off 28 balls. They were looking at 240. Shashank Singh took two wickets in one over and stopped the charge. SRH managed 219. PBKS chased it down with 7 balls to spare, with Shreyas Iyer finishing unbeaten on 69 off 33.
And then the final match of the week. Sanju’s night. The century. The first points for CSK. The feeling that a team has finally found its feet.
Where Things Stand After Two Weeks
Rajasthan Royals are the team of the tournament. Four wins from four. A 15-year-old who produces a match-winning performance every single time he walks in. A captain in Riyan Parag who backs his instincts. The RR bowling has wobbled a couple of times but the batting has always covered for it.
Punjab Kings are quietly doing something special too. Unbeaten in four games. Three wins and an abandonment that felt like a robbery for them at Eden Gardens.
CSK have woken up. One big performance can do that to a team. Watch them from here.
And KKR. Three losses, one rain point. Next up is CSK at Chepauk on Tuesday the 14th. Away game. Desperate for a win.
I want to believe. I always do. But this team needs answers urgently. The bowling combinations, the death overs, the inability to close out tight games. Something needs to change before it is too late.
Tell Me What You Think
What was your moment of Week 2?
Sanju’s 115? Suryavanshi’s 78 off 26 against the champions? GT winning by 1 run in Delhi? Or Mukul Choudhary appearing from nowhere to steal the game at Eden Gardens on the last ball?
Drop it in the comments. I read every single one.
And if you are a KKR fan, you know where I am. Let us hope Tuesday finally brings some good news.
Let me ask you something.
When was the last time you were genuinely surprised by what AI could do?
Not impressed. Not curious. Actually surprised. The kind of surprise that makes you sit back and think: wait, that changes things.
For most people, that moment was sometime in late 2022 or early 2023. ChatGPT arrived. You typed a question and got a brilliant answer. You asked it to write something and it wrote something good. You showed it to a colleague and they were amazed.
That feeling was real. That moment was real.
But that version of AI? It is already old.
AI Version 1.0: The Very Smart Assistant
Think about what that first wave of AI actually was.
It was a tool that waited.
You opened it. You typed something. It responded. You read the response. You decided what to do next. You closed it and went back to your work.
It was extraordinary. But it was still passive. It sat there, quietly, until you needed it. Like a very knowledgeable colleague who only speaks when spoken to.
Search got smarter. Writing got faster. Customer support got cheaper. Code got easier to write. Entire categories of work got compressed into minutes.
All of that is real. All of that matters.
But here is what that version of AI could not do.
It could not watch.
It could not notice.
It could not act on your behalf while you were doing something else entirely.
You always had to be in the loop. You were always the one making the final call. AI made you faster and sharper, but you were still the engine. AI was just the fuel.
That is Version 1.0.
Something Fundamental Just Shifted.
Agentic AI is not an upgrade to the AI you already know.
It is a completely different idea.
The old AI answered your questions. Agentic AI watches your world continuously, reasons about what is happening, makes a decision, and acts. Without waiting for you to ask. Without needing you to be in the room.
Think about what that actually means.
A system that monitors 47 data points simultaneously. That notices a pattern forming. That cross-references it against a rule you set six months ago. That executes a response in the next 60 seconds. And sends you a message telling you what it did and why.
You wake up in the morning and your AI agent has already done three things on your behalf overnight.
That is not a smarter chatbot. That is a different category of technology entirely.
The shift is this: AI moved from being a tool you use to being a system that works for you.
There is a word for what that creates. Autonomy. And autonomy at scale is what every business has been trying to buy for the last hundred years.
Let Me Show You What This Looks Like In The Real World.
There is a problem hiding inside every large jewellery retailer in India.
It is not visible on the balance sheet. It does not show up in the monthly P&L in an obvious way. But it is there, leaking, every single day.
Gold prices move in milliseconds. The MCX ticker updates continuously. The global LBMA benchmark shifts with every dollar move. The USD/INR rate adds another layer of complexity on top of that.
And in the middle of all this movement sits a CFO, looking at three different screens.
Screen one: live commodity prices. Screen two: the ERP system, batch-synced and hours behind reality. Screen three: a global price feed that speaks a different language from the local market data.
Nobody built a bridge between these three screens. So a human being became the bridge. And every time a human being is the bridge between a moving market and a business decision, margin leaks through the gap.
At the scale of a retailer operating 150 plus locations across India, that gap is not small. It is crores. Every year. Silently.
This is exactly the kind of problem that Agentic AI was built for.
What We Are Building At Brainium.
At Brainium, we are in the middle of building something we are calling Project Aurum-i.
It is an agentic middleware. Not a dashboard. Not a report. Not another screen for the CFO to stare at.
A system that ingests three live data streams simultaneously: global gold prices, domestic MCX futures, and real-time USD/INR rates. It normalises all three into a single number: landed cost per gram in INR, updated continuously.
Every time a sale happens anywhere in the retail network, the system registers the unhedged position automatically. It tracks the gap between what has been sold and what has been repurchased. In real time.
And then the agent takes over.
When the unhedged position crosses a threshold and the current price is below the 20-day moving average, the system does not send a report. It does not schedule a meeting. It fires a hedge recommendation directly to the CFO’s phone via WhatsApp. With the reasoning. With the numbers. Ready to act on immediately.
The entire POC runs for under Rs. 3,500 a month.
That is the economics of agentic AI right now. The cost of building it is almost nothing. The value it protects is crores.
We are not talking about AI in the abstract at Brainium. We are building it, right now, for one of the most complex and high-stakes environments in Indian retail.
The Question I Want To Leave You With.
Every business has a version of the three-screen problem.
Three systems that do not talk to each other. A human being acting as the bridge. Margin, time, or opportunity leaking through the gap every single day.
You have probably normalised it. It has been there so long it feels like just the way things work.
Agentic AI exists to replace that human bridge with something that never sleeps, never gets distracted, and never misses the signal.
The question is not whether this technology is ready. It is ready.
The question is: which gap in your business are you going to close first?
If you are thinking about that question seriously, I would love to have that conversation. Drop a comment below or connect with me directly. Let us talk.
Last night, I was barely breathing.
Tushar Deshpande. Final over. Gujarat Titans needing 11 runs. Kagiso Rabada on strike. Rashid Khan at the other end. The entire Narendra Modi Stadium on its feet.
I was sitting at home, and I was still nervous.
That is what IPL does to you. Every single year. It pulls you in. It grabs you by the collar. And it does not let go until the last ball is bowled.
Deshpande bowled six consecutive deliveries on the blockhole and wide yorker length. Rabada and Rashid could only manage 4 runs. RR won by 6. Pure nerve. Pure drama.
Welcome back, IPL. I have missed you.
Eight Days. Nine Matches. One Theme.
It started on March 28 with Virat Kohli doing what Virat Kohli does.
Defending champions RCB were chasing 202 against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Kohli scored 69 not out. Devdutt Padikkal smashed 61. They got there in 15.4 overs. A title defense that began exactly like a champion would want it to.
Then came Rohit Sharma, reminding the world that age is just a number people use when they have run out of better arguments.
MI were chasing 221 against KKR. Rohit smashed 78 off 38 balls with six sixes, helping MI pull off a final-over victory. 38 years old. Absolutely no signs of slowing down. That knock had the whole country talking the next morning.
And then a 15-year-old walked in and made everyone forget about Rohit.
Vaibhav Suryavanshi scored 52 off 17 balls against CSK. His fifty came in just 15 balls. The joint-third fastest fifty in IPL history. Strike rate of 305.88. Think about that for a second. He was not born when the IPL began in 2008. He does not know what nerves look like. He just walks in, clears his front leg, and hits it over the stands.
His post-match reaction? “They just said play your natural game. That’s what I did.”
That calmness is terrifying. In the best possible way.
RR chased down CSK’s 127 in just 12.1 overs. Eight wickets to spare. And CSK had a nightmare of their own. Sanju Samson, making his debut for his new team against his old one, got out for just 2. Cricket really has no sense of occasion.
Then came Cooper Connolly. An Australian nobody had heard of before March 31.
PBKS were 118 for 6 chasing a target of 163. Connolly walked in and scored 72 not out off 44 balls to win the match for his team. Just like that. First IPL game. Biggest moment of the chase. Completely unfazed.
Then Sameer Rizvi of Delhi. DC were in tatters at 26 for 4. Rizvi came in and scored 70 not out off 47 balls, winning the match almost single-handedly.
Unknown players. Big moments. Calm heads.
That is the theme of Week 1. Youth is not waiting for permission anymore.
And then last night, Dhruv Jurel scored a career-best 75 off 42 balls, Ravi Bishnoi ripped through GT’s middle order with 4 for 41, and Deshpande finished it off in the final over in the first real thriller of IPL 2026.
Eight days in. The tournament is already delivering.
Now Let Me Talk About KKR. Because I Have To.
I have supported this team since 2008. The bad years, the rebuilds, the heartbreaks, the three titles. 2024 felt like the start of something really special.
Right now, I am worried.
Harshit Rana is out for the entire season. Knee ligament injury from the T20 World Cup warm-up. Matheesh Pathirana, bought for Rs. 18 crore, is still not cleared by Sri Lanka Cricket. Cameron Green, the most expensive overseas buy in IPL history at Rs. 25.20 crore, is available only as a batter right now due to workload restrictions.
Three pacers. All unavailable or restricted. That is not bad luck. That is a crisis.
And Varun Chakravarthy, who I was counting on to be the difference-maker this season, is struggling for form and confidence after a difficult T20 World Cup where batters figured him out and hit him hard.
Two games played. Two losses. The batting has runs. The bowling has questions.
April 6, KKR host PBKS at Eden Gardens. The crowd will be loud. I will be watching. But honestly, something needs to change in how they are approaching their bowling combinations. This cannot continue.
So Where Does Week 2 Take Us?
CSK have 0 points from 2 games. So do KKR. Both proud franchises. Both under pressure already.
RR, PBKS, and DC are sitting pretty at the top. The Rajasthan Royals in particular look scary. That opening pair of Jaiswal and Suryavanshi has already put on 510 runs in partnership across IPL matches, needing only 246 balls between them. That is not an opening pair. That is a wrecking ball.
Today SRH face LSG. RCB face CSK. Both matches promise a lot.
The season has just started. And it already feels like there is no room to breathe.
That is exactly how IPL should feel.
Tell Me What You Think
Which moment of Week 1 had you on your feet?
Was it Rohit’s 78? Vaibhav’s 15-ball fifty? Connolly appearing from nowhere? Or last night’s final over at Ahmedabad?
And if you are a KKR fan like me, tell me honestly. Worried or not?
Drop your answer in the comments below. I read every single one. Always have.
Creativity needs collaboration.
But Covid-19 has created a massive challenge in this aspect.
Let’s think of the good part.
But amidst all this what’s missed is the sheer camaraderie.
Gone are the days when people used to think that your best friends by default always used to be from school or college days. As the last couple of decades has shown us that best of friends can come from amongst your colleagues too.
But is that camaraderie possible in the remote work environment?
Absolutely not.
Whatever one-to-one you have with your colleagues or have tea-break sessions over Google Meet – it can never replace physical interactions. Relationships grow when you have unabridged discussions over a beer or a cup of coffee.
When relationships evolve, your meetings get more interesting. You get more transparent feedback. You improve the trust factor.
This is distinctly not possible in a remote environment. And this leads to a scenario where collaboration reduces and it takes a toll on your creative output.
What we are increasingly seeing today is that people are spending way too much time on video meetings but the output is lackluster because there’s a fatigue that’s setting in with too many video calls. Not everyone is comfortable talking endlessly or listening endlessly. People lose focus and when you lose focus your creativity reduces. Mistakes creep in and another set of video calls follow. This is a vicious circle.
First and foremost we need to realise that the old normal won’t be back in a jiffy. What the latest strain of Covid-19 shows is that we have to learn to live with the virus forever. You can’t control it. You just try to be safe as much as possible but accept this fact. Denial won’t help you – you can’t just force the old normal back. People want to stay at home and work from home. The biggest problem is travel especially in India where there are endless traffic jams and crowded trains and busses. People want to avoid that and you won’t be able to change this scenario for the foreseeable future.
What we need to do is that the team sizes need to be reduced. Previously every 9-10 members used to have one manager or reporting head. This needs to change to 4-5 member teams. Lesser number of team members would mean lesser video calls and the chance of friendships to grow amongst a very small group of people. The chances of friendship will increase when there is a very small team. Companies need to think about it because till you get genuine friendship happening, your work quality will suffer. Having a small team will help in this aspect.
This will of course mean, the need for better middle managers. India over the last decade has faltered in this aspect. India struggled to develop genuine leaders in the corporate sector. Leaders need to create more leaders and it’s high time companies look into this aspect and develop a good leadership pipeline. Give opportunities to people who have a flair towards leadership – people who have empathy and people who care.
Having offsites once in a quarter is a must-have right now. You need to get your team members out of their homes – go to a different place for a couple of days and allow your team members to mingle and allow them to come up with ideas to help the organisation grow. Your team members will love you for this opportunity. Try it and see the transformation happening.
What do you think about how companies can overcome this creative bottleneck challenge?
What seems cheap is expensive! What’s perceived as expensive actually ends up being cheaper!
We talk long term but think short term!
I bought a flat a few years back and when I was doing the interiors my cousin who is an interior designer himself helped me in settling things for me! Getting an expert on my side was actually very helpful!
When we went to search for curtains, he took me to a showroom at Triangular Park (in Kolkata) and this shop had some awesome collections! But as you can realise it was very costly! I was not very sure of that purchase but my cousin told me to think long-term!
” You are already spending quite a bit in your interiors and this addition not only gives a better look, but it will also last a hell of a long time “! he said.
It’s been 5 years and my curtains are still hanging as if they are new!
My cousin was telling me that one of his customers was not ok to pay for expensive sets of curtains and they went for the curtains from their local shop! What happened was that in the next 3 years they had to change their curtains twice!
I see this happening a lot with people in India while changing their old tyres in four-wheelers! To save costs they sometimes go for refurbished tyres and sometimes they opt to change only two tyres! What happens then is that the two older tyres ensure that these new tyres get old quicker and within a year they have to replace 4 tyres!
In the share market, especially many newbies think buying shares of companies whose share prices are very high is “Expensive” and penny stocks are “Cheap“! The fact is good companies will cost you a premium but in the long run, the results and your wealth will be unimaginable!
What you think is cheap today will make you feel like a fool a few years later!
What you think is expensive today will turn out to be a great ” deal ” when you compare it a few years later!
Just like stock market investments, when you purchase any useful gadget think long-term. When you purchase an electronic gadget don’t settle for the lower-end model because one year later you might have to spend again! Better buy the top-of-the-shelf product which can give you long-lasting pleasure!
Please don’t mistake this post as if I am promoting things to buy on EMI! You should only buy things which you can afford and that could mean postponing your buying plan but don’t settle for stuff which will give pain in the future!
As the saying goes, short-term pain leads to long-term gain!
What’s your recent purchase where you thought long term and made the decision? Let’s share our experiences and learn from each other!