
![DaSkrad Year 1 - Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/daskrad-year-1.png)

I remember I was in Reykjavik in Iceland last year this same time.
I had to register a company so I could transfer Pika's Stripe account which was a
Sole Proprietor account in India, to a registered company Stripe account

Pika had crossed annual earnings for a Sole Proprietor business,
and so I had to register a company and move Pika under it

I then quickly registed DaSkrad, I had also started building [Orshot](https://orshot.com)
around the same time, which already started under DaSkrad

It's been 1 year now building and growing Orshot

**Orshot recently crossed [$5k in monthly recurring revenue](https://orshot.com/open)**,
which is a big milestone for the company

We have 100+ customers, including some big ones

The platform has evolved a lot and has come a long long way.
From just being an API service to an infrastructure,
Orshot's direction has taken good turns

Orshot is my first SaaS which has crossed 5k, and fastest.
I'm glad I took the hard path of building it full-time instead of getting a job 😅


1 Year of DaSkrad 🔱


![Now a Permanent Resident of Deutschland 🇩🇪 - Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/german-pr.jpeg)

On 23rd of March, 2026 **I recieved my Deutshland Permanent Residence** 🎉

About 6 months back, I started prepping for all the requirements
needed for PR. Most of which was **Leben in Deutschland exam**, passing the **A1 German test**,
**27 months of pension contributions**. Rest were mainly documents I already had or
would be easy to secure

I started with LiD test, prepped mainly in last 7 days before exam. Got it done through Inlingua

Then came the trickiest and most time and energy taking one, the German A1 exam.
I wouldn't have done it on my own, and so I took help from Radhika.
She taught me the basics of A1 focussing on passing the exam

Took classes for a month or so, got the exam slot in Gottingen because
Berlin was overbooked

Went to Gottingen, took the exam. I had no idea what I had done in the exam.
I messed multiple times in the exam. The result was to come same day at 3pm

I kept checking on the site, even after knowing I didn't do well, and then I slept

Woke up, checked the result again, and found I got 68/100.
60 was the passing mark! I don't know how I made it, I would just say
I got lucky

And then came Pension contributions certificate. You just need to request it from online,
and then they send it to you by post in a week

The issue was my landlord doesn't let me put my name in the building nameplate.
And so every time the post guy came to post the letter, he returned back

It took about a month or so to get it done, and I recieved my pension contributions
certificate an hour before I had to leave for a airport for a trip. Nothing short of luck
for this to happen honestly

I filed my PR application online on 2nd of Jan, 2026

They usually take a month or so to reply to your email for apppointment,
and I wanted to go to India meanwhile. I went to India in the 2nd week of Jan,
and while I was in India, on 28th Jan I got an email with apppointment for the application.
It was for 5th Feb

I booked the flight immediately to be back in Berlin, attended the appointment on 5th

The folks at the Landesamt office are pretty helpful.
It was a straightforward process, where I gave my passport,
and couple other documents, nothing extra. They asked for my biometric and done

She gave me the next apppointment for card pickup for 23rd of March.
And I just picked up my card on 23rd

## The timeline

- **2nd Jan, 2026**: Filed PR Application
- **28th Jan, 2026**: Got my email for appointment
- **5th Feb, 2026**: Appointment for biometric
- **23th March, 2026**: Appointment for PR Card pickup

It was mostly straighforward process. If you have the documents in check,
the process would be smooth

Now that I have my PR, I can register my own business, be self employed,
stay in Germany for as long as I want, even without employment

It's a huge relief and milestone for me and now I can focus on things I really want to do :)


Now a Permanent Resident of Deutschland 🇩🇪


![](/images/posts/in-their-own-world.jpg)

We all have two pair of eyes, and we all see things differently.
It's essentially a unique world for each of us

The way we see the world is significantly different from the day
we start seeing, to what we are now

Fortunately or unfortunately, it changes

In the early days, when we are babies, we don't have enough of the world.
Our perpection is largely made of the innocence we're born with,
no filters, no influence, just pure eyes looking at the world
and appreciating it

As we grow, we have experiences, good and bad,
that builds up filters to how we see what we see.
For ex., your perception of a friend or partner changes
as you spend more time with them or have more experiences together

It happens with the people we know and who we let in in our life,
or let out from our life

> But there's this, **the privilege of seeing a person as is**

It's when you filter YOUR experiences, YOUR beliefs,
YOUR rights and wrongs to see a person you know or you don't,
as they are

It's not something we do by default as we grow up,
but it's something we should do more often.
Some might say it's a privilege for others
on how we see them as they are, I say the privilege is ours

And when you do it, you will know _how every person is a beauty of a creature,
a perfection, in their own world, in their own being_


In their own world, in their own being


```
mann ke khayalon ko bhi, bas ye kagaz hi jaanta...
```

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/X6uhtXXioeI?si=naXjPiWGCr9vnF8n" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Kagazi Ishq


![2025 Recap](/images/posts/2025-recap.png)

In couple of days and it'll be 2026. Perfect time to look back
in time to what this year has done to me

A lot has happened in this year, in its months, days, minutes and fleeting moments

> A lot of what has happened in 2025 is not what I expected or wanted,
> but I know I needed it for what I'm to become

## Start

The year started in Goa spending peaceful time doing my favourite things,
while I was waiting to join Xata

I was excited but it was short-lived, after working for 2 months
I was let go

It should've felt disappointing, but it was meant to be.
I know it because not a single cell in my body felt I'm losing,
it was opposite and it felt and feels like this is what I should've done long back

I've worked almost 10 years in multiple jobs,
and I'm grateful for each of the opportunity I've gotten.
All of those shaped me well

But deep down in the start of the year, while I started working on Orshot
I knew I'm passionate about building, and more so ever my own stuff.
It was just a matter of push, and Xata gave me that by laying me off

And so I started working full-time on [my own company](https://daskrad.com)

I got to travel to Iceland via Xata's offsite,
and then I spent good time in Cinque Terre, Pisa for my birthday trip

And while at it I had to figure out my Visa in Germany while
growing Orshot. It was overwhelming I wouldn't lie,
but it wasn't something that I let took over me

All the credit goes to the people in my life,
family, friends, they got me going and stronger

## Mid

I decided hiring myself to support my Visa,
and have been paying myself a salary since last couple of months.
I also gave my Lid Test, German A1 test and surprisignly
cleared both in the first take

All of these took bunch of my time in appointments, preparations,
which I had better spent in what I love, work on Orshot,
or travelling

But kuch paane ke liye kuch khona bhi padta hai!
Azaad hone se pehle, qaid bhi hona padta hai

## End

Last couple of months were mostly about
realizing the journey of this year,
and how things have starting to make sense

It made me realize not everything needs to be in my control,
and the importance of patience and being calm,
emotionally and mentally

I've ignored my health this year,
working days and nights, more than I ever did with any job.
I like how the passion kicks-in,
sometimes too much that I didn't know
which day of the month it was.
Or if it's weekend or if I had lunch

This is the spark I don't want to lose,
the satisfaction of playing my own tunes is unmatched

This is what I want to do now.
A company that I run,
work that I love,
people that I care for,
be free and travel with no borders.
Realizing these feels more closer to now

## Highlights of 2025

- ✈️ Visited bunch of places, Iceland, Pisa, Cinque Terre, Gottingen, Cologne, Basel, Strasbourg, Colmar, [map is more filled now](/map)
- 🌌 Watched northern lights while in Iceland
- 🧑‍💻 Travelled less, worked like my bloodline depends on it
- 📈 Started building Orshot in Feb, grown it to $2K MRR in last ~8 months
- 💼 Registerd [my own company](/blog/registering-daskrad)
- 👔 Dressed well, lived in the moment, made meaningful connections
- 🇩🇪 Made good progress on German integration and [language](/blog/ich-bin-rishi)
- ✨ Even in my lowest this year, didn't let my standards down. In fact, the more I faced the ground, the more my standards grew
- 🤍 Started to take control of situations beyond my likes and desires

More of what happened this year was within me than in the outside life,
and even though it felt a little uncomfortable,
**uncomfortable is what I strictly needed**

Reminds me of these lines from [Usey Kehna](/blog/usey-kehna)

```
meri chot bhi ek bhool hai
hai ussi se mehekti bahaar meri
```

Things have started to ease, as they always do

## What's in 2026?

I don't want to write about it. I want to let it happen

All I know is, I see it clearly 😃

## How was your 2025?

Write to me at hi@rishimohan.me

I would love to read it, as an anon :)

---

PS:

Special thanks to some special people who've been with me,
guided me, celebrated me, heard me, took care of me, fed me, wrote to me


2025 Recap


I don't post songs here, like to keep them to myself.
But I would do it now

**Usey Kehna** is a new song from an upcoming movie.
I like Dhanush and how he lives his scenes.
And this song featuring him is an absolute gem

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SUrBEQA4Myw?si=KXqxMWFea_sMk5SW" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Some lines are so beautifully planted:

```
मेरी चोट भी एक भूल है
उसी से महकती बहार मेरी
वही जान मांगे उधार मेरी
यादों के दिए, हाथों में लिए
अब उम्र ना मेरी कटे
```

```
उसे कहना आधी बात
आधी तन्हा, आधी साथ
कहीं होना, कहीं रहना
मेरा दर्द भी है ये, मेरी प्यास भी है ये
होंठ सूखे मेरे राख़ से
पागलों की तरह ये दिल हँसे
```


Usey Kehna...


![Ich bin Rishi](/images/posts/ich-bin-rishi.jpg)

Ich bin Rishi. Ich bin Ein-und-dreißig yahre alt. Ich komme aus Indien und wohne jetzt in Berlin

Meine eltern wohne in India. Ich habe ein schwester und ein bruder

Meine schwester wohne in Luxembourg und bruder wohne in New Jersey in America

Ich spreche English, Hindi und ein bischen Deutsch

Ich bin Unternehmer von beruf

Meine hobbys sind Reisen und Programmarien

Danke schon!

**Poetry in Deutsch some day?** lets' see :)


Halo! Ich bin Rishi 👋


What is eternal? And more importantly, how does anything becomes eternal?

My recent ponderings took me a walk in the past,
where so far I've realized this is how it works

You love something, too much, enough to not stop thinking about it

But then, all you do is think, you don't do anything about it.
And so, you would do 1000 other things in your life,
but not do that one thing

And you'll turn 30, 40 and 100,
and that thing that you've always thought about and never did,
or could not do for any reasons, eventually becomes eternal

It stays with you, comes back again and again

Imagine starting something you love, but not finishing it.
You'll spend many moments and decades thinking about it,
what ifs, it'll stay with you in a mystery you never uncovered

And so when you go, you still have that thing you loved,
that goes with you, an incomplete wish,
an unexplored path, that you always wished to experience

It sounds like a bad thing, and most times it probably is.
But if you think it in other ways,
it's not nessaccarily a bad thing.
Probably a good thing in disguise

It's always the things
that don't leave you, or maybe you don't leave them

And so, are you making eternity?


Making Eternity


![](/images/posts/think-of-me.jpg)

None of the theories, like the invisible thread theory would make sense
to anyone. It sounds rubbish, until you experience it

You just know things, you feel it, call it the thread,
however broken, old and burnt it is. The thing is,
it's there, it's still there

You know it because, you can feel the peeping,
in the moments that come out random, out of blue.
You know it because of the wind, the voices,
the touch of the thread

You know it because the thread is not just tied to the body,
it's tying the soul, and maybe when the soul
tries to go a bit too far more than it's meant to,
the thread does its job, sometimes in nights,
or after lunch, in random thoughts, in random searches

It's nothing short of magic, how this works.
But I just know, you know how?

I know because I do too


I know you think of me


This is a storm. And I'm, me! right in the middle of it

The space where you don't feel the full force of it,
or maybe because you've been through it for so long
you fail to realize what you're holding on

All the wind is blurring my eyes, quite literally!
And you know how the eyes get watery when it's too windy?
I'm in that, all the time, quite literally!

And when you stand against too much of it, your skin gets dry!
And when you feel too much of it, and for a long time,
you make it your temporary home. And now, that is how home feels like,
chaos, days and nights into the void, right outta window

Sometimes, and just sometimes, you flow, bend against the storm,
and it through its winds carries your weight. And you fly, you flow

But you can't do it, you can't depend on the storm,
and you gotta stop believing that you're meant to be there

It's dangerous how much we're ready to face when we're by ourselves

Life's teaching, I hope I'm learning


Life's teaching, I hope I'm learning


Sitting at my desk, listening to Jagjit Singh's ghazal.
It's a very beautiful night here in Berlin right now,
windy, just the right windy, the kind which makes me bend on the
windows to feel the wind on my face

It's cold, just right enough to make me recall all the similar moments
I've lived before. The sound trees are making, moved by the winds,
I love it

My mornings are starting with reading messages, and so are the days and evenings
and nights. Messages from customers, who have some feedback to share,
or have kind words to share

[Orshot is a $1,000 a month SaaS now](https://daskrad.com), it crossed the mark yesterday. I feel it's already [ahead of competitors](https://orshot.com/blog/bannerbear-api-alternative) in value, UX etc., still a long way to go

Pushing on code like water pours in rains, pursuing marketing as if I'm an expert and managing time like there's no tomorrow

I've been working on it day and night since last 5 or so months since I decided to go full-time on this dream(and put a break on others 😂). It's exciting, rewarding and exhausting(very) at the same time

The best part is I wake up every day feeling with a fulfilling feeling and excitedly. There's whole bunch of things I want to do and I look forward to my day to work on those

Even though all of that, there's other part of my life which is no short of a beautiful mess. Hiring myself through EOR, social life in ashes, zero travel, shaadi pressure and what not

There were weeks when I couldn't sit at home, and wanted to go travel around different cities in EU and check-in into most aesthetic of Airbnbs and chill and have coffee in a random outdoor sitting cafe in late afternoon

And then there's now, a phase that **I've accepted as to one where it seems nothing is happening, and then everything happens all at once**


Nothing and everything at once


![Commitments - Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/commitments.jpg)

Unless situational, all the things we pursue in our life are out of interest

Jobs, relationships, hobbies, gym, could be anything

And after pursuing that interest for some time we get into routine of doing it.
And eventually we either get tired or bored of it.
And there's a reason any of the interests you would pursue,
_would fade after some time_

And it's because, **we humans are not meant to live a routinely life**,
and so nothing sticks forever

We can pursue anything for a long time, get tired of it,
and part ways with the interest to pick a new one

> I believe the essence of anything comes from the commitment

Even if you don't feel like continuing with that interest,
if you still keep doing it you'll eventually come to a point which will
open a new form of the same interest.
Something that would be more interesting,
more powerful and stronger than your previous ties with that interest

And that's the reward you get by committing.
Committing to something even after you're bored,
is what leads you to a door that you never imagined was there

I believe that's how everything that's strong in this world
happens, relationships, jobs, hobbies. **That's the reward of commitments**


The reward of commitments


![In Dino - Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/in-dino.jpg)

Sipping on hot water in the morning, it's 11:09 am in Berlin.
Cloudy outside, better. I like it when it gets windy and rainy,
I sit right at the window to feel the cold breeze

I woke up today with random thoughts from the past.
It was all unstrcutured until it started making sense
when I started going deep in the thoughts

It's crazy how some people have **this entitlement**.
They would throw stones on other's home,
or throw garbage in their garden,
and still expect those homes to treat them nicely

And the classic "you were not this before" when
those homes start doing the same. I don't know
where this entitlement comes from

Anyways, I've been working day and night on [Orshot](https://orshot.com).
It's more than just a SaaS, it's something I want to build
to help people do wonderful things with

I haven't been out of home much, figuring out bunch of things
simultaneously. Somehow this phase of my life took me **out
of my comfort zone** and I'm liking it

I remember laughing, giggling too. Yesterday,
I **laughed so hard** for 5 minutes or more on one of the stupid
things while talking with my school friends. The worst part
it wasn't even funny, I just kept laughing and so hard
my eyes were watery and I couldn't breathe

So yeah, life's content both work-wise and personally

Thinking of doing a small trip to a city nearby, maybe Dresden.
I haven't been there, heard it's pretty

I am excited about what's coming

This phase is that part where you've been in the tunnel
for long and you have a feeling you're **about to see the lights**


In Dino...


"_Ik kudi jidda naam mohabbat, gum hai_" is playing.
It's 2:01 am in Berlin

Life has been a "do whatever you don't feel like" lately.
The last time I did this, it was rewarding

Often I think about why I'm doing what I'm doing.
Why am I prioritizing some things over other?
Why anyone does that?

The answer to it always ends up with one word for me.
**And that is, freedom**

I believe freedom brings you closer to what you're meant to.
When you're not bounded with the gazillion expectations of this world,
you start to respect things beyond.
Things that go on in your mind, your heart,
your thoughts, the ones that you wouldn't share with anyone
because they can't comprehend it

And I guess that's how you create a world, of your own,
bigger than the one you live in. It all comes with freedom

```
pata hai, yahan se bohot duur
galat aur sahi ke paar
ek maidan hai
me wahan milunga tujhe
```


Galat aur sahi ke paar


![I was, I am and I will be loved - Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/yeh-raatein-ye-mausam.jpg)

While installing iOS 26 just now, I was clearing up space on my iPhone

I opened WhatsApp's storage settings and ended up spending
good time on the Manage storage screen where it shows
media from all your chats

Until now, I used to think Google Photo's memory highlights
was the most nostalgic feature. But after seeing my WhatsApp's
Chat Storage screen, my mind has changed

It has **voice notes, photos, videos etc. from over 10 years back** or even more,
from people who I don't talk to or know anymore

> A random chat of a person playing happy birthday on Ukulele,
> a beautiful soul singing a song because they were remembering me at that moment,
> funny moment videos with a good friend, cringe photos I took of a friend on a trip

<audio controls="1" controlslist="nodownload nofullscreen noremoteplayback" src="/images/posts/happy-birthday-ukulele.aac">Your browser does not support the audio tag.</audio>

I think I appreciated all of it less in those moments,
I appreciate it more now

**In minutes, I travelled years**

The memories which were blurred a bit by the last few years and the present,
have come back sharper on that one screen

Voice notes that I listened to again and again,
photos and videos that made me want to relive some moments,
some poetry that I recited dramatically

All of it told me only one thing which I'm very grateful for

**I was, I am and I will be loved**


I was, I am and I will be loved


![31 Points Someone - Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/31.jpeg)

[Turned 31 this year in a small town in Cinque Terre called Levanto](https://www.instagram.com/p/DJLz05EsUM-/?img_index=1)

How do I feel? **My best!**

> I'm doing what I want, building SaaS in MY OWN company at [DaSkrad](https://daskrad.com).
> Travelling when I want, where I want to

Writing this from Luxembourg where I came to meet my sister's
family and attend my nephew's birthday

At the end of last month, I was laid off from my then company.
I _should've felt sad but it didn't_. I was and am more excited
working on DaSkrad

Talking about DaSkrad, [Orshot](https://orshot.com) which is the project I'm working
on right now, has picked up a tiny bit and has 4 customers
at the time of writing this. Small validation in a big market.
I'll keep going

I remember when I got my first paid users on [Pika](https://pika.style),
it felt like impossible happening, like WOW!
It unlocked a side of me I didn't even know I had

It's exciting even now with Orshot, but not that much

But I'm just happy, and grateful that I'm getting to work
on my own ideas and show the world a bit of my world :)

I'm in general, excited about life. I'm tied more towards my goals
than anything, intentionally. It wakes me up, makes me check databases,
analytics, logs, and what not

**I wouldn't say life is right on track, is it ever?**
Yet I'm in sukoon. I guess that's good enough.
Learnt it a hard way to let go of what you can't control,
and life has been peaceful

Happy and grateful for everything! Friends keep up
and make life a lot better and help me be sane.
Way of living have been light, focus on bigger things

```
I would dance on the songs I sing
I'll fly with my tiny wings in the sky so high
And when I can, I'll take everyone with me to fly
I'll sit on trees, make friends with them
I'll bring them stories, and some peace to stem
I'll then fly again, for new stories to unfold
To live them again, some days hot, some nights cold
```


31 Points Someone


![Where you are - Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/where-you-are.jpg)

_Where's your home?_ It's where you are

You're your home for memories that randomly make you smile.
You're home for all the adventures you've taken,
for all the mischiefs you've done

Home for all the nights you've cried,
and the mornings you woke up stronger

> > The places you've seen, the photos you've taken,
> > all those people who have touched your heart,
> > you're home for all those and more

You might feel like you don't belong
to the world around you right now

But guess what?

You're not meant to belong to the world,
or the people around you.
You just need to belong to yourself first,
and be your own true self

Home. It's in you, **it's where you are**

```
Zindagi se yahi gila hai mujhe
Tu bohat derr se mila hai mujhe..

Hum safar chahiye hujoom nahi
Ik musafir bhi qafila hai mujhe

Tu mohabbat se koi chaal to chal
Haar jaane ka hoslaa hai mujhe..

Kya khabar maine chahaton mey Faraz..
Kya ganwaaya hai kya mila hai mujhe!!
```


It's where you are


![DaSkrad - Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/daskrad-ltd.png)

Last week, I registered my first business [DaSkrad](https://daskrad.com) based in London

Here's a [link to Companies House page for DaSkrad](https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/16328476)

This was important to keep running and
scale my SaaS products, accept payments and
do things in a more forwal way now

This also means **I signed up for a whooping 19% corporate tax** 😅,
which for an indie-hacker is a bit too much.
**But whatever it takes**

It also feels special because **it's my first company**.
And this whole phase feels like leveling up


Registered my first business: DaSkrad Ltd.


I was at the [Xata](https://xata.io) offsite in Iceland and we came back from a day
long trip to Þingvellir National Park, Geysir Hot Spring area,
Gullfoss waterfall and Langjökull Glacier

It was around 00:30ish in the night.
There was Slack message on my phone from [Ahmet](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahmet-gedemenli-78170b199/).
He @channel-ed that the northern lights are out there,
followed by some photos by [Yannis](https://www.linkedin.com/in/yannispeyret/)

I was working on [DaSkrad](https://daskrad.com), checked the message
and instantly got up to open my room's door

> AND I couldn't believe. There were **these waves
> of green northern lights** in the sky, almost flowing
> like waves do at the shore

![The Northern Lights - Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/iceland-northern-lights.jpg)

It wasn't as green as we see in most pictures,
but it was visibly green and beautiful

It was rainy and cloud the whole day,
and I had flight back to Berlin early next morning.
So I didn't have any expectations of seeing
the lights, but dang!

Guess this is what they call _being lucky_ :)

This was the first time I saw the northern lights


Seeing The Northern Lights


Yesterday, [Pika](https://pika.style) crossed $1,00,000 in total revenue

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">and Pika crosses $1,00,000 in revenue today 🤟<br><br>all solo, bootstrapped, and with a full-time job<br><br>who knew screenshots can be worth so much <br><br>the numbers: the team: <a href="https://t.co/7UutemZkgp">pic.twitter.com/7UutemZkgp</a></p>&mdash; rishi 🌔 (@thelifeofrishi) <a href="https://twitter.com/thelifeofrishi/status/1898368365422362955?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It doesn't seem that big of a feat
in a world where you see millions of $$ of funding
and people going from zero to six figures in just months

Well, it is a big feat for me. Why?

- I did it solo. Yes, single handedly from 0 to 5 zeros and a 1
- I did it with a full-time job
- I did it every single week since I launched Pika
- I had chances to sell it, offers ranging from $20k to $40k, I chose not to
- I did it along with other interests, like travelling. Makes it difficult to focus
- I did it tired, I did it broke, I did it happy

It **took me close to 3 years** to do cross this mark

Even though I started Pika to solve my own problem
and never intended to grow it as a business,
now **it's much bigger than that initial goal**

> Pika is a space where I test my limits.
> The limits to which I can grow a business,
> to solve a problem, to understand the customers,
> to do marketing, to design a good product,
> to craft the fastest and obvious experience

This year, I'm working on revamping Pika integrating
all the customer requested features

I'll do my best to make sure Pika's the best tool in the space


Pika crosses $100k


![The Polaroid Camera in Memory Book - Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/the-gift.jpg)

I don't really like gifts. Specially expensive ones

While I was in India in January, 2025,
**I received a Polaroid Camera as a gift**.
And not just that, there was a case,
and extra set of films with the camera

And while I always wanted to get a Polaroid camera,
and that I loved it. I liked more the parcel.
It was sent manually through a courier

There was **a courier receipt** on the parcel.
With the name of the sender.
There were other fields too,
but all of them were empty

My eyes hovered on a field at the bottom of the receipt.
It said "_Reciever's name and relationship_"

On the other side of parcel, there was **a plain paper**.
It had my name, address and phone number written in handwriting

Both the paper, and the receipt were pasted
on the package with cellophane tape.
I really really wanted to keep both of these with me,
intact. And so I carefully cut both of these out
and managed to put these in my diary

I'm a sucker for handwritten things.
They're more valuable to me than most gifts.
Even if has nothing meaningful written,
the fact that it's personal makes it more nostalgic to me

Yesterday, I put the paper, the receipt in my Memory book

There's also the **first photo** that I printed using the
Polaroid camera

> Two cups of chai :)

I'm also waiting for a photo, eagerly.
**There's a condition onto it**

It'll be when stars will align,
when there'll be moments,
when there'll be light.
When it'll be all real

I hope that happens soon,
and I hope that happens every day

And that it's captured and printed,
with **the Polaroid Camera**


The Polaroid Camera


![Songs to send - Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/songs-to-send.jpg)

I love indie-songs.
I love how they have emotions
coming out of voice and through
lyrics more than from the instruments.
Some are so magical, they make you live the lyrics.
**Maybe just for a moment**, but yeah

I recently found a really good one,
and I'm listening to it right now.
I listened to it multiple times last night actually.
Not on repeat, mixed with some songs of similar emotions and pace,
and just enough to not make me feel less excited
when I listen to it next

There are songs which you like to share with your friends,
your family

And then there are **songs with so much magic**,
you don't want to share with anyone.
Probably because **such songs reveal something about you**,
your being, your desires, your state, emotions...

**You are lucky if** you have that one person
you can share these magical songs with

And if not, you keep listening to that song

And I guess that's how that **song makes a
stamp on that particular time**.
And when you look back, you recognize the time
by that song. And you relive all the emotions,
situations from that time

> _Magical, isn't it?_

**Who do you share this magic with?**

```
tera sahara, jaise kashti ko kinara
tere hone se, ho piya mera guzara

laut aa ghar...
piya tera kandha mera sir
maangun ta umar...
piya tera kandha mera sir
```


Who do you share magic with?


![What we shouldn't, why we still do? – Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/why-we-do-we-shouldnt.jpg)

Why do you do some things,
even when you know you shouldn't?

What drives that decision?

The song "_Tere hawale_" was playing on the TV.
I picked up **a book**. There was **a card** inside it,
**some words** written all over it which
strangely, didn't make sense.
I remember smiling the last time I read this same card

Not this time though. The writing was in English.
It **missed meaning**. Lines were phrased wrong,
the doodling mismatched, the emotions vapoured,
leaving behind words, **dry, cold words**

Then I read **some emails** from some time back,
and now all of these questions are running in my mind

Why we intentionally do things which we know
isn't right for us?

Imagine how strong the driving force could be,
which makes you do things which aren't right for you.
Things that would take a toll on you,
emotionally, or physically, or mentally
That makes you put things against you, above you

And yet, **we do it.** Willingly, excitedly,
with a smile, eagerly, passionately

Why?

```
sab ko mil jaegi manzil, ye zaruri to nahi
zindagi raah-e-safar hai yun hi chalte rehna
tum chiragon ki tarah raah me jalte rehna
har andhere ko ujalon me badalte rehna
```


What we shouldn't, why we still do?


_Do you know what a bit of passion can do to you?_

It can help you land a new role.
Or it can help you relocate to your
dream place. And if you're a bit lucky(like me),
then you might get both :)

![Not just a DM - Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/maciek-twitter-dm.jpeg)

You see this ^ Twitter DM?

It's from [Maciek](https://x.com/macieklaskus), the founder of Borg.
I recieved this DM on Dec 04, 2021 in which
he's appreciating my side-project [Kizie](/projects/kizie),
which I was passionaltely working on at that time

We talked a bit and he suggested me
to apply for a role at Borg.
The team was building [Hive](https://hive.one) and I loved the idea,
it got me excited. And so I applied

Fast forward to couple of months,
I was offered the role at Borg.
And not just that, I wanted to relocate to
Berlin and Borg helped me with that.
It was a huge thing for me because
along with working with a great, encourgaing team,
I was also getting to live in the EU,
get exposed to new cultures, EU startup scene
and travel to places I always dreamed of

**Never in my life I imagined** building a side-project
would lead me to a life I'm living right now.
It was like dreams come true for me.
And I feel when I'll look back and connect the dots,
the opportunity would probably be an important event
of my life

### Today is my last day at Borg

I had a great experience working with
Maciek, Danish, Valery, Thomas in these last couple of years

Every one of them is really good at what they do and
makes up a great team. Extremely grateful
to have worked with the team

I've learned a lot in these years,
specially about entrepreneurship(thanks Maciek),
taking balanced decisions(thanks Danish),
design perfectionism(thanks Valery),
importance of having a great backend engineer by your side 😅(thanks Thomas)

And while I'm at it, thanks to Dirk(Head of Operations at Borg)
for helping me with all the paperwork related to relocation, work and more

I feel more **empowered**, **confident** and **clear** about building now.
And that's what this opportunity has given me

The whole of team hasn't met much, and we mostly
worked remotely. Said that, I've this picture of us
from our last meet :)

![Borg Team 2024 - Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/borg-team.jpg)

_From left: Dirk, Maciek, Danish and me_

### What's next?

I'm going to continue my work on my side-projects as always.
Also, I plan to launch [Orshot](https://orshot.com) soon

More things are brewing up as I write this


On leaving Borg


![Living the good past - Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/flying-kites-with-kids.jpg)

Yesterday, it was Makar Sankranti in India.
It's a festival in which we fly kites

I had a flight back home to Agra from Goa yesterday.
I arrived at Home in the afternoon.
I also had calls and work to do
and got free only in the evening

Kids from colony came to me with their kites
and manjha and asked if we can fly kite together.
We used to fly kites together in this season
before I moved to Berlin

Most of the kids in the colony don't know
how to fly kites, they're mostly in the age range of 10 to 20

So we went to my roof and flew one kite.
The kids got so excited they were jumping and laughing
and singing random funny songs.
It made me happy too, but what made me smile
was how it reminded me of when I was kid and used to fly kites
with some of my friends(Manish, Gaurav, Tushar if you ever read this)

We flew the kite until it was almost night.
The kids were all happy flying kites themselves
and seeing it fly so high

They were like "_bhiya, chand tak pohoncha do patang ko_" and
"_bhiya, sabki patang kaat do_" 😂

That was yesterday. They came today again. And we flew again

It's small moments like these that makes the kid inside me happy.
I want to be able to **do more such things
which I loved doing as a kid**

To keeping the kid inside us alive and free!

<video autoplay controls loop>
  <source src="/images/posts/flying-kites-with-kids-1.mp4" type="video/mp4">
</video>


Living the good past


![2024 Recap - Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/rishi-antalya.jpg)

This year, I did many things for the first time.
I tried my best to balance work, life, and the things I enjoy.
And honestly, I'm pretty happy with how 2024 turned out for me from the start

## Highlights of 2024

- 🍅 Attended **Tomorrowland** and **Tomatina**
- 🕺 **Danced more** and enjoyed more
- ✈️ **Traveled well**, Antalya, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Valencia, and more
- ✍️ **Wrote more**, whether it was journaling or blog posts
- 🥰 **Made new friends** and lost some
- 😋 Experienced many **first-time things**
- ❇️ **+40% revenue** and **+33% MRR growth** on Pika
- 🚀 Started working on **a new SaaS** last month
- 🧑‍💻 Decided to **part ways with Borg**
- 🏇 **Started working towards a new goal** with a 3 years time limit
- 🤟 Worked hard and lived hard

**This year, I felt free, very much so**. And I like what I'm turning into

I have good friends, a supportive family,
a network that motivates me, and dreams that wake me up.
I'm very grateful for all of it

## Plans for 2025

- Build and grow [Orshot](https://orshot.com) along with Pika
- Focus on health and compounding good habits
- Make more, smarter investments
- Cook more and learn new delicacies
- Learn and experiment with marketing and SEO
- Do more of what makes me afraid
- Live more, think less

This year, I learned that of all the relationships,
your relationship with yourself is the most important

> > To be your best in anything in life,
> > you have to be mentally fulfilled, calm, and at peace.
> > That's when you make the best decisions

It also made me realize that family, partners, friends are add-ons,
you are naturally alone(_!lonely_) with your goals. Some people's presence
will amplify your being to do greater good, some will distract you,
some will pull/push you onto a track that's not for you

Attachment to anything or anyone other than your goals is
nothing but a distraction. And so, a certain level of detachment is important

That was it. It has been an incredible year,
and I know 2025 will be an adventure too

**Happy new year!** wish you all the best for 2025!


2024 Recap


![Antwerpen - Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/cost-of-delay.jpg)

Been pondering over how there's cost of delay

To put into perspective, what was the year you went independent?
And what if that happened late, or early?
How the timeline of your life would change?
I think that would've been significant

**A practical example**, if you invest $1,000 right now every year
for 5 years vs if you started it 5 years back.
The cost of delay is the money you LOST in profits by not investing early

For a long time I've saved liquid in my saving accounts,
letting corpus sit idle and to be safe from risks that come with
aggresive investments

But recently, I've changed that. In last one or so month,
I've invested about 15% of my savings into MFs and
Index funds(inspired by [@levelsio](https://x.com/levelsio/status/1775560709780230539))

**What's the cost of not exploring the world, or exploring it late?**
As someone who loves travelling, I can definitely say you
delay knowing more about yourself and
unlocking the parts of you you didn't know existed

**The cost of finding love late?** You lose exploring the side of you
that gives unconditionally. To care for someone more than yourself.
To know how beautiful is the joy of giving

**The cost of experiencing a breakup late?**
You delay understanding yourself better,
to know what matters to you and what doesn't

**The cost of living late?**
When you delay living your life at your fullest,
you care about what others think, or say.
You pretend, or do things that you don't feel like

This blog is a reminder to you, yes YOU.
To start exploring, doing things as early in your life as can.
You'll learn, fall, grow early and
be closer to what you were meant to do

```
Know that there's a cost of delaying things.
Don't be afraid to do things early.
You'll either make a museum of failure or a gallery of trying.
And both are beautiful
```


The Cost of Delay


![Abundance - Rishi in Zanshe Shans](/images/posts/abundance.jpg)

**What is the most important thing in life?**

It would be different for everyone.
Some would say money, some would say love, family, peace, and what not

I believe the basis of everything in this world is love.
Love for money, love for receiving love, love for giving love,
love for peace. Without love, life would be hopeless.
It's love for something that gets you up excitingly

But you know what?

**No love in this world can be permanent. Except one. And that's self-love**

And the good news is, all forms of love comes from self-love

You can lose everything in life. Still, get up,
work hard, and climb the steps of stairs to be at wherever you want.
And all of that happens because you love yourself

I think there's nothing you want to and can't do
if you love yourself enough

And that's why it's important to love yourself. So much,
in abundance that no matter what happens in your life,
your love for yourself makes you so confident that
you know even if you fall, you'll smile because
there's so much love in you for yourself that
you can get back up stronger

This has been on my mind for some time now,
and no matter what happens, it makes me feel better,
stronger, and more importantly, happy

It's like a light inside you
that your body protects from the outside world

And so no matter what happens in the world,
the light inside you still shines.
And only if you're bright enough,
you can make the whole world shine

Love yourself, in _abundance_

```
Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love – Rumi
```


Abundance


Being someone who spends 8+ hours a day on screen,
I was looking for a way to make screen light on macOS
warmer since blue-light was getting too much for my eyes

There's Night shift feature in macOS which does this,
but for some reason it never worked consistently for me

So I found a new way to do this using screen calibration
in Colour Profiles in macOS. So go to **Settings → Displays**.
In **Colour profile** dropdown,
click on **Customise**

![macOS Colour Profile](/images/posts/screen-calibrate-macos.jpeg)

And then you just **add a new profile**. In the step where
it asks for **White point**, just drag the slider to left
as per your liking and it'll make your display warmer.
This will be always on and active(which is what I wanted)

![macOS Colour Profile](/images/posts/screen-calibrate-macos-1.png)

That's it! Save the profile and select it and save some eye fatigue


Always on blue light filter on macOS


![Postcards - Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/postcards.jpg)

I have at least 10 postcards on my desk.
I got these from different parts of Europe,
from wherever I travelled. All empty,
ready to be written

I know the address. Once when I was in Mallorca some months back,
I was buying the postcards and the lady at the counter
asked which country I want to send those postcards to.
She asked to also give me country specific stamps
so I can post the postcars to that country.
Guess which country slipped out of my mouth?

I know what to write.
I know the words because they linger in my mind,
late at night. I know the address,
the country, the city, the block, the door number,
person's name

But I won't send it :)

These postcards sit on my desk,
they remind me of why some things are better left unsaid

```
 hone the jitne khel, muqqadar ke ho gye
 hum tuti naav leke, samundar ke ho gye
```


Postcards


![Rishi at Oceanografic in Valencia](/images/posts/rishi-valencia-oceanograpfic.jpg)

I just got back home today after a good
10 days trip exploring Alicante and Valencia in Spain.
It was my by far one of the most exciting,
adventurous and memorable trip

In Alicante, I was at beach where someone stole my iPhone, Airpods
and all the cash from my wallet. I kept my bag at the shore while
I went to swim for good 1 hour or more. Came back and checked the bag,
things were pffed

Later that day I found myself walking towards
the thief with my 3 new morrocon friends who
helped me with mobile data so I could track stolen phone's location
with my other(backup) phone, which was also in my bag and
which the thief didn't steal

Post that I went to police to report the incident,
to which they just said they'll try. And then made 3 new friends
in the police station one of whom also got their phone stolen.
After talking about the incident they wanted to help me
go to the last live location of my stolen phone and beat the thief
and get my phone back

It was quite a plan, we went there and only found residential buildings.
It would be quite impossible to find my phone there, so we gave up

That day ended at 2:30ish in the night.
I remember laughing while walking back my Airbnb in the night

In Valencia I was most excited about Tomatina,
that's also why I went there. Although it was too crowded in Tomatina,
I was really enjoying, dancing and singing with some
groups that I met there. While at it and throwing tomatoes,
I also launched my silver ring I was wearing in the crowd.
My father gave me that ring the last time I went to India in Jan

What didn't suprise me was I wasn't surprised or sad after losing stuff.
I guess I would've been in panic mode if it was about a person

**I gained a way of living** that I've been practicing more so recently.
It's **a life that doesn't expect, depend or thinks of what others think**.
That has always been an ideal way of living for me,
but in real it's really hard to practice

I've gained some steps towards that, and I'm enjoying the journey

---

```
ye dukh alag hai ki usse main duur ho rahaa hun
ye gam juda hai vo khud mujhe dur kar raha hai,

tere bichadne par likh raha hun main taza gazlen
ye tera gham hai jo mujhko mashoor kar raha hai
```


Losing and Gaining


![Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/rishi-antalya-sunset.jpg)

Sleeping has become a good escape lately.
Once I used to sleep at 2 or 3am,
I'm dozing off before 12 these days

Not like I don't have a thing or two to do,
it's more like my mind refuses to prioritize them
when it has so much of emotional capacity missing

Makes me think about what's missing.
And I know what it is, _very very clearly_

I'm pretty sure it's same on the other side too.
And maybe that's why I keep thinking of typing a mail or two,
so I can say, **no I can't talk for 2 minutes**.
I don't want to. Because I wanted to keep talking and never stop

I wanted to sail and let the ship take me wherever it wants to.
For I considered the ship my destiny, and not the destination

Left of my mind says "_life's too short to..._" bs,
and right of it says "_remember how you were made feel_"

**And as it wasn't always, I drop the idea and put the phone back**

I'm a strong believer in expressing what one feels,
but this time I can't do that.
Trust me, I very much want to, but I can't :)

And that's when my heart says you've tried enough

> The Universe will never give you peace in something you were never meant to settle in


You've tried enough


![Rishi on a beach in Goa doing what he loves, watching sunset](/images/posts/rishi-goa-sunset.jpeg)

I’m almost 30 and when I look back, I have experienced lots of things, places, emotions, experriences and I’m grateful for that

_What would I remember the most?_

I remember people I laughed with, people I wanted to see smile, memories I made in different corners of the world, making sudden plans :)

I remember not just the biggest of things, but also small ones, the moments. Like sitting on my bed looking at the moon at 2am thinking about future, or sitting at my favorite beach in Goa and see waves come and go, or walking the city in a full snowy day in Budapest. There are many

Of all the things that have happened, the last one year or so have been the most craziest and twistful

I moved to Berlin mainly to explore EU while working, that move I assumed would be a big change but that just wasn’t. The big change was totally unexpected and came right after I moved to Berlin and was not at all related to the city

I wish I could write here about it, and tell the world about the best things I've felt so far. And the worst things I’ve experienced. How some dreams came back and looked possible, and how the same dreams broke, all in last one year

> It's like the world came altogether for some time and then went upside down the next moment

> _Slowly, and then all at once_

It wouldn’t be wrong if I say that’s how I’ve been most of my life. Clueless


Clueless


Open Graph images are meta tags that define
the visual representation of a webpage
when shared on social media platforms like
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others.
These images serve as the preview thumbnails,
giving users a glimpse of the content before they decide to click on the link

## Structure

Adding Open graph image to any page is as simple as
adding the following lines inside `<head>`
of the page

```
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yourdomain.com/dynamic-image-endpoint">
```

Link preview **without Open graph image tag**:

![No OG Image Preview](/images/posts/no-og-image-preview.png)

Link preview **with Open graph image tag**:

![OG Image Preview](/images/posts/og-image-preview.png)

As you can see, with a proper Open Graph image,
you can tell users more info about your page's content
and in a visually appealing way.
This not only helps the user who sees your link
know more about your page, but also helps decide
how relevant and useful your page would be

## Why go for dynamic OG Images

While static preview images work well of a static page,
for example a landing page, it doesn't nessacrily work
well for blogs, newsletters, podcasts etc.
Simply because blogs, newsletters, podcasts are dynamic
pages and have different type of content on each page,
one single static Open graph image doesn't do justice
to represent these pages in a nutshell

So instead of having a static OG image for these dynamic pages,
you can dynamically generate a custom Open graph image
for each of your blog posts, podcasts, newsletter issues etc.

Wouldn't it be too much work to design a custom OG Image
for each page? Yes, but you can also automate it.
Let's see how to do it

## How to dynamically generate Open Graph images

We'll use [Pika](https://pika.style) to generate dynamic Open graph images.
Pika is service for automating dynamic image generation through API

Pika has multiple Open Graph image templates to choose from.
You get OG Image templates for blog posts,
user profiles, newsletter issues etc.
You can select and customize each of the API template
for your use case

**How it works**:

- <a href="https://pika.style/image-generation-api/templates" target="_blank">Signup for Pika</a> and get your API key
- Select an <a href="https://pika.style/image-generation-api/open-graph-image-1" target="_blank">Open Graph Image API template</a>
- We'll use this template to generate dynamic OG images using API routes

![Open Graph Image templates](/images/posts/og-image-templates.png)

### In Next.js with App directory

Start with creating a new `route.js` file at `/src/app/api/og/route.js`

```
export async function GET(req, res) {
  const { searchParams } = req.nextUrl;
  const title = searchParams.get("title");
  const description = searchParams.get("description");

  const response = await fetch(
    `https://api.pika.style/v1/templates/open-graph-image-1/images`,
    {
      method: "POST",
      headers: {
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
        Authorization: `Bearer YOUR_PIKA_API_KEY`,
      },
      body: JSON.stringify({
        response_format: "binary",
        modifications: {
          title,
          description,
          textColor: "#fff",
          backgroundColor: "#111",
        },
      }),
    }
  ).then((res) => res.blob());

  return new Response(response, {
    headers: { "content-type": "image/png" },
  });
}
```

We'll use this API route to take info and pass that to Open Graph Image API
in Pika, and Pika gives us the image as response, which we'll use as our OG image

You can **customize the output image** by changing `textColor`, `backgroundImageUrl`
and other available modifications.
Also **make sure to replace** `YOUR_PIKA_API_KEY` with your Pika API key.
<a href="https://docs.pika.style/docs/basics/getting-api-key">Here's how to find your Pika API key</a>

Now, all we need to do is use this API route on pages
where we want to generate dynamic OG images

So, let's say you have a blog at `/src/app/blog/blog-post-1`.
You can use the `metadata` object like below to dynamically
generate Open Graph image for that blog post

```
export const metadata = {
  title: "How to train your dragon",
  description:
    "Learn how to train your dragon in 3 simple steps",
  openGraph: {
    images: "https://YOUR_SITE_ADDRESS/api/og?title=How to train your dragon&description=Learn how to train your dragon in 3 simple steps",
  },
};
```

Now if you navigate to this blog post, you'll see a meta OG tag like below

![OG meta tag](/images/posts/og-meta-tag.png)

And the actual Open Graph image would look something like below.
Note that I've customized my Open Graph with a custom background image :)

![OG demo](/images/posts/open-graph-demo.png)

### In Next.js with Pages directory

Setting up dynamic OG Images in Next.js with Pages directory is very similiar

Create a new API route at `/pages/api/og.js` with following content:

```
export default async function handler(req, res) {
  const { title, description } = req.query;

  const response = await fetch(
    `https://api.pika.style/v1/templates/open-graph-image-1/images`,
    {
      method: "POST",
      headers: {
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
        Authorization: `Bearer YOUR_PIKA_API_KEY`,
      },
      body: JSON.stringify({
        response_format: "binary",
        modifications: {
          title,
          description,
          textColor: "#fff",
          backgroundColor: "#111",
        },
      }),
    }
  ).then(async (res) => {
    const arrayBuffer = await res.arrayBuffer();
    return Buffer.from(arrayBuffer);
  });

  res.writeHead(200, {
    "Content-Type": "image/png",
  });
  res.end(response);
}
```

Again, **make sure** to customize the template
and use your API key in place of `YOUR_PIKA_API_KEY`

Now that we have the API route ready,
you can use it on blog post pages,
or dynamic `[id]`, `[slug]` pages like so:

```
<Head>
  <meta property="og:image" content="https://YOUR_SITE_ADDRESS/api/og?title=How to train your dragon&description=Learn how to train your dragon in 3 simple steps">
</Head>
```

or something like if you have data coming from server side:

```
<Head>
  <meta property="og:image" content="https://YOUR_SITE_ADDRESS/api/og?title=${post.title}&description=${post.excerpt}`>
</Head>
```

If you're having issues setting it up, <a href="https://twitter.com/thelifeofrishi" target="_blank">feel free to DM me on Twitter</a>.
I would be happy to help you out

## Testing

![OG Image Preview tool](/images/posts/og-preview-tool.png)

Testing Open graph image is easy.
There are many tools that can help you see
how your link would look on various social sites

- <a href="https://pika.style/tool/open-graph-test" target="_blank">Open Graph Preview Tool</a> (preview on all sites: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google)
- <a href="https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug" target="_blank">Facebook Open Graph Debugger</a>
- <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/post-inspector" target="_blank">LinkedIn Post Inspector</a>

## Examples

Here are some examples of sites that do great dynamic open graph image

**Intercom Blog**

![Intercom Blog OG Image](/images/posts/intercom-og-image.png)

**Vercel Blog**

![Vercel Blog OG Image](/images/posts/vercel-og-image.png)

**Cal.com Profile Page**

![Calcom Profile OG Image](/images/posts/calcom-og-image.png)

**Peerlist Profile Page**

![Peerlist Profile OG Image](/images/posts/peerlist-og-image.png)

**Substack Post Page**

![Substack Post OG Image](/images/posts/substack-og-image.png)


Generate Dynamic Open Graph Images in Next.js


![2023 Recap - Rishi in Budapest](/images/posts/rishi-budapest.jpg)

2023 wasn't an ordinary year for me.
In fact I think it was the most exciting
and drastic year

## 2023 Highlights

- **Moved to Berlin** in March and started a new life
- **Started talking to my best friend** again, after a gap of 3 years
- **Travelled 9 different EU cities** from March to December
- **Grew my side-project** Pika.style from $1.5K to $2.7K MRR, launched Pika API in December
- Learnt a lot of new things, most important was to **know when to ask for help and how important it is**

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">2023 was an incredible year:<br><br>🇩🇪 moved to Berlin<br><br>👨‍💻 Pika made $35k in revenue(up 3.3x from last year), at $2.8k MRR(up 1.8x)<br><br>✈️ travelled most this year: Rome, Nice, Faro, Lisbon, Porto, Brussels, Prague, Budapest, Vienna<br><br>😇 lived, laughed, learned<br><br>happy new year :) <a href="https://t.co/0KvUhyQvBd">pic.twitter.com/0KvUhyQvBd</a></p>&mdash; rishi 🌔 (@thelifeofrishi) <a href="https://twitter.com/thelifeofrishi/status/1741788660113048012?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 1, 2024</a></blockquote>

## What more of I want to do in 2024

### Write more

My last blog post here was at the end of 2022.
It's been one year since I've not written anything
long form and I want to change that in 2024.
The goal is to write more about anything
that interests me

### Focus on Pika and explore other ideas

I've experimented with new SaaS ideas in the background
while I was working on Pika in 2023.
Because of all the travelling I couldn't focus much
on that, but in 2024 **I want to work on
growing Pika and in parallel explore and possibly make live
at least one more product**

### Clarity on relationships

2023 was a roller coaster in terms of relationships.
I haven't had such emotional year before this.
Life has given me a lot of uncertainties when it comes to
meaningful relationships, or relationship to be more clear.
**This year, I want to be more clear on what I want
and be more strict about it**

### Experience more

Moving to Berlin helped me experience a lot of new things.
From experiencing my first beer to trying out saunas
to tasting Pastel de Natas to first kayaking in Spreewald
to attending my first concert at Lollapalooza Berlin

I get hesitant and uncomfortable before trying new things,
but in 2023 I pushed myself a bit and
got more **open to trying new things**.
I want to continue doing that in 2024 and
experience more _first time things_


2023 Recap


![2022 Recap - Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/2022-recap.png)

It’s that time of the year again when I look back to all the mess I’ve created the previous year. This year was a bit different, a lot of things changed this year. It was like a drop on water that created ripple, and I’ll be experiencing this ripple in the time to come, and I don’t know yet if it’s a good or bad

Anyways, here’re some highlights from 2022:

### 📈 I didn’t know I could start a business and grow it to $1,400+ MRR

In the start of 2022, I started [Pika](https://pika.style), an app to quickly create images and mockups. It started as an app for my own needs but it quickly started getting traction. So I kept adding features to it and also added subscriptions to it in February, 2022 to see if I can make it a hobby that makes money

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">✨ my smol design tool <a href="https://t.co/6mVzNMEGMU">https://t.co/6mVzNMEGMU</a> has finally crossed INR 84K/$1,000 in MRR this week<br><br>I bootstrapped Pika in February to effortlessly design better screenshots, it&#39;s been growing slowly &amp; steadily and finally has 100+ paid users<br><br>A lot is done, lot more to do 😇 <a href="https://t.co/dfaB4Vhzg7">pic.twitter.com/dfaB4Vhzg7</a></p>&mdash; rishi 🌔 (@thelifeofrishi) <a href="https://twitter.com/thelifeofrishi/status/1591316802210258945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2022</a></blockquote>

Now Pika is making over $1,400 a month in revenue. Considering I worked on Pika only in my free time and along with my full time-job, I think it grew pretty well. Talking about job reminds me of my next highlight of the year

### 👨‍💻 Switched job from BigBinary → Borg

I remember that March night in Goa. I was sitting at the table in my Airbnb in warm dim lights. I wrote an email with subject “_Thank you for everything!_” and stared at it for hours till midnight. [It was a resignation email](/blog/on-leaving-bigbinary). I had been working at BigBinary for 6 years, it was my comfortable zone for a long long time. I was unsure if I should hit the send button, but I did

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Career update ✨ <br><br>Excited to share I’ve joined <a href="https://twitter.com/hivedotone?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@hivedotone</a> team to build a new way to explore Twitter <a href="https://t.co/a31wQh26H8">pic.twitter.com/a31wQh26H8</a></p>&mdash; rishi 🌔 (@thelifeofrishi) <a href="https://twitter.com/thelifeofrishi/status/1598692245401501696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 2, 2022</a></blockquote>

One month later after resigning from BigBinary, I started working with Borg team on hive.one on contract. It’s a Berlin based startup working on building more meaningful way of browsing Twitter data. I liked the work the team was doing and the direction the product was heading in, and so I decided to join the team full-time this month

Can definitely say I’m not in my comfort zone anymore and I need to learn a lot of new things to be able to do my job well, which was also a reason why I joined Borg

### 🛫 Travelled a bit, but not as much as I wanted to

![At Airport Metro in Delhi](/images/posts/airport-diaries.jpeg)

Early this year, I did a 3 month long trip travelling different cities in India, which I’ve shared about in my blog [Airport diaries](/blog/in-between-airports)

I wanted to travel more this year, but I couldn’t. For some reason I don’t feel the same about travelling anymore. It feels like I’ve seen it all and there’s nothing new to be discovered or explored. I’ve also lost interest I had in photography which I feel really sad about. My camera is sitting on my desk catching dust since I don’t know how many months now. It seems to me my new interest in building SaaS products has overtaken some hobbies I had before, which I don’t really like

There’s so less time to fit a full-time job, side-projects, travelling and exploration, and still be able to spend time with family. It’s just hard to manage. This is something I want to do better in 2023, and put more time in travelling and pursuing interests out of laptop and internet world

### 😅 Still clueless about where I am heading

[I don’t know where I am heading but I’m on my way](/blog/heading-nowhere), I don’t know who wrote this line but it has been my state of mind throughout this year, or the one before that. I am doing more things without expectations in my mind or with a sense of a goal or achievement, and mostly fearlessly. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but the sense of belonging and end goal is definitely missing. And the worst part, I don’t even know how to fix that

### 🐥 More activity on Twitter

This year I’ve spend a significant time scrolling on Twitter. Sometime mid of this year, I had removed Instagram since I was wasting a bit too much time watching people ruining good songs in reels. So all that time shifted to scrolling on Twitter, but it was a good change

Twitter wasn’t a time waste for me since I was building a SaaS in public and Twitter was my primary marketing channel for it. I wouldn’t be wrong if I say I got a lot of paid users through Twitter. And I also got to connect with a lot of new folks and learnt all kinds of new stuff

I feel since Twitter is primarily text based social platform, and that you can follow anyone around the world, it makes it really easy to learn from people. You just follow the right people and you get a chance to learn their mind

—

There's a lot more. I can recall some good fun days in Goa and Gurgaon, wandering in Hauz Khas, napping at a train station, cancelling plans, not calling back, working at 4am, making new friends, friendships fading, the food in Amritsar, meeting my newphew for the first time and what not

Some moments from this year would stay, for a long time

Happy new year!

---

```
कर लूंगा जमा दौलत ए ज़ार, उसके बाद क्या?
ले लूंगा शानदार सा घर, उसके बाद क्या?

मैं की तलब जो होगी तो बन जाऊंगा मैं रिंद,
कर लूंगा मैकदों का सफ़र, उसके बाद क्या?

होगा जो शौक़ हुस्न से राज़ो नियाज़ का,
कर लूंगा गेसुओ में सहर, उसके बाद क्या?

शेर - ओ - सुखन की ख़ूब सजाऊंगा महफिलें,
दुनिया में होगा नाम मगर, उसके बाद क्या?

मौज आएगी, सारे जहां की करूंगा सैर,
वापस वही पुराना नगर, उसके बाद क्या?

इक रोज़ मौत जीस्त का दर खटखटाएगी ,
बुझ जाएगा चराग़ - ए - क़मर, उसके बाद क्या?

उठी थी ख़ाक, ख़ाक से मिल जाएगी वहीं,
फ़िर उसके बाद किसको ख़बर उसके बाद क्या?
```


2022 Recap


![Stripe Dashboard India](/images/posts/stripe-india-dashboard.png)

Stripe is a go-to platform for most developers for accepting payments,
and it works really well. The area where I personally feel
Stripe really shines is their API documentation and guides, 
and customer support. 

I've been using Stripe to accept payments in my SaaS products →
[Kizie](https://kizie.co) and [Pika](https://pika.style). 
I've faced multiple problems, sometimes
related to payments, sometimes because of business verification etc.
But overall I still feel like Stripe is a good, reasonable
and reliable way to accept payments.

This blog post aims to answer some of the questions 
that I frequently get asked on my Twitter, 
and other things that I've experienced and dealt with 
while using Stripe in my apps.


> This blog is written from Stripe India user's perspective,
and it may or may not be relevant for users of other regions.

## Why you shouldn't use Stripe

- Stripe doesn't handle taxes since it's not MoR(Merchant of Record)
- Some Stripe payments fail(the rate is low for me but it's still there)
- Stripe doesn't support Paypal

## Why you should be using Stripe

- Stripe is fairly easy to implement, and reliable
- Good documentation and amazing customer support
- **You can accept international payments as well as INR payments**
- The pricing is low as compared to Paddle(but Paddle also handles taxes)

The choices comes mostly down to Stripe vs Paddle for most users.
Paddle is mostly good, handles taxes, 
has payment links or modal payment flows, supports Paypal.
But I've also read about Paddle blocking accounts,
or delayed verifications and approvals 
from SaaS owners on Twitter, which kind of is scary.

With Stripe, I don't really need to think about anything
after setting up the payments once, which helps me
focus more on the product I'm building.

## Accepting International and INR payments as a Stripe India user

First things first, **I signed up as Sole Proprietor**.
I didn't have to submit any business details until recently
when Stripe started asking for business details for verification. 
For this verification, Indian users can submit their PAN
card which mentions the name of their business(in my case it's my name).

So once you setup your account, 
here's a way you can use for accepting both international payments
and INR payments.

- First, you'll need to create two versions of your product,
for ex. if you have an app for which you charge $9 a month,
you'll need to create two different products for it in Stripe.
One that is priced in USD and other priced in INR.

- Second, ask your user or detect if they're from India, 
and if so redirect them to payment page with INR pricing.
Else redirect them to USD pricing page.

- From my experience, Indian cards don't work with product payment
pages with USD pricing, but works well with
payment page for product priced in INR.

![Stripe Products Screen](/images/posts/stripe-products.png)

And that's how I'm accepting international payments 
as well as INR payments as an Indian Stripe user.

If you have more questions about using Stripe for payments in India, 
you can [DM me on Twitter @thelifeofrishi](https://twitter.com/thelifeofrishi).

Accepting payments using Stripe for Indian users


Do you know what life feels like at this point?
Like a fakir who wants to cross a big sea,
the end of which is covered by huge fog,
the end of which he can't see. 

And that, the fakir doesn't have a boat of his own.
But that's where life unfolds its dices for him.
He has taken a help of someone with boat to cover a part
of this sea. The person was a good company for 
however far they travelled. But that person had to go somewhere else,
and so the journey ended.

But before it ended, and before that person left,
in the middle of the sea the fakir was lucky enough
to find another person with a boat.
In the middle of the sea he switched to other boat
and said goodbye to the person who rafted him till this point.
Fakir must be grateful for the help, for the memories.

How lucky one has to be to get help right when they need?
Well, the fakir is that lucky. He has been in the sea for some time now,
and he has been hitchhiking through boats now.

It's his 4th boat he's on, or 3rd, he can't remember. 
And he can't see the sea ending yet.
Sometimes he looks back from the boat, only to realise he'll
never find what he's looking for!?

<video autoplay controls loop>
  <source src="/images/posts/living-on-boat.mp4" type="video/mp4">
</video>


Living on a boat


Right now, I'm at the Amritsar airport at Gate 5,
waiting to board a flight to Delhi 
which I just came to know is delayed by 30 minutes. 
While waiting, I just started recalling about
the time I left home for this trip.
Past 3 or so months I've been travelling constantly.
**From Goa → Mumbai → Gurgaon → Ambarsar**. 


Today from Delhi, I have a train from NDLS to Agra at 16:00. 
After years of handling Covid and stopping distributing
the linens in the train, the train company messaged
that they have finally started distributing linens again.
I don't know why am I happy about it 
because I won't even need the linens today.

Anyways, past 3 months have been different,
and I just want to log some part of it which 
made me feel alive and uneasy.

## Ambarsar

<video autoplay controls loop>
  <source src="/images/posts/ambarsar-golden-temple.mp4" type="video/mp4">
</video>

While my time at Ambarsar, I haven't really travelled,
or did any touristy things. I just really wanted to see
Golden Temple, feel the spirituality there, 
eat langar and try some local food. 

This might also be because it was par 43 degree celsius
every single day here and it was hard to go out anywhere
in the day time.

I really wanted to see Wagah border, I've been told here
by most Uber drivers I've journeyed with that 
that place has strong patriotic vibes. 
I would've loved to feel that. 
I couldn't gather the courage to go there 
and stayed at my Airbnb 
doing things you would do on a free day at your home.

There's something about Ambarsar though,
which took me back to some time back.
Specially the area around Golden temple
which is the city centre, that places is mostly crowded
and has lots of street food vendors and shops.

One thing I liked about that area was the architecture,
which is beautiful. Every shop and buildings around the place
have retro-ish architecture with red walls and yellow lights. 
I've only seen the place in the night though, twice.
The first time I went there, I knew that I would be visiting
it again.

![](/images/posts/ambarsar-city-centre.jpg)

Ambarsar has good food. I couldn't try some restaurants 
which I was suggested but I am sure Ambarsar food is amazing.

Sometimes I feel I haven't travelled everywhere in Amritsar
for a reason. And not just Amritsar, I now tend to do it
everywhere. To leave some places, only to have a reason to come back to.
Strange isn't it?

## Gurgaon

I was there to attend my oldest friend Shashank's wedding in Ghaziabad.
But guess what? I didn't. I had already shopped clothes and everything
for his wedding but it didn't go out as I had planned,
and on the day of his wedding I went dumb
and cancelled the plan to attend his wedding.

> Shashank if you're reading this, I'm sorry but 
Ghaziabad was too far from where I was staying
and it would've been very tiring if I made the trip.

Instead, I went to Shivang's reception
which was on the same day in the evening. 
Shivang is a good friend of mine, 
we worked at BigBinary and also shared flat in Pune.

The rest of the days in Gurgaon were pretty good.
Also May 3 was my 28th birthday which I spent in my Airbnb
in Gurgaon doing nothing.

Right when 3rd of May started in the midnight,
I started having severe headache 
and started to feel very tired. 
I remember talking to Rahul at 1 or 2 in the night
and I could barely speak without efforts.

When I woke up that morning, the headache was too much.
I asked my Airbnb host, Raju Ednani if he has Zandu-bam 
or something for the headache. 
He gave me a saridon which gave me relief from the 
headache, but the tiredness was still there.
I guess I had caught Covid because 
before that day I had been travelling 
in and around Gurgaon. 
Also had spoiled taste and barely wanted to eat meals.
It wasn't that hard to go through that,
the hard part was I couldn't go out much after that.
Plus there were some things going in my mind, 
someone showed up from time-machine which affected me mentally.

Apart from that I met friends, 
roamed around the streets of Haus Khaz in the night
and almost gotten a tattoo 😅.

## Mumbai

Mumbai wasn't about travelling much,
I was there for some family work,
which went through fine after some back and forth.

And yeah, made a new friend while I was in Mumbai.


## Goa

Goa was the start of this escape. 
All because I missed travelling and was
tired at home and "shaadi karle" talks.
Goa is my happy place, where I don't worry much.

A lot of things happened in Goa this time.
Initially my brother and sister-in-law joined
and we explored some nearby places.

They left after a week, after which I roamed around
like a number 1 bullshit guy. On the day of holi, 
I took a scooter and drove to Panji and then to Baga.
There's much more to it but it was a crazy crazy day and an experience 😅.
That day ended with colors on all over my face and hairs
at a sunset on Baga beach, post that had Maggie and chai
on the streets.

![](/images/posts/holi-goa.jpeg)


Also in Goa, on a random night at 1 or 2 am,
I typed my [resignation mail from BigBinary](/blog/on-leaving-bigbinary) 
where I had been working for 6 years.

**Buying a new machine for work**

One day my old Mac stopped working suddenly in Goa
and after getting it checked and worrying about
how I would be working I decided to get a new Mac.
This particular part was an experience in itself.

**How do you buy a new laptop?** You go to the store,
you select the laptop you want to buy, you pay 
and then you take your machine home.

For me things went roller-coaster. First, I wanted
M1 Macbook Pro 16/256GB configuration which 
wasn't available at any of the stores nearby.
It was available only on order basis.
So I ordered from a store and it took them 3 days to get it
from Bangalore. So far so good.

The owner of the store said he can deliver the machine
to where my Airbnb was. So far so good!

He came to my place in a Land Rover with someone who seemed
like his friend who was also driving the car.
I had to pay him the remaining amount for the machine.
I transacted through UPI, the first payment went through
but not the second one because of transfer limits per day.
So he suggested we go to a ATM nearby 
and withdraw cash for the remaining amount, 
which was close to 70k.

First of all, I've never in my life withdrew
this much cash or I guess even held 70K cash in my hand.
I always did big transactions through bank transfer 
or UPI or Credit card.
So I was kinda feeling weird. Not scared, but weird.
Then his friend and he drove me to an HDFC ATM nearby
where I had to withdraw 70K INR. Seems pretty straightforward, no?

It wasn't. First of all that ATM machine was in open,
meaning it wasn't inside a room or something. 
It was as if you walk on the street and can access it from the street itself,
you won't have to go inside any room, no boundaries whatsoever.
Second, there were people(dangerous looking) around the ATM.
Third, I was alone, with two guys who were physically double 
my size, who were also discussing about buying a gun 
at one point as we drove to the ATM machine.

I knew I needed to do it, so I went to the ATM.
I cashed out 70K in 4 withdraws. 
Now the cash was too much to carry to the car
and I only had my wallet to keep the cash.
I somehow took it inside their car
and asked the store owner to count the money. 

There was a possibility of a scene there.
Fortunately, that didn't happen. 
The store owner was good man. 
He handed me the packed MBP to verify,
which I did. They then dropped me to my Airbnb
and then left from there.

The situation might sound normal 
but there were some chances of things happening.

---


It's been awhile since I've been travelling
without any plans. I literally planned the Amritsar
trip a day before my checkout in Gurgaon.
It's good to be uncertain about where you'll be tomorrow,
but it sometimes is uneasy. 
It takes away peace I guess.

But now as of writing this, I've reached home.
The funny thing was I had to break into my own home
to get in. There's no one at home and the set of keys I had 
was missing one key of the entrance lock.
With the help of neighbour I had to break the door's lock to get in.
Such is life 😅


Airport diaries ✈️


This is my last week at [BigBinary](https://bigbinary.com). 
I've worked here for 6 years as UI Engineer.

Working at BigBinary helped me grow not only professionally
but also personally. It helped me socialize, 
attend conferences where I made friends and
being a fully remote company
helped me pursue my interest of travelling 
which is a big thing. All of it helped me in building
the personality that I have, which is definitely an upgrade
from what I was when I joined BigBinary. 

I feel lucky enough to have worked with BB as second 
company in my career. I've gotten chance to work with 
some amazing folks in BB who directly or indiretly have inspired me.

*Here's a GIF of my favorite times at BB, 
when we went to FML in Pune.*

![Adieu BigBinary](/images/posts/bigbinary-adieu.gif)

On leaving BigBinary


If you use Safari 15 or above on macOS, 
you might have noticed that Safari has this option
to enable coloured tab bar. By default,
Safari automatically decides which colour to use
for the tab bar based on your website's
accent colour. But it's definitely possible 
to change this colour to a specific colour
you might want.

And Safari is not the only browser that supports
this feature. Safari on iOS, Chrome on Desktop app as well as
Mobile app, and some other browsers also support it 
as per [Can I Use](https://caniuse.com/meta-theme-color).

![](/images/posts/safari-tab-bar.png)

This colour can be set to your preferred colour using `theme-color` 
meta tag in between `<head>` tag of your site. 

```
<meta name="theme-color" content="#222" />
```

Just place the above line in between your website's head tag.
You can change the Hex colour in content to the colour
you want the tab bar to have on your website.

You also have the option to change this colour based on
system theme. You can specify different colours
for when the system is on light or when it's on dark theme.


```
<meta name="theme-color" media="(prefers-color-scheme: light)" content="#f5f5f5">
<meta name="theme-color" media="(prefers-color-scheme: dark)" content="#22222">
```

The first line in above code is to apply custom theme colour 
for tab bar when the system is in light mode and second one when on
dark mode. This is a great way to customize browser 
as per your site design's aesthetics.

A thing to note is that it only works in Safari when tab colors
is enabled in `Safari Preferences > Advanced > Show colour in compact tab bar`. 
If it's not enabled then Safari will show default gray color in light and black color in dark theme.

Using `theme-color` meta tag


![](/images/posts/google-search-console-sitemap.png)

After you submit your sitemap in Google Search Console,
Google crawls each URL from submitted sitemap and 
decides whether to index the links in 
its search results or not. Google doesn't share a clear idea of
how it decides whether to index a link or not, 
and hence it's a tricky problem to resolve the issue
of indexing the URLs that Google doesn't index.

## What is "Discovered not indexed"?

"Discovered not indexed" links are those links which
Google knows that exists and has crawled, but Google
thinks the link is not good enough to be indexed 
in the search results. At least that's what the understanding
I and some people have about it.

You can submit such links or force Google to crawl
the links again through **URL Inspection tool** but its' not going to work.
At least it didn't work in my case and 
Google also has it mentioned in their docs.

## How I fixed it and got links indexed in search results?

In my case, I had worked on some tools in one of my side-project
and really wanted to target some search engine traffic for these.
[Twitter Thread Writer](https://kizie.co/compose) and 
[Tweet to Image](https://kizie.co/tools/twitter-image) are small
tools which are straightforward to use. 
But since these are just tools, there was 
not much scope of putting in a lot of text content.

I had submitted these links to Google Search Console and waited
for almost a month to get these indexed, but even after a month
these were labelled under Discovered not indexed tag.

**Here are some things I had already taken care of before submitting.**

- Had proper meta title, description and open graph tags
- Had decent amount of textual content on pages
- Had proper robots.txt file

After submitting the sitemap, these got discovered but not indexed
and for a long time.

After a month or so of waiting I decided to make some changes,
and surprisingly these changes worked. These two got links 
indexed in some days after **I've made the below changes**.

- Added proper `rel="canonical"` tags for these pages
- Added more relevant textual information on the pages
- Built more backlinks

I figured out there was no `canonical` tag in the pages,
and my idea was that Google takes care of it on its own.
I was wrong, Google doesn't take two URLs 
same with different UTM parameters. 
I also wrote a blog post about 
[why canonical tag is important](/blog/nextjs-canonical-tag).

This can be specific to my case, but adding more textual content,
having proper canonical tag setup doesn't hurt.

How I fixed "Discovered not indexed" issue in Google Search


![2021 Recap - Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/2021.png)

2021 started with me being in Jodhpur.
For the last 4 years, I've been spending New Year's
eve in different places.

2017 was in Udaipur, 2018 was in Bhopal, 
2019 was in Luxembourg, 2020 was in Jodhpur.
I've enjoyed every bit of these moments 
in each of these places. It's my little
something that I don't why I like to do,
but it makes me feel little adventurous,
little rebel.

2021's New Year was supposed
to be in Chandigarh but I cancelled the plan
the last minute. I didn't really want to
break the streak but then I know life's
more than continuing a weird streak.

So, here I am, just finished watching Emily in Paris S2, 
in my bed, in 📍 Agra. It's 01:32 and I guess
the right time to ponder over the past year.

## The Goods

### 🚀 I started [Kizie](https://kizie.co) as a side-project

Kizie helped me be occupied, in my sanity. 
I'm a professional over-thinker and my free time
makes me think about random weird things.
Not getting enough time is pretty good
for someone like me. Kizie has done well enough till now,
it's making some side $$ for me but more importantly 
it has helped me learn a lot.

Not only that, I've made some great acquaintances,
connections and friends who inspire me to do better.

### 🕊 The free living

With free, I mean freedom. When you're free,
away from people's expectations and not too attached,
you have this liberty to fly. The world is too big
to focus on things that don't excite you, 
the time is too short to not be adventurous 
and write stories that you want to.

Mentally I think this realisation of free living 
has been had long back and I'm just realising it.

### ✈️ The travel

I was able to travel quite a few cities this year
and feel grateful about it considering the Covid 
condition we were in.

January I was in **Jodhpur**, February in **Pune**,
March I went to **Rishikesh**, August and September
I contented in **Goa**, November I trekked in
**Dharamshala**.

Really good experiences all over the map have
been recorded this year. Met new people,
made new friends, talked to interesting souls
and lived in the moment. Just the kind of life
I want and look forward to.

### 👯‍♂️ The people

I am grateful, that's how I would like to start.
Without the continuous coincidence of meeting
really good people, this year would've
definitely not turned out this good.

The year was also full of goodbyes 
but I think it's a part of life, 
nothing is constant. And that's why you should
cherish each and every bit of a moment
with everyone.

### 🧑‍💻 The work

It's been 6 years since I've been working at
BigBinary and I still feel lucky to be working here.
The amount of flexibility that I get 
is something I'm grateful for. 
Professionally I've learn new things 
and can definitely say I've better skills
now then an year back.

---
.

There is more, definitely much more. I can continue writing
and I would still miss a lot to sum up.
This year was good even if Corona happened,
even if goodbyes happened, even if I was anxious,
even if some plans didn't make it, 
even if I was lost, the year was still great.

If you know me, or not anymore, or will know me,
just know that I'm becoming one heck of a guy 😅
and thank you for bearing my lame jokes and unserious-ness.

Au revoir.


2021 Recap


Next.js doesn't come SEO optimized 
and you need to do some things on your own
to make sure that your Next.js based blog
or website is properly optimized to be
indexed and ranked well in Search Engines.

## The Problem

First, what is canonical URL or canonical tag?

Canonical URL is a URL which tells search engines
the original source of a particular page. 
Let's take the example of this URL:

```
https://kizie.co
```

This is a straightforward URL. So when Google
crawls this link it would know that 
the source and canonical of the page is same,
which is `https://kizie.co`.

The problem arises in cases when there are
some query with the URL or when there are UTM
parameters. Whole lot of sites like to add
UTM parameters to external links and for various reasons.

The same URL with UTM parameters can look like this:

```
https://kizie.co/?ref=vercel.com
```

In this case, the search engine would consider the
canonical URL of this page same as the original URL
which also includes the UTM parameters.

Which means that search engine might consider these:

```
https://kizie.co
https://kizie.co/?ref=vercel.com
```

as two different sources or URLs.
But we know both these URL are same.
The use of canonical URL is to tell
search engines that these two URLs 
are same and that search engines should
consider these as same and not different sources.

## Setting up `canonical` tag in Next.js

Adding `canonical` tag in Next.js is pretty
simple. There are two steps to it: 

- Determining the canonical URL
- then Adding it in `Head`

### Determining the canonical URL in Next.js apps

People who have used Next.js might think
this as an easy thing to do, you just
import the `router` and then use `router.pathname`
to figure out the canonical URL. 

```
// URL: https://kizie.co/example

const canonical = `https://kizie.co` + router.pathname;

// canonical will be https://kizie.co/example
```

Thats it, no? The first search result's [most upvoted
answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/65078853) says so. But it's, **wrong!**

Although the above setup would work in most cases,
it won't work in sites that use ISR
(Incrementally statically generated pages)
or have dynamically generated routes.
In ISR blogs and dynamically generated setups,
if you access: 

```
// URL: https://kizie.co/example/isr-generated-page

const canonical = `https://kizie.co` + router.pathname;

// canonical will be https://kizie.co/example/[slug]
```

Certainly `https://kizie.co/example/[slug]` is not the
canonical for this page. The issue is that `router.pathname`
doesn't know the actual slug of statically or dynamically 
generate pages.

**The solution**

The solution is to use router's `asPath` 
because it works even on dynamically generated pages.

```
// URL: https://kizie.co/example/isr-generated-page

const canonical = `https://kizie.co` + router.asPath;

// canonical will be https://kizie.co/example/isr-generated-page
```

And to make sure the canonical URL doesn't contain
any UTM parameters, we can use the following.

```
// URL: https://kizie.co/example/isr-generated-page?ref=vercel.com

const canonical = (`https://kizie.co` + router.asPath).split("?")[0];

// canonical will be https://kizie.co/example/isr-generated-page
```

Basically, we are just stripping off the 
UTM parameters part in the URL.


## Adding `canonical` tag in `Head`

For this I highly recommend to use [NextSEO](https://github.com/garmeeh/next-seo) 
npm library since it makes really easy not just
to add canonical tag but also other tags like `title`,
`description` and Open Graph tags.

Open the `pages/_app.js` file in your Next.js project
and make the changes like below. Also make sure to change 
`kizie.co` with your site's domain name.

```
import { useRouter } from "next/router";
import { DefaultSeo } from "next-seo";

function MyApp({ Component, pageProps }) {
  const router = useRouter();
  const canonicalUrl = (`https://kizie.co` + (router.asPath === "/" ? "": router.asPath)).split("?")[0];


  return (
    <>
      <DefaultSeo
        canonical={canonicalUrl}
      />
      
      // Other stuff
    </>
  );
}

export default MyApp;
```

If you don't want to use NextSEO, you can also use
Next.js's `Head` to add the canonical tag like so:

```
import { useRouter } from "next/router";
import Head from "next/head";

function MyApp({ Component, pageProps }) {
  const router = useRouter();
  const canonicalUrl = (`https://kizie.co` + (router.asPath === "/" ? "": router.asPath)).split("?")[0];


  return (
    <>
      <Head>
        <link rel="canonical" href={canonicalUrl} />
      </Head>
      
      // Other stuff
    </>
  );
}

export default MyApp;
```

The above will make sure you have proper canonical URL
in all the pages of your sites, even the pages
which are generated through ISR or SSR.

Adding canonical tag in Next.js

DOM element to Image and saving image to Clipboard in JS


Next.js Link tag makes it fast to navigate between pages
and has many benefits, 
but it comes with a big accessibility issue.

The issue is when you try to open the `Link` tag content,
you won't be able open it in new tab.
It works as a `onClick` handler by default
which is a big accessibility and SEO issue.

Search engines crawl pages by looking at
the links in `<a>` tag. Since there's no
actual link when you use `<Link>` tag,
search engines can't see and recognise the link
that you've set and hence it can cause 
Search Engines to ignore that link.

It's also a big accessibility issue,
when you define a link you expect it to act like a link
and not a function assigned to a `div`.
You should be able to open the links
in new tab, or with `Cmd + Click`.

## The fix

A simple Link tag use looks something like this:

```
<Link href="/blog">Blog</Link>
```

To fix the accessibility issue,
all we need to do is wrap the contents of
`Link` tag in a `<a>` tag. 
This will make it an actual link
which you can open in a new-tab
and which Search Engines can recognise.

Here's how it looks:

```
<Link href="/blog">
  <a>Blog</a>
</Link>
```


The issue with Next.js <Link /> tag


macOS doesn't come with a colour-picker utility.
There's Digital Colour Meter app but I won't call it
a colour-picker app.

As a designer I've been trying to find a good
app to pick colours from websites and images.
I've used tons of apps, and my favorite
three are [ColourSlurp](https://colorslurp.com), 
[Colour Peeker](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/color-peeker/id1592573138)
and [Pika](https://superhighfives.com/pika).

Each of these three apps are free(or have free functionalities)
and each of these solve the purpose of picking colours
very well.

## Color Peeker

![Color Peeker for macOS](/images/posts/color-pickers/color-peeker.png)

This is the simplest one which sits in your Mac menu-bar
and shows the hex-colour value of the pixel your 
cursor is at on the screen in real-time.
And I really like the developer has done app's icon.

It's free and [available on App Store to download](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/color-peeker/id1592573138).

## ColourSlurp

![Color Peeker for macOS](/images/posts/color-pickers/colourslurp.png)

ColourSlurp is another great colour-picker
and in my week or so usage of it, 
I found it a slightly complex to use.

It has all great features,
including colour contrast,
multiple color formats, collections,
touch-bar support and more. 
Some of these features are paid
but basic colour-picking is free.

You can [get ColourSlurp here](https://colorslurp.com).

## Pika

![Color Peeker for macOS](/images/posts/color-pickers/pika.png)

Pika is open-source native colour picker. 
The best thing about Pika is that not only you
can pick colours from anywhere on the screen 
but compare colours for Contrast Ratio.

You can select from Hex, RGB, HSB or HSL
formats which should work for most of us.
Pika comes in very handy for quickly picking 
colours, you can trigger it with shortcut
and copy the picked colour quickly.

Because of these options it has integrated
into my daily use really well.

You can [download Pika for free here](https://superhighfives.com/pika).


3 simple and free macOS Color Picker apps


![Triund Landscape](/images/posts/triund-top-landscape.jpg)

Long story short, it was an incredible experience.
Right from the starting point at Hotel Nature Feast
to Bhagsu Waterfall checkpoint to the top of Triund and the people,
everything helped me feel more lively and inspiring.

All I want to remember from the trek is
how everyone from the group went crazy around
bonfire, danced on Arijit and said random shit
and commentary on the songs.

The dance part specifically was 
something I'm going to remember for a long time.
Everyone was around the bonfire,
we didn't have network so people were
playing random songs from their offline collection.
And we danced like hell, till 11-ish, 
after which I wasn't evening feeling cold
anymore (:, and it must've been like 0 degrees at that time.


The Triund trek


When you grow up from a kid to teenager,
you see things in your school or in your neighbourhood
and you know what things you definitely don't want to do
or be.

I have been going through the same phase
since years now and I am collecting a bucket list
of traits I don't want in me when I grow up.
All of these traits have been a result
of experiences I've been through and 
mostly from people who're really close to me
which actually is a sad thing, but it's what it is.

## A guy who takes things for granted

There are very few of married guys I know 
who actually *behave* when they say house-work
is not a gender role. I definitely think it's not.
I am not saying I do all my work, like washing clothes
or making my own food. My mother does cooking for me.
But when I think of it, I believe it's not her **JOB**
to cook, or do the dishes, or anything.
She does that out of love.

Similarly, my father has never in my life
asked me to go out to get groceries, or vegetables,
or do shopping for home. It's not his JOB
to get Maggie packets that **I** want to eat,
or notebook that I asked him to get.
He's doing it out of responsibility and love.

I believe all of these should be my personal
job and should be done by me. 
If your father, mother, siblings, friends
are doing something for you then 
it's definitely out a favour and 
shouldn't be taken for granted.

I've different level of gratitude for all
of the things I've had because of others,
and I am constantly trying to reduce this
and progressing in a way I handle all my things.

## A guy without patience

One thing that's always in my constant learning list
is Patience, it's very important and hard to learn trait.

> Life throws at you all sorts of situations,
seasons, tastes, smells and people. 
The ability to remain calm and 
be rational at the moment is a super-power.

I've experienced couples losing their calm in the middle of the crowded market.
I've seen people losing their temper in the middle of a party,
to the point of almost throwing glass on another person.

I feel for such people, I never want to be that person.
It's hard to control the temper at severe situations
but it's important, and very. 
Because most times you'll end up regretting things you say
when you're angry.

I would personally choose to walk out of such situation
instead of saying or doing something.

## A guy who's tired of saying "thank you"

The guy in the restaurant today who got me the Thukpa(Himachali dish) I ate,
his hands were slightly shivering while he placed
the bowl on the table. 
It might be his job to serve people,
but **there's no reason not to thank people**
who are helping you or making your life easier.

![](/images/posts/thukpa-restaurant-view.jpg)
***Photo***: View from the restaurant I tried Thupka at

Yesterday I was going to Dal Lake which is 3km
steep walk from my stay. I planned to do the walk
and got little skeptic of taking wrong decision of walking.
While I was on the way, an auto was about to cross.
I stopped the auto to ask the driver 
if I was heading in the right direction(Google Maps doesn't work well here in Pahadi areas).
He confirmed the direction, I said thanks.
Right before he was about to pass, 
he asked if I wanted to go somewhere,
that moment I decided I can take the auto 
and I said yes. He said he's dropping the passenger 
close-by and will come in 2 mins.
2 mins later I was in his auto 
and he was taking me to Dal Lake,
quite far which I later realised when he dropped me there.

I don't know why I shared the story, 
but I feel it's a very liberating thing to do.
A simple "thank you" or "shukriya" can make
someone smile, and that I think is a good deed.

## A guy who would intentionally hurt others

It's very common, the 20 to 30 age is full of temporary people.
I've seen a lot of people using others,
or making false promises, claims and what not.

It's a very sad thing. Live your life the way you want to,
live it to the fullest, do everything that makes you happy.
Isn't that life all about? Yes.

But if your happiness saddens some other person,
or you don't have good intentions for other person,
then it's not a good thing to do. 
For you it might be a quick or easy thing to do,
but for the other it can be that part of their life
they wish they never have been through or have ever seen.
No one deserves that, not you or any other person.

**PS**:

I'm not a perfect person, I'm learning all of the above
and wish to be intact on my believes. 
They keep me sane when the world around me isn't 
that beautiful.


What I don't want to be when I grow up


I often ask myself what is life about. 
I never could answer this question.
I even asked this question in my school friends batch
calls and it always turned out in a fun conversation.

Sometimes **passion** seems like a good answer,
when I start working on something like [Kizie](https://kizie.co)
and it makes me feel more alive, gives me a reason
to wake up to. Passion and interest always ends up bursts,
they lapse after some time and leave me to null.
*It's definitely not permanent*.

![Naddi Sunset Viewpoint, Himachal Pradesh](/images/posts/naddi-viewpoint.jpg)

Then comes **nature**. 
Today I got the chance to view 
a beautiful valley landscape from the top
of a place called Naddi in Himanchal Pradesh.
The view was surreal and made me feel lively.
When I went to Majorda and other beaches
in my Goa trip, my problems seemed very small
in front of the never-ending sea. 
It is almost like 
nature makes me forget all of the issues in my mind.
Maybe for just 30 minutes but it does work.
But then travelling all the time too 
is not possible. 
There comes the feeling of seeing your family
and it takes me back to home.

**People** are the true meaning of life is what I believe.
We're social beings and good connections, relationships and
bonding can alone lead us to satisfactory if not happy life.
I like to prioritize people in my life and it's a very
good feeling to have family, friends whom you can talk to
and share things with. But there's no single person in 
life who knows all the aspects of my life.
We're different person with parents, siblings, friends, colleagues etc.
Do you have people in your life who knows all the faces of you?
If you have then I guess you're lucky. 
I certainly am not. The thing with people is all sorts
of complications, expectations and integrity.

It for some reason reminds me of lines of a poetry I read somwehre.

```
Kabhi koi apna hota hai toh farz mohabbat,
Kabhi maang li kisi gair se toh karz mohabbat

Kabhi haal chaal poochne ke peeche sawaal mohabbat,
To kabhi jawaab mein haan sunne ka khwaab mohabbat
```

All of these thoughts are weird when they flow,
and all it makes me think "I don't know where I'm heading,
but I'm on my way".

I don't know where am I heading but I'm on my way


The idea started with building an analytics app for Twitter.
I had no idea of Twitter API, or analytics or anything, 
I just wanted to build something from the things I had
recently learned, like Next.js and TailwindCSS and dive deeper in both.

Long story short, after playing with Twitter API and
multiple fails to push a bare version, I ended up working
on a full-fledged Twitter app. Yes, all using Twitter's data I started building
timelines, tweet compose and all the basic features Twitter has.
**The idea was not to clone but to make my version** of Twitter
with all the features I wanted and simpler and cleaner UI.

3 months into all this development in side I was able to put up
a usable version of [Kizie](https://kizie.co), heck I liked the idea
of where it was going and it gave me a reason to wake up to (literally).

Fast forward to now I sent the last commit to Kizie just couple minutes ago.
I'm using it as a Twitter replacement but for some things like Messages, 
to check Notifications for likes and follows etc. The reason for this is because
Twitter API's current state is very aggressive in terms of rate-limits and scope
(this topic can be another blog post in itself).

So here are some of the things I've learnt in this journey of 6 months or so.

## Build things for fun to learn

This project started as a fun project with sole-purpose of learning,
it grew on me so much that I pushed myself into learning Stripe integration,
crazy animations, Node.js and much more.

## Build in Public

![Tweet on TailwindCSS](/images/posts/kizie-learnings/tailwind-tweet-kizie.jpg)

My plan was to share all the learnings and experiments 
[on my Twitter](https://twitter.com/thelifeofrishi) while I was working on Kizie.
One day I experimented with a multi-pane modals and [shared a video of it on Twitter](https://twitter.com/thelifeofrishi/status/1411547063095988231?s=20).

This tweet of mine went places and was RTed by [@TailwindCSS](https://twitter.com/TailwindCSS) folks. This tweet alone helped me connect with some amazing
devs and designers on Twitter. Currently that tweets is standing 
on **over 140K impressions, more than a thousand likes** and **got me 100s of new followers**.

Another good thing about building in public is that you get a lot of
feedback from great people and it really helps.

## Organic Traffic is important

Side Projects are easy to build and 
just as easy to abandon. It takes a lot of effort to generate decent MRR
from a side-project. Although it wasn't my goal with Kizie, 
I've learned that organic traffic is very important. 
You can share your project on ProductHunt, HackerNews etc. and get a lot of
temporary traffic, but a lot of that traffic is one time. 
To make money out of your project you have to build a source of traffic,
or a marketing channel to keep the growth. I started with making public profiles on Kizie and optimize those pages for Search Engines 
so they can get indexed and maybe rank good, help with traffic some day.

## Technical learnings

- **`fetch` is powerful and RAW** : After sucking Twitter API like a JavaScript bee,
I've learnt that `fetch` requests are an amazing invention. 
But it's important to calculate your budget for whether to use `fetch` or `axios`
or some other tool to make API calls. In case of Kizie, `fetch` requests are all over
the places, from `util` function to workers etc. I could've reduced and simplified 
a lot of code if I had gone with `axios` or recently discovered [ohmyfetch](https://github.com/unjs/ohmyfetch).

- **Consider Virtual Lists/Windowing before implementation**: 
I was talking to Chirag few days back and 
he mentioned how lists got slow in one of the apps he's working on.
Although his issue was because of loading tons of image 
which made his RN app slow. It reminded me of my situation with Kizie.
Kizie is full of lists of tweets, loading in traditional mapped list
is what I started with but over time the app started to have memory 
and performance issues. The only solution was to use Virtual List
but I had already done my component to load individual tweets etc.
Personally I feel most Virtual Lists libraries are very complicated
to implement because of the way they work. And using those libraries
with the components I've already spent a lot of time building was a
tedious task. Learning is to plan such things accordingly before implementation.

- **Learn Backend**: I've thought about it multiple times in last couple months. Node.js as backend didn't cut well for Kizie. 
Having a proper backend would've helped me build even faster
and performant Kizie.

- **Use Web and Service Workers**: Web Workers can really help in performance
by offloading the processing in separate thread. 
This also helps in preventing UI blockers and glitching 
while processing complex JavaScript.
Service Workers are useful in caching data, using both in Kizie has
helped gain some significant performance benefits.

And there are bunch of small things I've learnt while building this app and still learning. 
It all got possible because of the curiosity of building and trying.
I'm glad I started with Kizie, I'm planning to start working on a new
side-project idea, in parallel I'll continue improving Kizie.

Some learnings from my first side-project


Here's a small animated SVG snippet of a loading spinner.
Since it's a SVG, it scales well and can inherit the color,
so very customizable. It's already animated so you don't need
to add `keyframes` and hence I found it very flexible.

The below SVG can also be converted into a React component or
perhaps a `const` and used in React projects, 
which is what I'm doing in [Kizie](https://kizie.co).


## Preview

![Animate Spinner SVG](/images/posts/spinner.svg)

## Code

```js
  <svg
    version="1.0"
    width="100%"
    height="100%"
    viewBox="0 0 128 128"
  >
    <g>
      <path d="M59.6 0h8v40h-8V0z" fill="#000" />
      <path d="M59.6 0h8v40h-8V0z" fill="#ccc" transform="rotate(30 64 64)" />
      <path d="M59.6 0h8v40h-8V0z" fill="#ccc" transform="rotate(60 64 64)" />
      <path d="M59.6 0h8v40h-8V0z" fill="#ccc" transform="rotate(90 64 64)" />
      <path d="M59.6 0h8v40h-8V0z" fill="#ccc" transform="rotate(120 64 64)" />
      <path
        d="M59.6 0h8v40h-8V0z"
        fill="#b2b2b2"
        transform="rotate(150 64 64)"
      />
      <path d="M59.6 0h8v40h-8V0z" fill="#999" transform="rotate(180 64 64)" />
      <path
        d="M59.6 0h8v40h-8V0z"
        fill="#7f7f7f"
        transform="rotate(210 64 64)"
      />
      <path d="M59.6 0h8v40h-8V0z" fill="#666" transform="rotate(240 64 64)" />
      <path
        d="M59.6 0h8v40h-8V0z"
        fill="#4c4c4c"
        transform="rotate(270 64 64)"
      />
      <path d="M59.6 0h8v40h-8V0z" fill="#333" transform="rotate(300 64 64)" />
      <path
        d="M59.6 0h8v40h-8V0z"
        fill="#191919"
        transform="rotate(330 64 64)"
      />
      <animateTransform
        attributeName="transform"
        type="rotate"
        values="0 64 64;30 64 64;60 64 64;90 64 64;120 64 64;150 64 64;180 64 64;210 64 64;240 64 64;270 64 64;300 64 64;330 64 64"
        calcMode="discrete"
        dur="720ms"
        repeatCount="indefinite"
      ></animateTransform>
    </g>
  </svg>
```


A Simple SVG Spinner Icon


![moody-weather-buildings](/images/posts/quarantine-days/rain-blur-shot.jpg)

Won't go much about the state of our planet right now, there's chaos all over, thousands of deaths all over the world, places are locked down and everyone is asked to not go out, the villain? **CORONA virus**. I never had imagined in my life that I would face something like this.

## Had I crossed path with Covid-19 suspect?

In January before the Corona virus scene got serious, I was in a lounge at Istanbul airport trying to rest, and about 10 yards from me was a Chinese/Korean/Japanese girl, who was sweating a lot, with a lot I meant her face was almost dripping sweat. I ignored that at that time but now I feel like I had crossed path with someone who might have had Corona. She sat there for about an hour or so and then left, while my layover was for about a day. Luckily, I haven't felt any of the symptoms yet and hope I don't get it.

## Without phone? What happened to your phone?

![moody-weather-buildings](/images/posts/quarantine-days/iphone-battery-low.jpg)

So a week back, on March 21st, while taking my phone out of tripod with lightning cable still attached to the phone I **broke the only lightning cable I had**. I thought I would just order one quickly which I did and the new lightning cable was supposed to come on 23rd. Luckily, my phone was almost full when the cable broke so I had some time with it. The next day, and since Covid-19 situation was getting out of hand in all over the world, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi goes live and announces the whole of INDIA will be on lockdown and all the non-essential shops and services would be halted, **for 21 DAYS**. What this meant was, nobody will be let roam around the streets, no store would be allowed to open unless it's essential(talk groceries, medicine stores etc.). It also meant that Amazon won't be delivering anything that's not essential, and not just Amazon but other online stores as well. At this point of time, I had a trouser coming from Myntra, two lightning cables and couple more things from Amazon. I didn't really care of anything but the lightning cable.


**March 24th**, this was the day the lightning cable was supposed to be delivered but unfortunately it didn't. And since then it has been 7 days and my phone is dead. The lockdown was already a torture and on top of that I can't even use my phone is an overkill for me. I have never been appreciative enough of my laptop before as it is the only way I'm connected to my family and friends. I have seen tons of series, movies since the start of the lockdown and crossed the point where I can't handle anything digital anymore, but then there's not much to do. Can't gather enough courage either to just start a new project or write a new app or something. 

## Present day

![moody-weather-buildings](/images/posts/quarantine-days/moody-weather-buildings.jpg)

March 29, the good news is Amazon.in says they've resumed delivers in select cities but Pune is not in the list. I guess it might take 2-3 more days for the lightning cable to come to me. In all the free time I'm still watching movies, yesterday night I watched "Sanam Teri Kasam", it was a good one time watch. Also it rained in Pune yesterday and the weather was dark and little cold, so I took some photos and edited them in [Polarr photo editor](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/polarr-photo-editor/id1077124956?mt=12). I was trying Polarr for the first time I found it really good, there's almost every slider and nob for you to adjust your photos, including curves, toning, custom presets etc., there's basically tons of more features. 

## New content discovered which I liked

![moody-weather-buildings](/images/posts/quarantine-days/covid-discovered-content.jpg)

As I mentioned there's lot of time killing happening so I've been and have already watched tons of movies, music videos and some series. Here are some of the content I liked:

**Music:**

- [Tell me you'll try](https://youtu.be/DOCVGAlxbaU) by Rohan Thakur – He's one of my favorite travel vlogger with channel name **Ronnie & Barty**, and I didn't knew he can sing so well. If I'm right he has recorded this song in this lockdown time, good utilization of free time.
- [Beparwaah](https://youtu.be/xJMaOVRoizs) by Rupali Moghe – This is from my favorite YouTube channel called "The Last Cigarette". They basically post subtle songs from indie indian artists and this song is touching.
- [Teri Meri Pehli Shaam](https://youtu.be/8jSO1-FXfyM) by Punit Singh – This guy has some really great songs, this one is my favorite from him, but do checkout his other songs too.

**Videos:**

- [Peter McKinnon](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3DkFux8Iv-aYnTRWzwaiBA) – I've been watching Peter's videos since some time now and I like his work and the amount of efforts he put in his work is inspiring. This is the second day of me writing this blog and a part of courage in writing it is coming from him, so thanks Peter. He's been producing some new videos almost daily these days so go check them out.
- [Tehzeeb Hafi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsoC67qlYXI) – I like listening to shayaris since I discovered a video of Gulzar reciting his poetry in this own words[[link]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOdCvAT8QRk). I often find myself sleeping listening to shayaris and Tehzeeb's are too good. If you're into these do check this video out, I'm sure you'll like his work.
- [Love Travel Repeat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF7d4v2trQ8&list=PLY8ZPyhMi6vu5nyqVKVSlHPvYRzDvKPwA) by Gobble – It's a good travel series of a couple Kriti and Pranay, who decide to Travel from Bangalore to Mumbai(I think) and they take detours to travel some of the nicest places in the way.
- [Happily Ever After](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b86ijSw5a-A) – This is about Avani and Roneet, who fall in love with each other and decide to get married. The true series of events happen when they decide to make it destination wedding where they come across tons of situations and drama.
- [Operation MBBS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK-wgYKdBVE) – It's a fun story of three students who join MBBS, later on become friends and have fun and hardships together.

**Movies:**

- [Contagion](https://www.amazon.com/Contagion-Marion-Cotillard/dp/B006IVBSBU) – This movie gave me chills and made me think what if Covid-19 is same sort of virus which is shown in the movie. This movie basically will help you relate to current state of Covid-19. A good watch.
- [Someone Great](https://www.netflix.com/in/title/80202920?source=35) – It's a story of a girl who was dumped by her boyfriend and to get over with that, she goes on fun with her two best friends, it's really a good fun movie.

## Will we make it?

So it's March 29, 11:55 and I just saw a tweet from [The Spectator Index](https://twitter.com/spectatorindex), for those who want to be in track of what's happening in the world and be updated about the latest in Covid-19 scene they must follow this account.

<div style="margin-top: 50px; margin-bottom: 50px;">
  <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">JUST IN: Worldwide coronavirus death toll reaches 30,000</p>&mdash; The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) <a href="https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1244144986481811458?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 29, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div>

The tweet says **over 30,000 people have died of Corona virus**. That's a huge number and the depressing thing is that we still don't have a vaccine for the virus. At the time of writing this, **there are a total of 665,164 confirmed cases of Covid-19 all over the world**. I don't know what is coming ahead of this but lets keep on doing the only thing we can do, wear masks when needed, keeping distance from people and stop going out until it's really needed.

Corona go!


On lockdown days and my favorite content

The Cosmic Label


![View from top of Sinhagad](/images/posts/sinhagad-first-trek/sinhagad-trek-9.jpeg)

Yesterday I asked Prithvi if we should do a trek to Sinhaghad. It's been a couple of times that we've planned to trek Sinhagad but this time, I really wanted to go. We made a plan to leave the next day(which is today) in the early morning.

I didn't know anything about the place and it was going to be an adventure for me, though Prithvi had trekked here couple of times so he knew most of the things. Initially our plan was to drive to the top and just roam around the fort area and come back, but then because of some reason the drive way was closed today and there was no option left apart from trekking. I was excited and nervous at the same time. We did light breakfast at the starting point and then left for the trek.


## The journey

![View from top of Sinhagad](/images/posts/sinhagad-first-trek/sinhagad-trek-7.jpeg)

It was 5 of us, Me, Prithvi, Shivang, Rohit and Shajin. Initially it was just plain rocks with not much ascent so that was pretty fine. I was feeling like I can make it just fine. Then came slightly more sloppy climbs which was fine too. It was slightly windy with sun still rising in the sky which I think was a good weather for the climbing. Throughout the trek there are divisions in the path and you can take either the easier one which usually is round path to go ahead or you can take the steepy one which will be a little harder to climb but it's going to be shortcut and you'll reach faster than the long route. Most of the time we had taken the shortcut route and it was adventurous. 

I was wearing normal slip-on sneakers which aren't meant for trekking, and they were slippery as there's no grip. But it was still not hard to climb apart from in the areas where there were small granules. It's hard to climb through plain slopes with small rocks and granules as it gets slippery. Till 3/4th of the trek it's pretty regular and difficulty level is easy, you just need to be hydrated. The last part of the trek is steepy and it takes just as much energy as it takes from coming halfway to the trek from the start. Though the trek is of around 1 hour as mentioned on couple of websites, we took around 2 hours to get to the top as we took some breaks in between.


![View from top of Sinhagad](/images/posts/sinhagad-first-trek/sinhagad-trek-11.jpeg)

We then sat at the top, did some rest and had some local dishes there. There are little eating places on the top which serve local food and the food is pretty good. We had kanda bhajia, the home made yogurt, taak(butter-milk). After having food, we went ahead to descend the trek. Going down was harder than climbing up, mostly because of my shoes which were slipping all the time. But I think I did just fine. It took us around an hour to come back to where we parked the car.

Here's some info of the trek we did.

<div class="stats-block">
  <div class="stat-block">
    <div class="stat-number">~2 hours</div>
    <div class="stat-text">Climb time</div>
  </div>
  <div class="stat-block">
    <div class="stat-number">~1 hour</div>
    <div class="stat-text">Descent Time</div>
  </div>
  <div class="stat-block">
    <div class="stat-number">4429 feet</div>
    <div class="stat-text">Height</div>
  </div>
</div>

## The experience

![View from top of Sinhagad](/images/posts/sinhagad-first-trek/sinhagad-trek-4.jpeg)

> It's crazy that you have to believe on the sturdiness of the rocks for your balance all the time while trekking. One wrong move and you can end up hurting yourself, along with the believe of trusting on the rocks for the support.


I was excited since the start even though I didn't knew we were about to trek. And once we came to know that the drive way was closed and we have to trek to reach the top, I got excited even more and was looking forward to know what actually a trek makes you feel. I was nervous too, because in the inital part of climbing the trek only I got tired a bit quickly, but after we took little breaks to keep up the energy, we did good. 


There were times when there were large rocks, you can climb them on your own too but it's better to be helped and have a hand to support you to jump up. That made me realize how important is team work in trekking even though it was a easy trek.

![View from top of Sinhagad](/images/posts/sinhagad-first-trek/sinhagad-trek-1.jpeg)
![View from top of Sinhagad](/images/posts/sinhagad-first-trek/sinhagad-trek-2.jpeg)
![View from top of Sinhagad](/images/posts/sinhagad-first-trek/sinhagad-trek-3.jpeg)
![View from top of Sinhagad](/images/posts/sinhagad-first-trek/sinhagad-trek-5.jpeg)
![View from top of Sinhagad](/images/posts/sinhagad-first-trek/sinhagad-trek-6.jpeg)
![View from top of Sinhagad](/images/posts/sinhagad-first-trek/sinhagad-trek-8.jpeg)
![View from top of Sinhagad](/images/posts/sinhagad-first-trek/sinhagad-trek-10.jpeg)
![View from top of Sinhagad](/images/posts/sinhagad-first-trek/sinhagad-trek-12.jpeg)


Sinhagad: My first ever trek

My Review of iOS 12


![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-blog-2018.jpg)

I went to Kathmandu for a 5 day trip and it's the first time I went out of India. I was too excited at Delhi Airport to see how immigration check works, didn't expect it to be quick. So the plan was to visit Kathmandu and then do a trek in Pokhara region, but plans don't work and I just travelled in Kathmandu. I don't know if I was expecting a lot or Kathmandu is just like that, but it's a totally different place from all the ones that I've seen till now.

I've been to Pashupatinath temple, Swoyambhu Stupa, Patan Darbar Square, Boudanath temple and Chandragiri Hills. Even after not being able to see the mountains from Chandragiri because smog, I had great time there. It was the first time I was in Cable car which I took to reach at the hill point. Also it was probably the highest I've been on earth. The view from the top was beautiful and serene.

> In one line, I would say Kathmandu or maybe the whole Nepal is a crazy mix of traditional and modern world.

There are lots of holy places and temples, there's a lot of nature and greenery but there are some aspects in which Kathmandu is meh, like the roads there are not well and there's lot of dust in almost every place. If you are vegeterian then you'll have very few places which are good for eating, and being honest I didn't like the food there, they don't use spices much I guess because at every place I ate the food was pretty plain. But every place is different and Kathmandu is a beauty in its own in terms of the traditions and in terms of the side of nature the place has to offer. 

Below are some of the photos that I took during the trip. All the photos are taken using iPhone 8 Plus, some are edited and some are right out of the Photos app.

![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-1.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-2.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-3.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-4.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-5.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-6.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-7.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-8.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-9.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-10.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-11.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-12.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-13.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-14.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-15.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-16.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-17.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-18.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-19.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-20.jpg)
![Kathmandu in Photos](/images/posts/kathmandu-photos/kathmandu-photo-21.jpg)

Kathmandu in Photos


![iOS 12 Wishlist](/images/posts/iOS-12-wishlist/rishis-iphone-8-plus.jpg)

A few weeks back I read rumors that iOS 12 is not going to be a major upgrade over iOS 11 and that got me not-so-interested in the upcoming update which Apple is going to unveil in WWDC 2018 which will be held in June. Good thing, those are just rumors and no one knows what's going to be in iOS 12.

I've been using iOS for couple years now and I feel there are lots of areas in which Apple can really enhance the usability in iOS. **Quick example**, Camera app is something everyone uses but not everyone's priority would be to open Camera app from the lock screen, someone who spends lots of time on WhatsApp might want to be able to access WhatsApp quickly from lock screen, or someone who writes might want to open Notes app, or someone who likes listening to music might want to access their favourite Music app from lock screen with a single swipe. Why isn't this easy option, to be able to set your favorite app accessible from lock screen customizable in iOS? There are many ways in which Apple can make the OS more easy and quicker to navigate.

Here are some of the areas in iOS which I think can be improved.

## Improved Notifications

Right now, the state of notifications in iOS is pretty much messed up. I totally agree with [Dieter](https://youtu.be/bHtkjHSB5Nw) that Android has better notification management and organization as compared to iOS. Here is how I want notifications in iOS 12.

- **Notifications Grouping** : Option to enable grouping of notifications from the same app
- **Notifications Priority** : One should be able to see notifications from selected apps on the top
- **Simple Navigation** : Right now, navigating through a notification is literally messed up, you can force-press to view options, swipe for other actions and tap to open the notification. Notifications shouldn't be this complicated. Being honest, even I don't know how it can be made simpler, but one thing is that there are two ways to view notification actions, one by force-press and other by swiping to left and tapping on "View". I think on swiping right, we can have just one option, **Customize**. Customization should include letting users set the priority of notifications from that app, muting or enable/disable grouping. In short, users should be able to directly set app's notification preference right from that particular notification.

![iOS 12 Wishlist](/images/posts/iOS-12-wishlist/notifications-concept.gif)

Above is a nice work by Eike showing how notifications grouping can be implemented. The UI, the animation, the spacing, the alignment, everything feels just right in the concept.

## Redesigned Home-screen

This is not just about the look and feel of the home screen which can use some re-design but also about the usability. I have iPhone 8 Plus and even after using it for months, I still don't like how big the screen is and how hard it is to use it using one hand. I would want to be able to arrange icons on the bottom of the screen where I can easily tap. There has to be some sort of customizability in the home screen so it is easy to reach and tap icons.

## Glide typing in Keyboard

I like stock keyboard and how it helps me in typing quickly. The emoji suggestions feature while typing is a great time-saver. The only thing I want in stock keyboard is glide/swipe typing just like other popular keyboards have, like Google's Gboard. That would make typing super fast.

## Quick Switching between apps

![How do I close all open apps at once?](/images/posts/iOS-12-wishlist/ios-11-app-switcher.png)


Right now, force swipe to right lets users switch to last app quickly. But I rarely use this feature because I find it hard to use. It doesn't work for me in the first time in most cases. Also because I find it little hard to take your right hand's thumb all the left of your phone's screen, press a little hard and swipe towards the right. Also if you have a case, then it gets harder to achieve this action. Most time I don't force press in the right position but I'm sure it's not just me. There should be a better and simple way of doing this. Maybe press and hold on edge would be better.

## Dark Mode

It's 2018 and there's still no dark mode in iOS. I hope to see Dark mode in iOS 12, not just for system apps but in a way that would switch dark mode in all apps as well. Also the ability to automatically toggle Dark mode on a set schedule or on Sunrise/Sunset would be cool.

## Incoming Call as Notification

Calls are important but when I'm using my phone, incoming calls should appear as a permanent notification on top or bottom and should not take the whole screen. When the screen is off or locked, then I'm fine if it takes the whole screen like in the current design.

## Ability to set default apps

I used to use NewtonMail for managing email. It's literally the best email app I've used till now. But it's also expensive. After I decided to move on from NewtonMail, I've been switching between email apps and till now, I've given my fair share of time to Google's Inbox, Astro, Polymail and Microsoft's Outlook which I'm currently using. 

The problem with using 3rd-party email client is that we can't set those as default apps. So when I tap on an email in some app, it'll always open default Mail app, and if you've disabled/removed the Mail app then it would ask you to install the Mail app. This is not how it should be, users should be able to set default apps not just for email, but also for Camera, Browser, Photos, Music etc.

## Pinned and Starred Messages

Right now, my phone has more than 700 unread SMSs, most of which is spam. So when I travel in train and when I need to show the Ticket Collector the reservation message or when I just want to refer to some important message, I have to open Messages app, search for some keyword related to that message and hope that that message would show up. I do that because it's even harder to just scroll through tons of spam to find that one message, and good luck if you miss it.

There has to be a feature to star or favorite messages so they can be accessed easily. Also pinning some threads on top would be a really useful feature for many.

## RAW shooting in stock Camera app

This is something I really want Apple to push in iOS 12. I didn't know the power of RAW until I started using Halide app to shoot some photos. It would really awesome if Apple adds RAW shooting in the stock Camera app.

## Misc

![iOS Volume HUD Concept](/images/posts/iOS-12-wishlist/volume-hud-concept.gif)

- **Customizable Vibrations** : I don't know why there's no option to disable vibrations for just 3d touch. If anyone wants to do that, they will have to disable vibrations from Accessibility. These are little things which need to customizable.
- **Customizable Sounds** : It would be nice to be able to set different notification tones for different apps from the system sounds.
- **Setting Wallpapers** : Why do I have to save an image and then set it as wallpaper from the Photos app, why can't I just open an image in Safari and set it as wallpaper directly from the browser or an app?
- **Toggles in Main Settings Screen** : It would be great to have a toggle for Wi-Fi, Mobile Data and other options right on the main Settings screen, just like we have for Airplane Mode and VPN. Tapping on the rest area of the row can be used to go to advanced options for that setting.
- **Close all apps** : Users should be able to close all open apps at once in multitasking view.

> I don't know what Apple is going to put in iOS 12, but one thing that I can say that Apple doesn't need to up the performance part much because I feel iOS is already snappy. It's just that it can be a lot stable and quicker to use.

I don't think the above features are too advanced to have, I see them as basics. One more thing I would want to see which is actually about the connectivity between Mac and iOS is to be able to initiate app installations on iPhone from App Store on the web, just like we can do in Android through Play Store on the web. Most of the apps I discover is while I'm browsing on my Mac, and what I do right now is save the app in my Raindrop list and then download it later in the night on my phone. Another cool feature would be to be able to unlock Mac from iPhone's Touch ID. But these would be complicated and that can be added later. I hope to see Apple adding some of the changes from my wish list in iOS 12.

iOS 12 Wishlist


How do you celebrate New Year? Well if you ask me, I would say that I just be at home with my family and we have good food and watch TV together and wish each other and sleep. But I wanted to end 2017 differently, I wanted to be at a different place, where I've never been, and I wanted to transition into the new year while sitting in a peaceful place seeing the fireworks. So I decided to go to Udaipur, the Venice of India. 

![One of the best shot from the trip, the place is Fateh Sagar](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-25.jpg)

I set my foots at the Udaipur Railway Station on December 16th. I had booked Moustache Hostel which is close to Lake Pichola in Udaipur. This was my first time in any hostel and after spending significant time in it, I feel the experience was great. I have seen things I've never seen before, both good and bad, sang in the bonfires, met new people from all around the world, shared stories and lived a hostel life for the time. 

## Places I've travelled

Unlike others, I travel a bit differently. Since I work remotely, I work on the weekdays and travel mostly on weekends. Before heading to the place, I had made a list of places to go and things to do in Udaipur and I've checked almost everything. Here's what I think of the places I've visited: 

- **Jagdish Temple**: Jagdish Temple has some nice carvings and artwork on the walls. 
- **City Palace**: It's like a big museum of old stuff, that's the only thing I want to say about this place.
- **Vintage Car Museum**: This place is overrated. Nothing worth seeing here. There are like 15 to 20 old cars and that's it. And the entry fee they charge for seeing those cars is 300 INR, good for car enthusiasts, meh for others.
- **Fateh Sagar Lake**: This is probably one of the best places in Udaipur. Sunset from this place is mesmerizing. The day I went to Fateh Sagar, my plan was to see Saheliyon-Ki-Bari after watching the sunset at Fateh Sagar, but it was so beautiful here that I ditched all the plans and just enjoyed solitude watching the shades of sky change from yellow to orange to red. Right in front of your eyes will be a beautiful lake, a layer of hills and sun setting behind those hills. It's magical.
- **Dance show at Bagore-Ki-Haveli**: This was not on my list and one of the hostel mates took me here. This was unexpectedly good. Various groups dance in different Rajasthani forms and they also do a puppet show, it was one good refreshing hour here. They call it Dharohar.
- **Shilpgram**: Shilpgram is fair sort of place where you'll find lots of shops for crafts of all kinds. There's a place in Shilpgram where they have really good paintings from local artists.
- **Dudh Talai**: Dudh Talai is a small pond adjacent to Lake Pichola. It's actually Karni Mata temple where I went and it's like 20 minutes uphill. The sunset from this place is top-notch. You get to see half of the city, Dudh Talai pond, the Lake Pichola and hills on the opposite side. 
- **Badi Lake**: I had expectations from this place and guess what? I should've researched before visiting this place. We took an auto to this place and the auto guy dropped us at Badi lake, but in the photos that we had seen, that wasn't the place we wanted to be at at Badi Lake. We were expecting to be at a hilly place somewhere close to the lake and to watch the sunset from there. We even went ahead and walked like 3kms ahead to see if we can find the place. We couldn't find the place but made memories, which is even better.
- **Gangaur Ghat**: Gangaur Ghat is a small ghat at Lake Pichola. A good place to sit and enjoy peace.
- **Ambrai Ghat**: Ambrai Ghat is my favorite place in Udaipur. It's a good place to come and just sit and chill. There's nothing more than a serene view at this Ghat, but there's still something special about this place. And this is the place I was at in the New Year night, watching fireworks happening in the sky. I wished New Year to someone 2 minutes earlier, Happy New Year someone.

## Experiences

> Udaipur is a city of art, scenes and sunsets. It's a good place to talk to yourself, enjoy the solitude and think about life.

Apart from traveling, it was good to be in the hostel and to meet different people and learn from them. I remember meeting a guy from Pakistan on my first day, talking to a girl from Germany, another one from Iceland, two girls from Ahmedabad who came there for a documentary, [Tim](https://www.instagram.com/timvk.travelphotography/) from the Netherlands who takes amazing photos, a guy from Delhi, another one from Mumbai. It was my first time enjoying bonfires and I'm pretty sure I'll miss the rooftop of the hostel. The view of Lake Pichola from Ambrai ghat, the food at [Gangaur restaurant](https://www.tripadvisor.in/Restaurant_Review-g297672-d1574545-Reviews-Hotel_Gangaur_Palace_Roof_Top_Restaurant-Udaipur_Udaipur_District_Rajasthan.html), the coffee I used to have at [Mewar Foodies](https://www.tripadvisor.in/Restaurant_Review-g297672-d13206317-Reviews-Mewar_Foodies_Restaurant-Udaipur_Udaipur_District_Rajasthan.html) at Ambrai Ghat, the sunset at Fateh Sagar, that someone. Yeah, I'm going to miss all these and the moments I made.

Here are some stats from the trip:

<div class="stats-block">
  <div class="stat-block">
    <div class="stat-number">17 Days</div>
    <div class="stat-text">16th to 01 Jan</div>
  </div>
  <div class="stat-block">
    <div class="stat-number">130+ kms</div>
    <div class="stat-text">Walked</div>
  </div>
  <div class="stat-block">
    <div class="stat-number">2000+</div>
    <div class="stat-text">Photos Taken</div>
  </div>
</div>

And the best thing, made tons of awesome memories.

## Udaipur in Photos

No trip is complete without taking photos. People do it for their reasons, I do it to remind myself that I was at this place once and this awesome view was right in front of my eyes. So here they're, some selected shots from the trip. Enjoy and do share the post if you like them.

![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-1.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-2.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-3.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-4.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-5.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-6.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-7.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-8.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-9.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-10.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-11.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-12.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-13.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-14.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-15.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-16.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-17.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-18.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-19.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-20.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-21.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-22.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-23.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-24.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-25.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-26.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-27.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-28.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-29.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-30.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-31.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-32.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-33.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-34.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-35.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-36.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-37.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-38.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-39.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-40.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-41.jpg)
![Udaipur Photo](/images/posts/udaipur-2017/photo-42.jpg)

Udaipur Travel Blog

Interview at Hello Remote Life


We were roaming at Agrassen Ki Baoli in Delhi and were taking photos at the not-so-haunting place. We took some shots and went down the stairs to explore the place and take some more shots. The next moment I saw my phone slipping from the hands and it dropped on the stairs. I was hoping for nothing major. My friend took it up, checked the screen and then quickly turned it around with a “Oh Shit” expression. We checked the phone and on the screen, I could see the cracks from the left of the screen going all the way to the center of the screen. 

That was the last time I saw my iPhone 6 at its best. I thought to get it repaired but fast forward two weeks, I was deciding whether to get iPhone 8 Plus or Google Pixel 2. I went with 8 Plus because of iOS. I feel the iOS ecosystem is very well sorted, it works well with MacBooks and the overall experience is top notch which is what matters the most to me. I used an Android phone a few minutes back, tapped on a WhatsApp notification but it didn’t open the app, so it seems Android is just as it was when I used it last time, miserable. 

![This was one of the last shots I took from my iPhone 6](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/iphone-8-plus-unboxing.jpg)

## Thoughts on iPhone 8 Plus Camera

I’ve been using iPhone 8 Plus since last few weeks now and talking about the camera, the picture quality is literally amazing and is on par with professional cameras if we ignore the portrait mode. Photos come crispy and with lots of details. Sometimes to add proper exposure to the subject, the camera over-exposes other parts of the photo which most times looks fine. Support for RAW is very useful but unfortunately, iOS stock camera app doesn't support RAW capture. It would be great to have RAW support in stock camera app. Apart from that, I found the telephoto lens to be very useful.

**Portrait mode —** It works well when you take the shot properly, but you just can’t point your phone and take the shot and expect a good portrait shot. After taking tons of portrait photos, I’ve found that it works best when the lighting is good, the object is a person and is well separated from the background and is at right distance from the phone. It takes some time to get a good portrait shot and you have to position the object well. 

## Gallery

I recently came back from a trip to Patna where I took tons of photos from iPhone 8 Plus's camera and being honest, I’m really impressed with the quality of photos it captures. Here are some selected shots from the trip. Most of these photos are shot with stock camera app, some with [Halide](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/halide-raw-manual-camera/id885697368?mt=8&at=1l3v6DZ). Also please note that these photos are edited and processed in VSCO Cam app. 

![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-1.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-2.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-3.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-4.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-5.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-6.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-7.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-8.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-9.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-10.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-11.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-12.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-13.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-14.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-15.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-16.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-17.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-18.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-19.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-20.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-21.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-22.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-23.jpg)
![Some place in Patna](/images/posts/8-plus-shots/photo-24.jpg)


Shot on iPhone 8 Plus



![Rishi Mohan](/images/posts/rishi.jpg)


Hola! I am Rishi Mohan, I like designing beautiful interfaces for web and mobile. I work as UI Engineer at [BigBinary](http://bigbinary.com) in day, in night I create things like [these](/projects/), listen to music, or read Quora.  You can [read more about me here](/about/).

## What this blog is about

This blog is something I've always wanted to have and I was thinking about it since long. It's been a long time since I have been actively following blogs like [Austin Mann](http://austinmann.com/), [Daring Fireball](http://daringfireball.net/), [Paul Stamatiou](https://paulstamatiou.com/), [The Loop](http://www.loopinsight.com/) etc. and one thing that I have learned from these blogs is the fact that **self branding is very important**, specially for someone who creates digital products. No matter if you create websites or do photography or run a shop, **if you exist on web then you need to brand yourself first**  to successfully promote any of your work. And I think the best way to go about it is by creating a personal website which shows all your work/products in one place, which is why I created this website. 

The other reason is I like writing, not as much as reading, but writing is something I definitely want to do more often. I feel it's hard to express your thoughts verbally and it's even harder to just write it down in a way that correctly represent your thoughts.

> To sum it up, if I find it interesting, it's most likely to end up on this blog.

So apart from sharing projects I work on and the crazy challenges I take, this blog is also about everything that interests me, from writing my travel stories to reviewing gear to the interesting links I find on web to the products I like. 

## Miscellany

**Setup:** The blog is running on Jekyll and hosted on Gitlab pages, thanks to my colleague, [Prathamesh](https://twitter.com/_cha1tanya) for this tip that we can setup it with a private repo on Gitlab. I've previously used Google's Blogger platform, WordPress, Tumblr etc. but after learning how Jekyll works and how easy it is to customize everything while working on [BigBinary blog](http://blog.bigbinary.com/), I really wanted to get started with Jekyll and I'm loving it.

**Design:** The website is still in early phase and there's a lot that needs to be done. I like to keep the design minimal and optimize it for better content visibility/readability. After trying lots of font combinations for better reading experience, I went with [Overpass](https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Overpass), a font that I recently discovered. Apart from that, I've a lot of ideas and you'll be seeing what those are very soon. 

**Bug Reporting/Suggestions:** If you discover any UI/functionality bug or have any kind of feedback regarding any of my work then please [let me know](mailto:hi@rishimohan.me).

And yeah, stay tuned for lots of photo blogs and awesome content.

Hello World!

<p><img src="/images/posts/daskrad-year-1.png" alt="DaSkrad Year 1 - Rishi Mohan"></p>
<p>I remember I was in Reykjavik in Iceland last year this same time.
I had to register a company so I could transfer Pika’s Stripe account which was a
Sole Proprietor account in India, to a registered company Stripe account</p>
<p>Pika had crossed annual earnings for a Sole Proprietor business,
and so I had to register a company and move Pika under it</p>
<p>I then quickly registed DaSkrad, I had also started building <a href="https://orshot.com">Orshot</a>
around the same time, which already started under DaSkrad</p>
<p>It’s been 1 year now building and growing Orshot</p>
<p><strong>Orshot recently crossed <a href="https://orshot.com/open">$5k in monthly recurring revenue</a></strong>,
which is a big milestone for the company</p>
<p>We have 100+ customers, including some big ones</p>
<p>The platform has evolved a lot and has come a long long way.
From just being an API service to an infrastructure,
Orshot’s direction has taken good turns</p>
<p>Orshot is my first SaaS which has crossed 5k, and fastest.
I’m glad I took the hard path of building it full-time instead of getting a job 😅</p>
