Well, I love history, getting to hear and learn about what kind of personalities were around, what kind of civil society used to exist, what kind of laws were there and so on

I had watched 2 seasons of Roman Empire, a series I just loved.

Ref:  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6233538/

I just realised Netflix has 3rd season also available for the same, so I started watching it in the evening.

During this, my mind kind of got swayed into thinking how frugal, how small is the role of every human or every animal here.

Emperors blinded by their lust for power, authority ignore what is good for their citizens, but get involved in petty things for their own sake only.

This is what was happening 2000 years ago, and is the scenario any different today? Politics has always stayed dirty and the cheap tricks to push down dissent and freedom of speech have always been there.

Brutus had to kill Caesar to protect the republic of Rome, but it infact led to the making of Roman Empire.

It seems like Brutus knew what would be the right thing for the citizens of Rome, but the citizens never knew that: what an irony.

I remember when I had read about the incident in my school about where senators kill Caesar, I had felt like Brutus was a ditcher, how could he? Now seeing the plays of the world, understanding importance of freedom, I feel what a great sacrifice Brutus gave!

The crisis I am now left with is to think if the world is going towards peace, more freedom, is nothing ever going to matter?

Nevertheless, all I know is do your best efforts with the best intentions, leave everything else aside.

This cleanup was long coming, and has been completed now.

I have been writing blogs, articles from 2010 onwards, but that blog was hosted on BlogSpot, and due to clutter there, I had eventually created another BlogSpot blog back then, as creating and keeping a blog online used to be free, and I didn't want to spend on hosting my own personal blog so far for various reasons.

I just recently started feeling that writing down your thoughts is a good thing: you get to reference your clarity of thoughts in past whenever needed.

Although, I MUST WARN you:

A few articles from old times would make you laugh only, but I kept them un-edited as that is how I used to be in the past. No matter what, that was also me, even if it is stupid :)

Now that this consolidation has happened, and it is 28 Oct 2020, I'm hoping to be regular at expressing my thoughts here soon.

Happy to announce the release of a feature that enables Zactar to understand your banking transactions on a real-time basis.

In your journey to save more towards your goals, the main ingredient is keeping an eye on your expenses, in real-time. Imagine a friend who is always aware of how much you have already spent in a week, or month, and can use that information to personalise recommendations for you on how to go about your goals?

How Goblin works?

Whenever a user does a financial transaction, the bank sends an SMS/email to inform the user. If the user lets Zactar's Goblin get access to those emails, auto-tracking of expenses is all set to work!

The power about which emails / banks Goblin can read stays under your control 100% of the time. What is accessible is always on you: you create a filter for a bank(say "Example" bank), then set up auto-forwarding for emails with the filter to thegoblin@zactar.com. That's it, now whenever you do a transaction via your "Example" bank's debit/credit card and email is received by your Gmail account, the same gets forwarded to your own Goblin sitting in Zactar headquarters.

No, Goblin isn't a human, it is a software that automagically does accounting for you. No humans will be looking into your info, until and unless you give your permission to do the same. Privacy in such matter is of highest importance, and Zactar will always stand by it. We understand the importance of privacy, and you will always see Zactar in your side about it.

Why the name "Goblin"?

Well, from what we have read and seen, Goblins love talking and seeing money, it keeps them energetic! They will always keep an eye out on every penny they can look out for.

So.. erm, why not Goblin?

Set up Goblin for your Zactar account:

In case you're wondering how you can set up filter for a bank and forward those emails to Goblin, kindly follow the instructions here:

Set Gmail Filters and Auto-Forwarding to thegoblin@zactar.com.

PS: Please make sure the email linked with your Zactar account is verified! Else Goblin would ignore emails forwarded from your account, for privacy reasons.

Any questions, concerns, or feedbacks are welcome at harkirat@zactar.com!

No matter what you do, if the "why" is strong and clear, the journey will most likely be fuelled by passion. Lo-and-behold, same holds true about Zactar.com.

One never knows where the journey of Zactar may lead to, hence I wanted to start this journal by documenting the "why" of Zactar. You see, this "why" holds power over how much intense, how much passionate, and what kind of determination will be shown into making personal finance simpler, accessible and empowering for a common person.

This "why" should be strong enough to guide you through turbulences, dilemmas and help you in making decisions in future. If you ever feel lost during the journey, this should hold you strong like an anchor.

Coming back to Zactar's "why", it is about encouraging and helping users maintain a healthy financial life. No, Zactar's end-goal is not to make you super rich, not like that. But the goal is to not let you touch rock-bottom because of poor management, and help you put a laser-focus on the goals you want to achieve.

There are millions of experts world-wide working for the rich, helping them get richer. Zactar is very small to bring a path-breaking impact in there.

Then there are other experts who do consulting for finances of a common man, generally post the age of 30 or 35. This system is also serving the needs of their customers well I believe. If it is not, we will find out in future.

So the target segment that is on its own is the people who are < 30. This is the age group that starts earning, starts setting goals, and starts planning about saving for those goals. Some succeed, others postpone the goals, and sadly a few abandon those goals. The main problem here is a lack of proper planning and execution.

If the original planning included surprise expenses, saving the saved amounts in an FD, maintaining an emergency fund, and not directly jumping into the stock markets right when you started earning, who knows how well the original plan would have worked?

Other institutions and apps are there, but all known to me have a bias towards milking the customer. The currently available services want you to take loans, or to get involved in stock markets without thinking about your own financial status.

If a user has just started earning, his/her first priority should be to maintain an emergency fund, not trading in stocks. Many people in the 20-30 age group do not prioritise where their money should go, and they end up with plans that didn't "work" with helping them achieve the goals.

Hence, Zactar must step up the game and hand-hold the users in this age group towards better financial health. There will never be a pure selfish interest in suggestions by Zactar. It will never ask you to invest in mutual funds, until you have an emergency fund. It will push you to save for your monthly goal (eventually a long-term goal), if it seems like you are going to miss it. It will nudge you to save more for yourself with minimal risks, instead of bugging you with investing that amount in a high risk trade. It will grow with you, as per your needs and financial health, and dedicate it's life to fulfil your needs :)

This is the "why" of Zactar.

If you have any suggestions, comments, questions, or criticisms, please direct them at harkirat1892@gmail.com (Updated 28 Oct 2020: Earlier, it was my Zactar email). I will be happy to engage, ALWAYS.

Just an attempt, at writing a poem.

Dedicated to everyone who fight battles "unknown" to most.

Evil evil everywhere,

not a Hero to cling,

the one who is powerful beyond measure,

the one who won't ever give up to protect the world's treasure!

Then one fine evening I saw you,

the one fighting through the evil forces,

and maintaining your integrity,

you being 'yourself', despite the forces surrounding you,

forcing you to give up on being your true self!

I kept watching in awe,

wondering what's gonna happen,

for they were in dozens, closing on you,

and you were there, just the One!

I saw the evils getting you on your knees,

marking their descend,

my heartbeat made a loud thud,

seeing the cruel end!

There I was standing,

watching you from my invincible fort,

the fort I had always lived in,

the fort I always thought represented the world!

That's when I saw your eyes,

for all the charm they were spreading,

yes, the fight had brought you down on your knees,

but it could not stop your dreams for where they were heading!

Deep down your eyes were tired,

from fighting the demons from so long,

but in there were dreams, hope and love,

playing The Bumblebee's song!

The forces had you set on fire,

now my mind was playing the same song,

I screamed the song hoping I would reach you,

but boy, the fire didn't take so long!

There you were, all ashes,

leaving me alone with the song,

now I was the one bearing the torch,

of your dreams and love for the world in that song!

The song sang about freedom,

it was about love for one and all,

from the clutches of all the evil,

that we needed to fight in the world!

Holding the torch with both hands,

I ran towards the ashes out of the fort,

a tear from my eyes dropped,

on what were the ashes, and now just your thoughts!

Like a Phoenix from the ashes,

I saw you rise,

and there in one instant you won over the forces,

with all your might!

The evils vowed to come back,

to slaughter everyone around,

but now you weren't alone to fight them,

for there were two with the song,

oh yes, there were now two with the song!

Yes, I wish "No Phone Person" could rhyme with "wallflower", I sincerely do. But then not having something rhyme is at least better than having broken up your phone while on an "adventure" with friends in the lower Himalayas, and that too at 12am! It was definitely a fair enough reason to be sad about, but I still remember how I was laughing with my friends just moments after we all had finished with our rescue operation to find the battery, cover and the main body of the phone using flashlights in the dark!

Like a fallen soldier, there was the knight in white lying in the dark, and it just had nothing to show to me after that. It just stopped talking to me. The screen was shattered because of hitting the rocks and my friends were confused whether to start laughing right then or wait for some more time (kyunki har ek friend kamina hota hai). Their confusion was solved when they joined me in the laugh. Yes my darling Note 2, the knight in white was broken, but the incidents which led to the fall had made me laugh.

11pm of that "fateful" night (3 April, 2014), we had planned a random dare of going towards Kasauli in Himachal from Chandigarh, the city we were living in since the past few months. The challenge was to face the cold blows of the hills, yup, on bikes! Very soon inside Himachal along the road, I had a bet with a friend that there is a railway track on our left, which was about 10-20 feet higher than the road. He disagreed. We both walked up there, found the track, rejoiced a little, but while coming down, my left foot got stuck in a cable lying there, and the next thing I know is that I was down on the rocky slope. The Note 2 which was aiding me with its flashlight was down somewhere. Rescue operation was launched (definitely for the phone!), and you know the rest of the story which started with the laughter with a pinch of body pain! We returned back to Chandigarh after sitting in a Dhaba just opposite the site by 2am. Amidst all this, little did I know the freedom I was going to feel in the days to follow.

With no backup phone with me in Chandigarh, I decided to stay without one as I was soon going to visit Patiala, my home. May be, the fallen knight might have also felt a bit better seeing my faithfulness towards it.

The first few hours the next day were really the toughest, although I was still at peace with the past (Whatever happens, happens for the best). I was still exchanging laughs and smiles with the past, whenever someone brought up the issue. Amidst all this, my mind was still looking for alerts saying "Chief, your troops are ready for battle!" (Clash of Clans), and needless to say, WhatsApp and FB messages. I called home and told my parents that my phone is "no more" because of a "fall", and I am phone-free for the next few days. At the end of the day, I really felt a sense of freedom, a sense of being at peace. Although I am not much of a calls and messages guy, the feelings at the end of the first day were just so great! I just felt like I just got myself out of a web, in which every one of us is trapped, without even being aware about it! I will call this the moment of "Phone Enlightenment - Phase I". No more did I feel bound to attend calls, respond to texts and fight battles the very instant my army was ready in COC (although now I was taking care of the morale of my troops via Bluestacks in laptop ;) on a day-to-day basis).

The next day, I realised the balance that one must maintain with the use of phones. The "Phone Enlightenment - Phase II" was there and let me summarize what it taught:

• Vatsa (disciple), a phone is a tool supposed to be used when required, not to let it use you whenever it requires you to.
• The most basic function of the yantra (tool) is to let you communicate what is required, not chatting for hours when you can easily meet the loved one (or the bitter one) for real, on this planet itself. Real communications happen offline!
• It is always good to have the power to do things on the go! But with great power, comes great responsibility. Handle it responsibly.
• There's so much more happening around you: a dog wagging his tail constantly at you, a kid smiling at you, or the summer Sun looking at you (or a beautiful girl walking by ;-) ), while all your mind is thinking about is what #HashTags to put in describing the hot weather.
• Live the moment! There's so much to do, to learn and to feel in the moment.

Last but not the least, I won't be doing justice to the article if I don't thank Saif Khan, whose article Project Offline which I read an hour ago inspired me to write my own experience and share the lessons I learnt. Afterall, sharing is caring!

If you're wondering if there was any "Phone Enlightenment - Phase III", kindly allow me to tell what it taught:
"No Knight Falls Without A Purpose. The Fall Always Gives Back Something Exceptionally Unique!"


A post dedicated to The Fallen Knight.

Yayyyy! I left an awesome job in Mumbai to start a startup on the night of 18th October 2014, and  today here I am thinking about what to do, and what not to about it. I don't know whether this is normal for every startup before it's first version or not, but I'm worried a lot about the first impression! What if the first impression makes users mark the product as one of the most useless sites ever visited? Ohh man! (In Joey's voice from Friends) That stain will be hard to remove from the minds. Re-build? Oh yeah I will, but what if someone else builds upon the experiment in a better and faster way? Ohh man! (Yeah, you got the voice)

Ok, whenever in trouble, always listen to the kid inside you! That's what I believe in, even though I know it sounds silly (winks). I have just noticed many times that children always give the most awesome answer (Ok, not always, but let me believe that thing!).

Let's weigh my options, possible outcomes and then decide what to do, and what not to.


Option 1:
Quit the idea, and apply for a job somewhere! Go easy way man! Promotions, guaranteed salaries, and what not? No tensions, no worries, nothing to fail about, nothing much to be tense about! Everything will be fine. Just activate your Zen mode O:)

The kid's verdict:
No way dude! What were you saying the day you had founded your first startup DreamingKnights.com? What were the Knights dreaming about at that time? You wanna let them down? The Knights were dreaming about battlefields to conquer, they were dreaming to change the world forever! Yeah, they were dreaming to make a dent in the universe! They were ready to take any challenge head-on! Right? You had promised the Knights in your mind to never let them down and keep fighting no matter what it takes!
As a result, you had promised yourself that you will only work: for an exciting startup, or for your own startup.


Option 2:
The idea won't work? Fight! Users won't like your first version? Fight to awesomeness! You will fail? Fight harder not to fail the NEXT time! Fail hard, Rise up harder than that!

The kid's verdict:
I just remembered this: "Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up!"

The plus points of this option?
1. An awesome life full of adventures!
2. Lots of failures, and lessons to pick yourself up again and again only to rise stronger!
3. Lots of ups and downs to tell my grandkids about. ("Oh man" moment!)
4. Rise and rise again, and again!
5. An attempt at making a dent in the Universe!

The negatives in this option?
1. Regret - Why didn't I just take the first step in Nov 2014 when I had the chance? I had left a job only for this, and still? I had left and came all the way back from Mumbai for a reason right? So I should have fought for it!
2. A normal day to day life. (Yup, that's a negative for me. I hate the "normal".)
3. Not trying.

...
(Sighs)

Location: Patiala, Punjab

Aahh! The question what is life has always kept me puzzling, and it still does! What is it exactly? Just a bunch of living organisms on a planet left to take care of themselves while they are alive? What is their purpose? Who left them? Who created them? What are they doing by their existences?
Ok, I know these questions are enough to make a brain explode, but still, WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?

Religious people say we are here to get to God, to do good to every other being and be good in the end. Others say we are here to just enjoy whatever comes up and not worry about the thing called purpose. Whatever be the view of people, the question of our purpose on Earth still keeps ringing bells in my head, a sound-less bell. It just makes me feel de-motivated, to give up on everything and just lay idle because whatever my purpose is, I'm automatically supposed to get there and finish it right? Why should I go after the so called "purpose"? Why? I'm still searching for this question.
Meanwhile, this is just a thought that comes to my mind many times, and the only answer to silence it is staying quiet, mentally, as A Peaceful Warrior movie has taught.

Oh, if you haven't seen that movie, it is a must watch! Go man go see it first then read the remaining post! Go go go!

Anyway, if you're still reading, let me write more of my random thoughts.

Whenever in a dilemma about my purpose in life and things like that, I just think about the only purpose that everyone should have: to bring peace and joy in everyone else's lives, to make the world a peaceful place, with no borders, no discrimination, just harmony. Even if the world seems without purpose to me, if one can bring joy to anyone, there's nothing like that! If you can make people happy, there's nothing like it! If you can make people genuinely smile, simply nothing like that! :)

So I'm going ahead, once again, with a smile on my face and a hope in my heart that I will succeed in doing this to the world. Hatred never does any good, love for all living beings does!

Good night time. Aah! 2am!

Having got bitten by the entrepreneurship bug, I keep visiting and checking out many startups online. Many times, I found out that there are many startups which have a great potential, but they are yet to get media exposure! A startup's one of most critical needs are getting popularity. No matter how great your product is, if only a few people know about it, its going to be a real headache to let the common people know about it. Hence, a platform for startups is all that is needed! That started a storm inside my mind!

An awesome team was all that was needed. My old/gold friend Vaishali Sharma, a BMM graduate from Mumbai University became the first person to whom I talked about this, and there we got the Chief Editor and CEO for our very own platform for entrepreneurs, which we named Startoholics.in. Probably, the name signifies addiction with startups, that's what we assumed! Thus, we started our journey of writing inspiring startup stories primarily about Indian entrepreneurs on 28th June 2013. Website work followed by some inspiring stories about startups brought us to the race track. The thrill was yet to begin, and there we got Divya Nambiar, another BMM graduate with an awesome view of the world, on our ship as our COO (Chief Operating Officer) today. With the great team members we have, we're all set to go on a long trip of penning down inspiring stories of Indian startups and entrepreneurs, whether already explored or unexplored by media.

I as always welcome your feedback about the website, as it matters to us! :)

The Awesomeness Begins Now! ;)

PS: Imported from my old BlogSpot on 28 Oct 2020