Hi, I am Vaibhav Jain, an enthusiastic learner, cyclist and writer; basically, from Delhi and settled in Bangalore, working with a prestigious pharmaceutical company for the European market. On the qualification front, I completed my MBA from IMT and my Diploma in international marketing from NMIMS. My evergreen passion is to explore my unearthed potential with every new day and try to develop an updated version of myself, slow but steady. In the last couple of years, I have moved to spirituality, which drastically fueled me with immense pleasure and peace and got me closer to that divine power with every passing moment. This incarnation enlightened me with the wisdom of looking inside for solutions and peace instead of searching in this materialistic world. The equanimity within the mind, body, and soul has been instrumental in discovering the real me, and I obtained the real meaning of happiness.
After establishing a connection with divine power, I started working on the things that were seeded way back in my subconscious mind, but because of the uncontrollable traffic of irrelevant thoughts, I could not get clarity. Way back in 2001, when I developed a divine connection with books, starting with fiction, Biographies, Self-help, and mythological, a desire to write a book developed in my subconscious mind, but “what to write” and “how to write” were a few questions that have never been answered. I never had clarity on the topic, either. Neither was I an expert on any topic, nor did I have any unique experience to pen down. I had the impression that to be an author or writer, one must possess expertise and immense knowledge. So, with this mindset, I diverted myself on the never-ending road of developing myself in any random direction. I always had a philosophy of moving forward in one direction, even when the path is unclear. I believe the path will get clearer only when you move forward, and with this thought, I kept reading and developing for the author in the future.
God always rewards faith and patience. Similarly, I received rewards when I became a father, and my son turned four years old. Keeping the suppressed desire to be an author, I started narrating him bed stories from books. Initially, the intention was to keep him away from electronic devices and develop a strong bond between father and son, but unconsciously, this exercise became mandatory. Instinctively, my son developed a habit of listening to only my stories. Finding no other option and feeling ultimate love in his quite stubbornness, I could not find any reason to deny his ask. Now, the situation was until he would not listen to a story, he would not sleep. In multiple instances, when I became late to come back from the office or on any other occasion when I was not with him, he started having difficulties sleeping without listening to the story. At the same time, he developed tendencies that no story must repeat. He immediately would reject the story if he had listened to it earlier. I had to think creatively and knit a new story daily to meet this condition. But consciously, I also did not restrain his desire; that was pleasurable and relaxing to me, too. After the entire tiresome day, the moment I lay down next to my son and read him the story, we fell asleep within a few moments.
As he grew older and turned five, he started attending preschool, where he was exposed to a real-world dimension. He witnessed innumerable new things, activities, people, and environments. Every day, he came back with new queries and curiosity, and my established habit played a pivotal role in helping him understand and disseminate new learning and moral values. He could absorb any new thing or message through this bedtime story. I have woven these two aspects into one thread and started reading his moral story. Whatever the message and learning I want to disseminate to him, I would knit a story based on that topic and read it to him.
I had designed a fictitious character for him named “Dumbo”. And almost all my stories revolved around Dumbo in imaginary or real situations. There were plenty of cases when he made some mischief, and after reaching home, his mother, Vani Jain, called me into the office to brief him about the mischief he did in school. I used to instruct him not to scold or punish him categorically. My strategy was to make him realise his mistake; stories helped me drastically. I used to knit a story on a similar plot and read him the story on the same situation, where Dumbo faced the situation (which used to be the actual situation of his school/home) and how he should have reacted/behaved in that situation ideally. Within no time, he would realise that he had also faced a similar situation, but how wrongly he had reacted. Automatically, he would realise his mistake and promise me not to repeat this. This phase of my life continued when my second 5-year-old son insisted I recite the new story that was a real-life story, and one day after completing my MLD-10, I still cooked new stories daily. After my story, he will only sleep. Developing new stories daily was demanding and hectic, but hidden pleasure in this pain established a lovable bond among us. Not only this, but kids also keep away from mobile phones and TV and learn new moral lessons.
Rewinding to the era of pre-MLD, when I used to recite stories to my first kid, I unknowingly set the stage for a new era of my life. As Duggu, my son, used to listen to new stories daily, I had to cook something new. Otherwise, he would reject the story then and there, and it would be pretty challenging to develop a new story every night after the tedious day. To overcome this challenge, I started noting down the ideas and plot of the story on my mobile notepad. While travelling to the office, when mind and body used to be comparatively fresh, I would consider a situation and broadly mention a few bullet points about the story. This initiative fetched me the desirable results. Now, I would not stretch my head during nighttime to cook a new story. It was as easy as opening my mobile and serving a freshly cooked story just before falling asleep. Unintentionally, this practice drove me into a new world when, at any given point in time, I would have stories stock for at least the next 4-5 days. I used to recite moral stories based on real-life scenarios with the fictitious character Dumbo, and how he should have, ideally, responded to that situation was the purpose of the whole exercise.
The new phase of this journey evolved when lockdown came into life, and I shifted to a new company where I was supposed to work with European countries with time zone differences of around four hours. I had the privilege to work from home, starting around noon as per the Indian clock, till late evening. On top of that, the workflow used to be comparably less because of the lockdown. So, destiny blessed me with sufficient time to explore something new. I utilised all my available time in the best manner, like learning new soft skills, taking multiple short courses, and gaining expertise in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and sometimes Netflix. Pallarly, the practice of noting down and reciting the story has been going on in an advanced way. I started noting down the story’s idea on the big screen of a laptop instead of a mobile. Within a few months, I had many multiple-story ideas in a few lines.
Over a period, these two aspects of my life got married with my suppressed and inhabitant desire to be an Author. And then, one fine day, I thought of penning down the stories only for Duggu. The initial phase of this Author’s journey started from scratch. The moral stories highlight what I used to write on a notepad on the paper. I commenced structuring my thoughts on paper and started giving the story shape, end to end. Initially, there was no fixed format for my stories. I wrote about random thoughts like animals, horror, jungle, and magic. There was no connection between any of my stories. Stories are completed in isolation. Not only this, I started writing on one of the topics on parenthood, which pathetically fell short of content. No sooner did I realise that something was missing. There was no fixed and comprehensive structure, and I felt like I was writing on every topic, so I lost focus. The key to my success was continuity, willingly or non-willingly; whether I had the content or not, I always used to write. It doesn’t matter what, but I never allow my fingers and mind not to think like a writer.
When you sincerely desire something, the entire universe starts supporting you. This is a very general saying, but on that day, I felt the magic of these lines. After the struggle of almost a month, one day, when I was partying with my friends, I told the group that I had started writing stories for kids. In response, one of my friends asked about the source of my story content. Then I randomly replied, “Everything I wrote is for my Kid. What infatuates, enlightens and educates him. He is the centre of all my stories.” Then, the discussion navigated in some other random direction, but my answer kept echoing. Today, after completing MLD-10 and being a one-time Amazon bestseller, I sensed that the answer was not from my conscious mind but from the divine power of the universe that blessed me with a fantastic idea. That simple answer directed me to a new era. After that moment, my thinking process changed completely, and I wondered, “Why can’t I write a story for Duggu where only Duggu will be the Hero?” This question from my subconscious mind cleared almost all my dilemmas; everything was absolutely clear about my books: content, plot, theme and pattern.
After gaining this clarity, there was no ambiguity about my books. Within no time, I finalised the book’s name, MLD-Moral Land of Duggu, as the umbrella title under which other titles would evolve. It’s a famous saying that dreams are only dreams without action. Now, it was the time to execute the thoughts into action. From the content point of view, I referred to my repository of notes on a mobile notepad about the stories and started writing stories for typical kids. My target was the kids as old as Duggu, only 8-10 years old. I kept them in mind and picked the incident from Duggu’s life. I developed a character named Duggu with the feature of a real Duggu. More than a writer, I started writing like a father preaching to his son. Honestly, from a content point of view, it was not at all a challenging task to write when I wore a hat of my father rather than a writer. But the challenge was the continuity. Though I had enough time to write, the regular disturbance from family members, kids, and the office distracted me. I learnt that initiating a story takes around 30 minutes to de-focus from the outer world and go deep into the imaginary world. This means when you sit to write, it takes around 30 mins to disconnect with the outer thought, and after 30 mins, your mind will start throwing the best ideas and thoughts. However, this de-focus time will reduce after regular practice. The solution came from my marketing experience when I recalled my manager’s statement. She recited a statement regularly: “The most creative idea comes in the morning when the mind is less cluttered.” And I started following her words. After completing my daily morning routine, I would catch a most silent place in the house, and before beginning office hours, I would complete around 500 words daily. This strategy fetched me unprecedented results, and after some struggle, most things were in line. My speed of writing kept increasing. My thoughts started coming more prominently and clearly. As this exercise was close to my heart, I started enjoying writing, and my unconscious mind was always searching for new content and improving my existing content. Within no time, my first book was ready to publish.
As I entered the author world, I realised that having a final printed book is more complex than just writing the content. Now, I had to understand the book’s publishing process, which included multiple tasks like illustration, cover page, ISBN, royalty, editing, and typesetting. Although self-publishing was an option, I didn’t feel fully equipped to go with this option. However, I tried a few parts of publishing myself but struggled a lot. I even found a freelancer editor to edit my manuscript. His feedback on my writing was terrible. After noticing the bunch of mistakes, He even suggested I stop writing immediately. I realised it is better to outsource a publisher who will bear the headache of the entire process. Then, I started evaluating multiple publishers. As a first-time author, I was looking for a publisher who could support me in every aspect of writing. Finally, I selected a premium publisher who charged me a reasonable amount, but as I was mentally prepared for this spending, I quickly procured the services. Then, my journey from being an author to just a writer started. Most of the services were provided by my publisher only, except for the illustration. That’s how one of my old company vendors came into the picture. Ms Sandhya was creative and supported us during a mega marketing campaign. She was highly talented, an expert in her domain, and committed and professional. She was the one with whom I shared my first story for feedback. She gave me very constructive feedback and encouraged me to write continuously. That helped me a lot. I approached her for the cover page and illustration design without a second thought. I shared my initial thoughts on the cover page. She understood my requirements. As I communicated my idea of having a series of books under one master title, we designed one character, DUGGU; she was intelligent enough to read my thoughts and design a character beautiful character named Duggu. I still can recall the satisfaction and pleasure I had while seeing the Duggu character for the first time. It was an equally happier moment when I saw my son Duggu for the first time in real life. I heartily thanked Ms Sandhya for her support. I briefed her about the illustration requirement of 22 stories in MLD-1. The typesetting and other publishing processes were ongoing; simultaneously, Ms Sandhya worked on illustration.
It has been a heartfelt experience seeing my dream’s execution in real life. The first cover page, the first illustration, the first ISBN, and the first draft of typesetting, everything was quite mesmerising and never felt before experience. This was the experience of pregnancy when the fictitious character Duggu was in my womb, and I could feel the development of the fetus. There was some new development daily, and I could feel the progress. I can’t forget the day when the publisher informed me that my book was launched and available on Amazon and Flipkart. I felt like my imaginary baby had been delivered. Meanwhile, the second wave of corona got covered, and life started coming on normal. I decided to join the office, and my family and I planned to shift to Bangalore. Just before moving to Bangalore, I got ten complementary physical copies of MLD-10 from Publisher, which I showed to my family members like a book launch. It was a great moment to see pride on my parent’s faces. They were more than glad to see the creative version of their son. It was a mega moment for all the family members; we clicked pictures, exchanged sweets and adjourned with never-forgettable moments. As per the suggestion of my mother, I distributed the sample copies of MLD-1 to close friends and relatives, who appreciated it a lot. Finally, after around 1.5 years, I left my parents in Delhi again and moved to Bangalore. After reaching Bangalore and settling with family members, I first launched my MLD-1 digitally. I shared and uploaded MLD-1 details on all possible platforms. No wonder I got a really encouraging response and appreciation, converting my thoughts into action. A few close friends who were aware of my dream of being an author admired me for meeting my dream.
“What Next?” After publishing the MLD-1, the first question struck my mind. I don’t know why, how, or when I endeavoured to write ten books on MLD. Today, when I think about the mission of MLD-10, it feels unimaginable. It is like the rarest feeling when you accomplish the task and are surprised at how you completed it. I am still amused and flabbergasted; how could I dream of such a humongous task? But at that time, there was some faith and passion about my mission. During the entire journey of MLD-1 to MLD-10, ever for a single moment, I never thought this was impossible. With the blessing of almighty god, the content was in mind every day, every moment. During the journey of the last 3 years, I have never been stuck because of a lack of contentment. Before completing my existing story, the plot of the new story was clearly in my mind.
With this passion only, I completed MLD-2 with the same premium publisher. The high publishing cost started pinching me, and I started exploring new publishers. Besides the price, I was looking for a new publisher because I never got any post-publishing services from the existing one. They never contacted me for any post-selling discussion or asked for my feedback, concerns, plan or requirements. They just published my book and never turned back. The same services I got with new publishers, with comparatively and drastically lower cost. By the time of MLD-2, I had gained significant experience and understanding of the book publishing process, which helped me structure the plethora of questions I asked new publishers. I was impressed with their patience, listening, and way of dealing with new authors. They answered all the questions over the mail and ensured a long and fruitful association. I also wanted to establish a long-term association with the publisher, so I double-checked before onboarding. During the lockdown, online fraud had increased like anything. I didn’t want to fall prey to such a scam. As I was in Bangalore and wanted to visit personally before making any payment, I sent my close friend from Delhi to the publishing house and asked him to enquire about their exitance. I paid once he validated their proper existence in the office and employees, and the journey with the new publisher started from MLD-3.
It was never an arduous journey from MLD-1 to MLD-10. When I respected what made it so easy, I found only one reason: faith and belief in my mission. I have learned that the degree of belief is directly proportionate to the possibility of success. No obstacles can hinder your journey if you have undisputed and un-doubtable faith in your goal. And that exactly happened to me. I never felt any challenge, barrier, hurdle, or difficulties in this journey because I was super sure about MLD-10. I had a poster on my wall with the details of MLD characters and their journey, which made me remember my mission of MLD-10. Also, I had pasted the template on my front wall with the count of MLD-1 to MLD-10, along with their planned launch date. Initially, I planned to launch two books in a year, but magically, I landed four books in a year. In 2021, I launched MLD-1 and MLD-2; in 2023, I launched MLD-3,4,5, and 6; and finally, in 2024, I launched MLD-7,8,9 and MLD-10. MLD-Moral land of Duggu was a common theme in all the stories, and all the stories connected in some manner. Duggu, his parents, friends, teachers, and school were common characters throughout the journey, and they were inspired by real life. All the characters and their names in the MLD series exist in real life. I have never faced any challenges with character design. Whenever searching for a new character, I looked around real Duggu and picked a real-life character and their name for the MLD book. For example, his teachers’ names are real, his school name is real, his friends’ names are real, his brothers’ and siblings’ names are real, most of the places are real, and most of the incidents are inspired by real-life events, exposed to him or some other kids.
No doubt, writing demands strong discipline, dedication and time management. The first and most challenging change I incorporated into my life was waking up early. That was the most significant change I have struggled with for the last 15 years. I always wanted to be an early riser, but because of an uncertain routine, this could not happen. The significant hindrances were late-night meetings, working workload, and multiple engagements with friends and family. I tried numerous times, but every time, I failed miserably. My unconscious mind had engendered the message that I never can be an early riser. As already mentioned, “When you sincerely desire something, the entire universe starts supporting you” The law of attraction blessed me with an influencer through digital media who gives classes on early-rising techniques for negligible charges. Again, my unconscious mind made fun of this initiative and asked whether she would come personally to wake me up or assign a person to call me every morning. But my desire to wake up overpowered my sense of ridiculing her, and I enrolled in a week-long course. Immediately after paying the enrollment amount, I was added to one WhatsApp group where more than 150 people were already there. This program was supposed to start on Monday, the first working day, and I started getting encouraging and motivating messages on Thursday onwards, like “3 days to go”, “2 days to go”, and “Are you ready to join the life-changing session?” and I was latterly ridiculing them for wasting their effort. Still, I was curious to know how a week-long session would change the decade-old habit. Then, as planned, Monday came, and as per expectation, I woke up at 7 am, whereas the session was scheduled for 5 am. The first thought after waking up was laughing at the speaker. But with every passing moment of the day, the feeling started cultivating into regrate. Meanwhile, people began sharing their positive feedback and action points about the morning session, which kept me triggering for the next day’s session. Influenced by the chat over the group, I evaluated the pros and cons and decided to join the next day’s session. With strong determination and commitment, I slept early to join the session. However, with disappointment, I woke at 7 am again on Tuesday, but this time, there was more disappointment and regret on my face than ridiculing the influencer. The entire day was spent criticising. But there is another saying that year-old darkness can vanish with a single spark of light. My criticism fueled me, and I promised to wake up early at 5 am. The strong point about myself that I admire is that I can tolerate any defeat with anyone but can’t defeat in the battle with myself. And that commitment level defied my decade-old habit. The next morning was the new morning of my life when I woke up at 5 am to attend the session. I am still unsure how that session affected me, but I found divine energy within me. I was influenced less by the speaker and more by the power that rose within me. With due respect to that speaker, who did a pretty good job and forced me to join subsequent sessions, something else in the universe also encouraged me to wake up early in the morning. Without any pressure or force, I joined the subsequent four sessions, and on the last day, the influencer offered another long-term session of one month and six months to maintain this habit in future. But my mind, body, and soul had already been married to this change, and I had inculcated this habit without any scepticism. I’m not sure about the source, but I had developed the belief that no reason under the sky can hinder my mission to wake up early in the morning, and the rest is history. After that day, I woke up at 5 am every day, giving me plenty of time and creativity to cultivate my thoughts into words. That new habit was crucial in accomplishing my vision within 2 years instead of 4 years. This change led to a few other positive changes, such as finishing my work and going to bed on time. The other good habit I incorporated into my routine was the distance from digital media. After setting my vision about MLD-10, I uninstalled all the social applications from my mobile that supported me in focusing on my goal.
Amid the pleasant moments, there were some unpleasant moments in the publishing process with the publisher. It was a very tedious task to follow up with the publisher for every task and multiple rounds of editing that later I started doing by myself through software named GRAMMERLY, but the most annoying moment was when the publisher increased the printing cost significantly, even when they committed that the printing cost would always remain fixed. This was a clear case of breach of their commitment. There was a heavy tussle with the publisher; either they should remain unchanged with printing costs or delist all my books with a 100% refund of publishing costs. After a long to-and-fro communication, they reduced the printing cost, which was still higher than the committed cost. I decided to go with them only because my MLD-9 and MLD-10 were ready for publication, and I didn’t want to invest my energy searching for a new publisher. After all, a known devil is always better than an unknown angel.
After every book in the MLD series, my character evolved with age. In MLD-1, the Duggu was around 8 years old; in MLD-10, he grew up to be 11 years old, resonating with the real Duggu. The incidents that occurred in Duggu’s life, my story also evolved similarly, like when he was promoted to the next class, his experience with the new teacher, new friends, and a new society. The connection between real-life Duggu and reel-life Duggu makes MLD unique. The inimitable special point about MLD is. First, MLD resonates with the real life of any normal kid. They can connect easily with every story. Secondly, there are no fictitious characters, nothing magical, no jungle story. Every incident in Duggu’s life in MLD is inspired by real life. Kids can experience the story in their nearby environment. Most of the stories will remind them of something around them. Third, there is nothing like preaching at the end of the story. Kids will pick their learning automatically. Lastly, a unique point about the MLD is its author. Throughout the MLD, he has been considered a father, not an author. He always visualised how a father would feel while reading these stories. The author kept a close eye on real-life Duggu. As Duggu kept growing in real life, the reel-life character grew in the darker and more intense phase. In MLD-1, the story lasts around 600 to 800 words; in MLD-10, the story lasts more than 30000 words. The situation and challenges become more complex. The thinking process of the character becomes more robust and logical. As an author, I also grow and learn a lot. The ability to convert thought into words becomes more manageable with every passing book. I started writing books with a compilation of short stories with an average of 700 words and a target to complete a book once with around 30000 words; how MLD-1 have 22 stories in 30000 words, but when it comes to MLD-10, the entire book has one story of 30K words. That’s how the author could think more deeply and at length.
During the writing journey of MLD, many other options for expanding Duggu’s character came into the picture, which helped me decide on MLD’s future. However, I stayed focused on writing only. I never thought about the book’s sale, the review of MLD, or multiple offers for promotion. But along with the writing journey, I envision the future of MLD. After completing MLD-10, I decided to disseminate my writing skills to kids that I learnt with the practice of the last 4-5 years. I realise that in the digital world, kids and youngsters are losing the ability to express their feelings and emotions. In separated and isolated families, when there are very few genuine friends and family members to share their feelings and emotions, Writing would be the best alternative. The ability to pen down the sentiments would work like a blessing. Structuring their taught in words and formatting in story format will not only excuse them from depression but also improve their writing skill, which will help them in school. The youngster could memorise the answers but struggled to pen them down during the exam. Storywriting techniques will enlighten them on how to format their answer. Learning story-writing techniques allows them to write similar content in short and long answers. They could visualise the topic in depth as the story writing needs deep thinking. I desperately want to empower youngsters to convert their thoughts into words, and the benefits will be manifested not only in their academics but also in their day-to-day lives. I have a vision to develop 1000 writers by 2030, and this journey will start in 2025 which I had decided way back when I decided to write ten books by 2024. The story-writing technique only allows me to note down my goal for the next 7 years. After that, I also plan to create cartoons or real character videos for kids. Quite possibly, I will be coming with the next season of MLD with another set of 10 books where Duggu would have grown mature and would be facing different challenges and difficulties
