I have a new website now. Actually, from the past 3 years.

Having desires is an awesome thing. The one, who doesn’t have it, is quite dull, and do not know his purpose in life. That’s why he will find the meaning of life… Not in what he loves or desires, but in his karma—his sins and his good deeds. That’s quite foolish—and those are called scientists.

Photo credits: Patrick Hoesly, on Flickr.

PS: Just search on Google this – “the answer to life, the universe, and everything”, you shall know the meaning of the image used in this post.

Yeah, you guessed it correct! It’s my blog’s 1^st birthday today! It’s so awesome (I mean the feeling!).

Didn’t even notice where this 1 year went! The journey was awesome. It was my first time with blogging, and I learnt a lot. I’ve improved a lot through this blog. It is now more than a blog – it’s a family member for me – with whom I can share anything I want.

My opinions on various political and social matters have come to public for the first time with Manav and the World. Wow! When I look at the journey, it astonishes me!

The Idea and the Journey

The idea of blogging was in my mind from a long time before this blog came to existence. I started my first personal blog on blogger, but hated it user interface. Then, I created another blog on optimism (which is dead now), and then this. WordPress is truly the best CMS in town.

I started out with WordPress.com for the main reason that it was free because I was just experimenting with blogging at that time. But fell in love with it through this 1 year.

Through this 1 year (darn! I’m using this line a lot. But hey, I’m excited!) I’ve experienced quite a lot. There were many bad moments, there were many great moments. It was a bitter and sweet journey, and I loved it! Truly loved it!

The Experience

The experiences that I got through this blog were awesome as well. Through this blog, I attended my first bloggers’ meet and met some fellow young bloggers. And the second bloggers’ meet with more than 250 guests!

With this blog, I made some cool lifelong friends. And they have quite a big hand in making this blog what it is now.

The Numbers

Traffic for my blog, in the initial days, was not quite good. But it started improving slowly. Now, at the end of 1 year I’ve got a total of more than 5000 unique visitors (quite good for a personal blog of an ordinary teen!). And average monthly visitors are around 500.

And it’s increasing day by day, thanks to you guys!

The BIG Announcement

Okay, so many of my friends may be hearing from me that there will be a surprise on my blog’s first anniversary. I was also very excited about this! So here it is guys, Manav and the World now has its own private address –

ManavDhiman.com

It’s a big thing for me. When the birthday of my blog started approaching I got this idea while talking to my mother about it. And she immediately agreed at this! Without her, this wouldn’t have been possible. Thank you mom!

Thank You Guys

Without you guys this wouldn’t have been possible for me! With your constant views on my posts via comments and honest criticism this blog is where it is now. So, a big thank you to all of you!

But there are some people I would like to thank for their help in everything to improve this blog and my attitude. They are –

1. King Sidharth – Inspiration behind ManavDhiman.com. This guy is super awesome! A teen entrepreneur and the most awesome person I’ve met in my life. He helped me whenever I asked him to. Thanks a ton man!
2. Ambariish – With his constant criticism and views on my posts has helped me improve my writing a lot. Whatever he wrote had a great impact on me. Dude, you don’t know how much you have helped me to improve this blog, thanks!
3. Parth J Dave – His honest criticism and views on this blog via any medium possible was valuable for me. You are awesome buddy!

This Blog…?

Okay with ManavDhiman.com I would not be writing any further posts on this blog. Would miss this blog a lot! This blog has taught me what blogging really was. But we have to move on in life.

But don’t worry guys, would write some occasional posts here as well. I would not let this one die!

What the Heck are you waiting for?

What? Go now – ManavDhiman.com Go, go, go, go, go, go, go!! See you at the other end!

PS: If you have any questions about anything, or you just want to say ‘hi’ you can email me on manav[at]manavdhiman[dot]com! Yeah, I am showing off my new email.

Photo credits: Happy Flickr Anniversary! by sandra.., on Flickr.

“Every now and then people try to forget their pasts…” said Mr Ansari, looking at the class with a strange look. “But I… I like to look at past. I don’t want to forget it. You know why? Because my past is cheerful – full of happiness – that when I look into it, I feel happy, I feel the urge to do something impossible every day.

“That’s why I set unachievable goals for myself every day. They make me do things that are above my potential. I don’t follow those ‘success’ books. They are useless. What’s the point to shape your thinking according to them? You should make your own reality. Success doesn’t depend on those ‘principles’. Success depends upon unlimitedness. ‘Principles’ limit you – they limit your thinking. On the other hand the feeling of unlimitedness makes you feel happy. It makes you feel that you can achieve anything in thing entire world.

“The example of ‘principles’ in real life is the law. The law makes people break it, and many more people respect it. They respect it because they are fearful of being punished, and that’s where limitedness comes in. Law makes people have limited thinking about them – it makes them feel that the ordinary life they are living is the only good way to live. They think that by not doing something extraordinary and make some people unhappy that will make them look bad before the world. And this is the thing that stops many – or almost 99.95% of the people – from doing what they really love.

“The first way to get out of this thinking is to have fun in what we have i.e. in the present moment. But ‘having fun in what we have’ is again a limiting thought. ‘Having fun in the present moment’ is also limiting and makes us feel that we have very small bit of time to have fun.

“So, the second way to get out of this is to just love everything. Each and everything. Love the world, love the universe, love the eyes you are reading this with. ‘Love is the answer to life.’ That’s why we are all here, and yet we forget this very purpose.

“If you want to love something/someone that isn’t there, then believe that it is. Just believe it with closed eyes. And then you’ll have it with you in no time – really. Just believe that you have the entire universe in your hands.

“Many people have said the same thing – one of which I remember – that goes something like this: The sky is the limit. Whatever they think they are trying to tell people is that they can do anything. But 100% of the people take that as a limiting belief (subconsciously). It is like defining the limit itself. And then people believe in it and make limit themselves more.

“Schools are also doing an awesome job of limiting children’s minds. They have their own rules, which they proudly call ‘discipline’ and make children feel that they are doing an awesome job by following those rules. They call them all sorts of things: Best student of the year, Most disciplined student and what not. And what those students result in? Arrogant people who think they are the best because they are following the rules. This is known as following the herd. They are all living under a big illusion. This illusion makes them blind.” Mr Ansari pauses to drink a glass of water. He gulps it with great passion at once. He puts the glass back on the wooden table – which has nothing special about it – and looks at the whole class of students who are looking at him with an expression of please-go-on-we-are-loving-it. He then starts again.

“Do you know why you are all feeling so happy now, and so energetic? Because you are now in alignment with your inner self or I would say, The True You. This is who you really are – having unlimited power – and that’s why it’s shown on your faces. They are brightened, and happier than a bit earlier. You are cheerful; your eyes have a shine in them. You are in love with this world, universe and yourself.”

Photo credits: Power in the skies. by kelsey_lovefusionphoto, on Flickr.

So you are sleeping in your comfortable bed at night, and suddenly you wake up at 2 AM with that brilliant idea. You say, “This is just what I needed!”. And then what? You first start thinking about it, how it will grow into a major brand, you will be famous and all that stuff. Then you update your status at 2.30 AM -

Just got an awesome business idea, folks! Would start working on it from this instant!

And then, you tweet about it -

Just got an awesome business idea, tweeps! Anyone interested in working with me, please tweet me!

Then suddenly, all your passion about it is gone. You no longer feel passionate about it. You start finding loopholes in your “awesome business idea”. Then you just dump the whole idea. And then, your friend asks you – “Hey dude, what happened to your business idea? Still working on it?”. And you just stare at them with an awful emotion. Then you start blaming yourself why did you tell others about it when you hadn’t started anything. Why didn’t you approach some young minded people first?

That’s the whole thing.

Start it up

So what do you do in that case. The first thing would be to not tell anyone about it. Just start working on it quietly. Approach some (not many) like-minded people who may want to work and help you with this.

Make things work.

And when you think you are having a good time doing things, and may be earning a good bunch of money, tell the whole world about it (WARNING: They may already get to know about it, because you will be famous).

And then you will hear words of appreciation, such as this – “Dude! When did you start this? Awesome!” or like this – “Man! This thing of yours is f*cking awesome! Can I work with you? Please?!” and many more things.

Then you will know that you had done something awesome.

Don’t Care ’bout Others

Don’t care about people who think that this guy can’t do anything brilliant (mostly teachers, whom you firmly believe in. In some cases, family members). Just say in your mind STFU to them. And keep smiling.

When you will be successful, they will come to you automatically, appreciating what you did.

Keep going, even if you fail. You may fail 99 times, but the thing is, you should stand up the 100th time.

What makes you do that? The love and passion for what you are building.

Don’t Care ’bout The Hurdles

Don’t care about the hurdles before even trying once. Problems will arise, no matter what. But you have to keep going through tough times. That’s how an entrepreneur works. He solves problems, finds his way round problems.

Just forget about “What if…”. These what ifs will keep you from doing things that you want to do. Just don’t give a damn anything to these kinds of questions.

It’s a Journey

Achieving success is a journey. Once you achieve one goal, you should start working on the second one, then the third one, and so on.

Never stop.

If you are passionate enough a goal, you will achieve it. There will be another goal you are so passionate about, and then you will start working on it, and eventually you will achieve it too. That’s how entrepreneurs work. They are passionate.

Conclusion

1. Get the idea (don’t force it to come).
2. Start working on it.
3. Keep it quiet.
4. Network with like-minded people.
5. F*ck others who don’t believe in you, you should believe in yourself. That’s important.
6. Solve problems smartly, don’t sit with them.
7. Keep going on the journey.
8. It should be fun.

Photo credits: Starting line by Jon_Marshall, on Flickr.

Recently I read in the news that Rohinton Mistry‘s book Such a Long Journey was removed from the syllabus by The University of Mumbai in mid-term only because the son of a politician asked it to. Is that called democracy? I don’t think so.

The reason of the removal of the book from the syllabus given by The University of Mumbai is that it has hatred speech against a very big political party in Maharashtra. And the book was removed from the syllabus within a night when the examination papers were already set.

This is truly the violation of a very fundamental right of a human – Right to Speech.

Why can’t a political party show enough maturity to accept its past? Why can’t they make themselves a better political party in the present. Rather than doing that, they are making many other writers write about them (via blogs, newspapers, books etc).

Isn’t this childish? Like children do to hide their mistakes. How can a childish party rule us? How can they expect us to choose them in the elections?

A political party is there to rule us, to protect us, to supervise that all the rights are being practiced accordingly. But on the other hand they are themselves violating all these rights.

What more disturbing is that, the Mumbai University guy (whatever his name is) didn’t even refuse it once. He just removed it just because a particular person didn’t want it in the syllabus. Why? Aren’t there other students who would like to read and study it?

The second thing, now after the book has been removed, the CM says that we would set an inquiry to find out that why the book was introduced in the syllabus. What? Rather than placing it back into the syllabus, they want to know how it was introduced. What a democracy, I say!

Dude, those who introduced it in the first place did some research before introducing it. They weren’t illiterate. When the novel is trying to convey something, they don’t want it to happen.

They are like a child who is afraid of whatever mistake he has done. And the guys who removed it are helping him do it.

This is such a shame to the largest democracy in the world.

PS: Sign this petition to raise your voice against the coward system - http://www.petitiononline.com/SYBAban/petition.html

Exams. I just can’t figure out why we have to give exams. Is it because we don’t believe ourselves that we know the concepts or the teachers don’t believe in their own teaching.

We are taught that we should believe ourselves and others. And yet, the whole education system doesn’t follow this.

Okay, exams may be necessary sometimes, but the stress they cause is like hell for students. Think about it, you know the concept, so why is there any need to ask? It really doesn’t make sense. Many students forget things and many basic concepts just because of the fear of exams. Really, is that what they are meant for? To discourage students? To make them feel that some of them are superior and other inferiors?

There are par shelties in class rooms just because one student scores well in the exam, while the other just scores badly because of the fear. It isn’t fair. Tell me, is it?

One particular thing I remember my principal saying when he came to our class – “Why have you taken science if you score badly? Why didn’t you take commerce or arts? They are good for the students of your kind.”

Did I just hear “kind”. Now, what does that mean? And, are you saying that commerce and arts are bad because it requires less percentage of marks to get admission there? We don’t need this kind of principal.

May be a student is not able to remember an answer just because of the fear of the teacher that teaches him. The same thing happened with my friend.

Before our Physics exam, everyone was studying and was asking vague questions to each other. Usually I ignore these fucking stupids (who unfortunately call themselves intelligent), but that day I also got a bit into them and became tensed. But I managed to ignore them somehow. But my friend couldn’t. As the exam started we all started writing, but he got blank and even forgot the basics.

As a result he got 10 out of 40. And the teacher was like – “You don’t know anything! See, you’ve gone wrong even in basic things!” They tell us to understand their problems, why can’t they try to understand ours?

Education system in India sucks. So don’t take it too seriously.

Photo credits: Writing Exams by ccarlstead, on Flickr.

How many times have you failed a subject? Once, twice or never? Of course, many of you who haven’t failed a subject would be thinking that it’s so bad to fail a subject – Bad feelings, insult, loosing friends, bad looks etc.

But is it really that bad?

I just gave my Mathematics exam yesterday, and I’m sure that I’m gonna fail. Almost 1/4th of the class is going to fail. I spent the whole day yesterday thinking about it (and other stuff), and felt really, really bad.

I had failed in mathematics once when I was 7^th grade, but that was worse than the feeling that I’m feeling now.

Anyways, but how bad can it get? I would feel bad, I would study more, enthusiastically, and then score well (or may be excellent).

So what I’ve learnt from this mistake of mine? I’m improving on it. Sure, I will get bad looks, some bad words from the teacher, some from friends, and some from my mother (maybe).

But, if you see at the end of the day, I’m improving. That’s what mistakes teach you – To learn from them and not (instead of never) commit them again. You CAN commit the same mistake again and again, it’s okay to do that (contradictory to what many people will tell you). The thing is, you should follow your heart.

I’m already feeling like studying mathematics, not from the fear of failing again, but because I really feel like. Yea, maybe because of fear, but do I really care? I’m feeling to do that, and I will do that. No one can stop me from doing that except me myself.

So, committing mistakes is good, but actually awesome, as it improves us. Fools at schools and colleges (who unfortunately call themselves experts) will tell you that it’s pathetic to fail. But really, believe me, it’s awesome.

Share your comments below on how you committed mistakes and what you learnt from them. Remember, life is supposed to be fun (by Abraham Hicks) and there’s no fun if you don’t fail a couple of times. That’s life.

Those who don’t fail will always fear them; those who fail will love them eventually, because they will know that it’s awesome!

Photo credits: Study by DAEllis, on Flickr.

Hello guys! How are you? Talking to you after a very long time!

IndiBlogger.in organized an awesome bloggers’ meet here in Mumbai day before yesterday (Yea, I know I’m a bit late!). But anyways, it was awesome!

Actually, I wasn’t going to go, but at the last moment I changed my mind and went. After all I would get an awesome experience! So yea, the meet was scheduled at 2 pm and I reached at around 2.20 pm so I wasn’t much late. I quickly got in and registered myself and sat near Mohan!

An interesting thing happened at that time. As I went to sit with Mohan, there was Feroze sitting one chair next to him and his hand bag and camera was lying on that empty chair. I went there and asked him if anyone was sitting there, he said no, and removed everything from there so that I can sit.

After some time, the indiblogger guy said that there is a surprise for us. We have to check under our seats to receive an envelope. And, there was it! It was only under some of the seats. And I was one of the lucky guys who got it! J

It was a 15% discount on drinks and beverages in the bar of the Hotel Sea Princess. Anyways, so after that I met Hemal Shah as well who was sitting right next to Mohan. Then after that there was a representative from HP (one of the sponsors) and one from BigRock (another sponsor) who told us about them and their various services. HP presentation was limited to their world-class and awesome printers!

After that we were given 29 seconds each to introduce ourselves and our blogs. There were more than 100 people out there and seriously, no one can remember each and every URL, so please guys, if you are reading this and you attended the meet, please comment on this post, so that I can check out your blog!

Anyways, it took a while for this intro session to finish, and yea, I was the YOUNGEST BLOGGER there!

During this intro session, we got to know about so many interesting people – A pharmacist, a novelist, a guy who got his job because of his blog, and many more people! One of the most awesome times I had at the meet!

After that was the most fun part! We were given charts with a sketch pen to everyone and were told that we have to write on them while they hung on the blogger’s neck’s that we feel about him/her and his/her blog. It was awesome! Met some old friends, whom I met at the Young Bloggers’ Meet in April – Parth J Dave, Neha Hadkar and Magali C. Vaz! Nice meeting you again guys!

While it was all happening, me and Parth went for the snacks (Yea, we couldn’t resist ourselves to the sandwiches and biscuits!). And we ate as everyone else went walking here and there, finding someone to write at their backs. Anyways, made some new friends too! It was so awesome to meet (and not to meet) so many bloggers under one roof!

Then *drum rolls* the most awaited Gul Panag arrived! And the tweets were saying it all! The guys who couldn’t attend the meet (who didn’t know that snack break was going on) thought that everyone stopped tweeting because of Gul Panag! Haha!

Anyways, I couldn’t click any pics because my Nokia 5800’s battery wasn’t charged, so took my old Nokia N72, who’s display went to heaven and had to take my father’s old phone! Shit! It was so embarrassing to take it out in front of iPhones, Samsung Galaxies and yea, my very own Nokia 5800s…

Well, never mind. Then there was a small quiz for free .com domains for 1 and 3 years. Didn’t even raise my hand to any of the questions except the FTP one (in which half of the people raised their hands! LOL!).

So anyways, after that Gul Panag moderated a debate on “Is blogging the new journalism?” (Correct me on this if I’m wrong). It was quite a heated debate! But a lot of opinions from one side of the room to the other! Awesome way to learn, why can’t they teach us in school this way rather than just ‘imposing’ us with stuff?!

So after that we had a 10 minute screening of a movie called “Soch Lo”, during which some of the people tried to record it with their phones (Grow up!). Me and Hemal stopped them from doing so (I am the IndiPolice right? Had to do my duty! ). Anyways, those 10 minutes completely went over my head, and after that not only me, but everyone was confused! Haha!

Then we went for a group photo and then the most IMPORTANT part of all! Taking our IndiTees!! Got mine finally!!

As Addy says that “My second skin!”

All in all an awesome experience. Went home with Parth, Hemal and Rahul (sorry dude, for got your blog’s URL! )

So, to the people who didn’t attend it, surely you did miss something! Haha!

BE JEALOUS!

Cheers!

So, as many of you know that I live in India, and here’s it’s not that normal to have relationships like that. May be because of the old orthodox thinking or just because it’s “bad” as told by our parents. But is it really that bad? Let’s discuss.

I know many of you who are reading this have girlfriends/boyfriends and you are in love with them. But do your parents know about it? Are you afraid to tell them, because they may get mad and you’ll never ever get to talk to the person you loved?

Parents – Old Gen

We must keep in our minds that our parents belong to an old generation and in their generation it wasn’t so good to love someone. They failed to realize its beauty and focused on its negative consequences like getting bad grades, and the biggest fear of all – suicide.

But on the other hand that feeling of love is awesome. You can’t deny this fact if you’ve ever been in a relationship. The more love you feel, the more loved you will be. There’s no one closer to you than the person you love.

You think of them every time and you do crazy things that you would have never done in your whole lifetime. But do you feel regretful for those things? Of course not.

Lovers – New Gen

We are the lovers – We are always been taught to love, so why can’t we have boyfriends/girlfriends? It’s too good to love someone, innit? So we should express the love we feel to that person and if he/she also loves you, there’s no reason to not love.

Yea, I agree, sometimes they can result into blunders, but why can’t we at least try to fall in love, rather than just stamping it with “THIS IS BAD”?

If you feel the same, or you don’t then please feel free to share your opinions in the comments section below!

Photo credits: Hearts by Irargerich, on Flickr.