Wants and Needs

Why world is bubbling with activities? Why there is struggle for existence? Is it not to fulfill our wants and needs? If one does not have any wants and needs definitely there would have been a lull in life. We chase wants and needs to satisfy them and in turn “want and needs” do not remain quiet. They again arise in us in one or another form and chase us. Is it not like a thirst where we feel thirsty again sometime after a thirst is quenched? But, individual to individual wants and needs are not uniform. According to their nature wants and needs differ from person to person. Some have wants and needs which are superior and some have wants and needs which are inferior and some have wants and needs which are neither superior nor inferior. Wants and needs of some people never die. When some wants are satisfied a new set of wants and needs arise in them. Wants and needs of some people are strange even. One becomes complacent, when their wants and needs are satisfied. But this is a rare occasion.

It is human to have wants and needs. At least one would have a few wants and needs in their life. Those wants and needs may be either spiritualistic or materialistic. Some have more wants and needs and some have less wants and needs. Wants and needs are not merely food, shelter and clothes. How many of us do not want or need success? Is it not that most of us want and need is that others should understand us? Is it not what everybody wants and needs is “love or affection”? Why sometimes we crave for death? Some say that money is everything. Do we not need thoughts and ideas? Thus it is impossible to imagine even what are one’s wants and needs are. Man is a social animal, he wants and needs company to share his thoughts and feelings. Many a times one wants and needs are advice, suggestion too. If such wants and needs are not fulfilled one's life becomes monotonous. Spiritual wants and needs are as equally important as materialistic wants and needs are. In this modern world day by day one’s wants and needs are not only changing but also are increasing qualitatively as well as quantitatively considerably and that indicates that world is advancing. The moment one is born wants and needs arise and end only when curtain falls. Ways and means followed to satisfy wants and needs are equally important. One may either follow fair and good means or follow crooked path to satisfy their wants and needs. One who has less wants and needs which he or she could comply with ease would definitely be happy. One who thinks less of one’s own wants and needs but who strives hard to satisfy others wants and needs is generally very complacent and derives a lot of pleasure in that task too. It is a great quality in a human being also.

Some have a few wants and needs whereas some have numerous wants and needs. Somebody’s wants and needs may appear trifle and silly to us whereas they are their necessities. Similarly our wants and needs may appear to others as silly and trifle and they may laugh at our wants and needs too. Circumstances rule over our wants and needs is none the less. They create wants and needs that we do not expect even. Similarly circumstances sometimes also play a role in the satisfaction of wants and needs that one has too. There are various types of wants and needs. Only some wants and needs that one has could be expressed to others whereas there are some wants and needs which could not be even expressed to others also. Wants and needs could be strange too. Nature of wants and needs is also not uniform. Some wants and needs get satisfied easily whereas it is difficult to satisfy some wants and needs. Some wants and needs even if satisfied once recur again and again. Wants and needs differ from person to person, place to place, etc. Only some wants and needs may be common among us. In the initial stages of pregnancy a woman would have all sorts of wants and needs. Now, if she is reminded of them, she is surprised. Some have the habit of having more wants and needs than what one can afford to. They build castle in the air. Unsatisfied wants and needs of such persons occupy their subconscious mind. Such thoughts many a times are not even shared with others too. As a result satisfaction of such wants and needs takes place in the form of dreams. If a dream becomes a reality one’s joy would have no bounds. Unsatisfied wants and needs sometimes lead to psychological problems too.

It is our desires or wants that lead to us distresses generally. That does not mean that we should not have wants and desires. We should have control over wants and needs. Even a baby has also wants and needs. It cannot express its wants and needs. It simply cries and it is left to mother to understand its wants and needs and satisfy them. Otherwise, the crying does not stop. We should not be greedy. Even animals and birds have wants and needs. Caves, nests, trees, etc are their shelter. Prey, food grains, grass, insects, are generally their food depending upon what type of bird or animal they are. Trees and plants need water, oxygen; sunshine, chemicals and fertilizer etc. A country has also needs and wants. Infrastructure like roads, bridges, communication, railways, airports etc is one of the main needs of a country. Unless it is met a country cannot develop. It is wants and needs which is the main reason for any problem or dispute facing any individual, country or anybody for that matter

A farmer tills lands. A thief steals things belonging to others. A prostitute sells her body. Why everyone toils in one way or other in this world? It is with some purpose only. One toils either to fulfill his or her ambitions or earn a name or to meet wants and needs and live comfortably. In short, it is one's ego that is behind all wants and needs. The root cause for all the problems in the world is wants and needs only The most essential wants and needs of this world /society /individual is peace and that is eluding everyone.

Want is a desire only whereas need is a necessity. If one's egos are not fulfilled, he or she gets frustrated. That is why everywhere stress and strain. Sometimes, one turns violent, and resorts to unfair means while trying to achieve his or her objective. Necessity is the mother of invention. Some beg borrow or steal to meet his or her wants and needs. It is wants and needs that divide a society into rich and poor. Rich does not mean that they do not have wants and needs and have everything. In fact, their wants and needs are a little more. Poor too have their wants and needs in different way. Wants and needs rather depend on an individual. It does matter to it whether one is rich or poor. What is a heaven? It is a place where one's all wants and needs are met and one lives happily.

What type of a person one is? This we can make out by observing his or her wants and needs. Those who want more chilies, garlic, onions, meat, alcohol etc are of one nature whereas those who are vegetarian, who do not eat garlic, onion, etc, are of different nature. According to our nature, wants arise in us. That which are very essential for leading our life like food, water, air clothes and a house to live in could be called as basic needs. Without these basic needs one cannot lead a life on this earth. Wants differ from person to person. Some have more wants and some have less. A few do not have wants at all. Those who do not have any wants are generally saints and are contented and complacent with what they have. They do not have any desires at all. Wants when satisfied give birth to fresh wants. What we had branded as luxuries in yester years are now –a-days necessities. Formerly, radios were luxuries. To day, nobody wants to have a radio. Radios have become outdated. Instead everybody likes to have a television set. Those wants, which are quite essential for our day-to-day life, are needs or necessities. Sphere of wants is not confined to consumer durables like fridge, washing machine, TV, scooter etc. More the purse permits; bigger would be the list of consumer durables in our wants and costlier models would be our choice. Marketing is nothing but catering to our wants. Wants depend on mindset of an individual or taste of him or her. One who knows Psychology can easily guess what others want are. Some of our wants are not our necessities. We could manage without them. Since our financial position permits we go for them. Wants, which could not be satisfied by a common man or beyond the reach of a common man, are called luxuries. Wants arise mostly because of the comforts we would like to have. Life is nothing but a struggle for full filling our wants and needs. The tendency he is having it, I too should have it or rivalry between individuals causes “wants” and gives to birth too jealousy when one could not fulfill. Wants could be either materialistic or intellectual.

Law of diminishing utility, which says, “More you have of a thing, less you want it” does not apply to certain wants especially as far as augmenting wealth is concerned. Thus some wants are like thirst, which could never be quenched. Intellectual wants, which comprise of thirst for knowledge, commonsense, presence of mind, wisdom are always welcome. Here it is always better, even if it is hard to acquire them. It is intellectual wants that develop a personality. Knowledge can be shared but never decreases but goes on increasing and nobody can separate it from us. It is an ocean, which cannot be emptied. Knowledge is spread over many fields. More your intellectual wants are lesser would be materialistic wants. Intelligence is not the only tool to satisfy intellectual wants. Will, determination, efforts, patience, teacher are all equally required to satisfy those wants. Majority of great people that world has produced are intellectuals. Their contribution to the development of this world remains forever unlike any other asset. Most of the assets are temporary may perish at anytime. Wants are perennial but ways to satisfy them are limited. Status in society and wants are related to one another. Those who occupy high positions in society have big wants. Similarly, those who are at the helm of careers, affairs, profession, etc have wants in accordance with their status and richness. In short, big people have big wants and small people small wants. For example an ordinary person would like to buy a bicycle or scooter whereas affluent person would like to buy a car ranging from Toyota to Roles Royce, to exhibit his or her wealth and maintain position in society. Generally, what higher strata of society lack is not wealth but contentment. It is pride that creates more wants in them in order to cope up with their positions. Thus both rich as well as poor have their own difficulties and it is the discontentment that is the root cause of all trouble at any level. As long as we have anything we would not know the value of it. As long as somebody caters our want, we would not know the difficulties with regard to it. The satisfaction, which we get when we fulfill somebody’s want, is generally immense. Moreover, the recipient would also be indebted to us. Those who look after only their wants and not bothered about others are called selfish people. In a society, we should live but we should allow others let live too.

Children have numerous wants. They express their wants without any reservation and fear. The young children depend on their parents for the satisfaction of their wants. The disappointment that a child would have when its want is not satisfied but other nearby child’s want is fulfilled is inexplicable. Only those who know child psychology can understand the same. The child may find its own way of getting its want satisfied and generally that way would not be fair even. Further, if a parent fulfills all the wants as when it is put forward, it would be difficult to manage it at a later date and it is a bad precedent also. Generally when a child finds something in other child’s hand, it would like to have it whether it is necessary or not it does not think even. Similarly, we grown ups when we find something in neighbors, friends, or colleagues house we would like to have the same in our house too even though we may not require it absolutely. Especially this nature we find in womenfolk. Majority of the children do not know either value of money or the difficulties that parents face in fulfilling their wants. As a result sometimes they do not preserve what has been provided but waste or spoil them. This fact they realize only when they are mentally mature. It takes time to mature mentally. And the time depends on individual child. This varies from child to child.

It is family needs that contribute to majority of our wants. When we are young and brimming with energy, when confidence in us is at peak, we entertain more and more wants to occupy us irrespective of our financial position. But as we grow old, our needs change, our wants decrease and become selective, for majority of us even prodigal among us come to know what life is .We also understand what others needs and wants and difficulties are. We start caring for others. Inventions create wants. Demand in any market is nothing but our needs and wants. Economy and our wants are related to one another.

Others, whose wants and needs that we attend to are our parents, better half, and beloved. Parents are generally old and do not express their needs and wants. It is our duty to attend to their needs and wants. We should enquire or guess what their wants and needs are and meet them on priority basis. More than materialistic wants their wants are generally spiritual and intellectual. If health permits they go on pilgrimage, visit health resorts, attend musical concerts, sermons etc and go on morning and evening walks. They share their thoughts and views with friends and relatives. Otherwise, they read books, on various religions, philosophy and other topics. They watch television, read newspaper, and play with grand children. They need comforts during the retired life, which comes after hectic activity. They find it hard to adjust to it in the beginning. Generally, they plan for their retired life. They do not want to burden their children in any way who have their life at their disposal. They want their children to be happy. However, they wish to be respected by them. They have a few wants. They do not have same appetite, which they had during hey days, their craze for new clothes has gone. Majority of old people have one or another health problem. Their need is periodical health check up and timely medicines. They do not expect anything untoward to happen during declining age and wish to be calm and away from all the activities without any botheration. A few are exception to this; they are active till the end. Our better half or partner in life is generally well educated these days. Most of them earn and contribute equally to the welfare of a family. It is they who look into wants and needs of a family and would like to maintain status and dignity of a family. Thus important need of a modern family is a capable woman who could share our responsibility of bringing up children and helping us to build our career or business. If she cuts the cloth according to its size, in other words if she balances expenses and income of family, it is well and good. If her attitude is, beg borrow or steal, “ wants and needs” are to be met then the family would not be happy. That is why it is said that behind the success or failure of a man there is always a woman. We should cater to wants and needs of better half judiciously The others whose wants and needs we may have to meet are that of our close relatives like brothers, sisters and friends. Nobody approach us for help unless reasons are compelling for they have their own prestige. When situation improves they return money with gratitude if we had given them financial assistance or they reciprocate when we are in dire straits. Such acts are mutual and as a result friendship and relationship develops further.