“Waste not, Want not”……. prescribed the teacher, to us, asking the kids in our class to ‘expand the idea contained in…’
Usually, when something so brief comes up, leaving us utterly clueless as to what they are talking about, we used to have a ‘closed’ session over our lunch boxes, amidst the din and dust of the school playground around which some pavements provided us place to squat and gobble our food.
Since then, we started looking at that ‘waste’ as something very costly in life! When something goes a waste, it takes lots of cost along with it! It simply meant that we failed to acknowledge the value of that which got frittered away, and lost its utility. “Time” came up as a priority for some time at least!
We were yet to ‘feel’ that ‘want’ in its true intrinsic importance, since we used to get whatever we wanted ‘just like that’ (parents were bankers provided by nature!). Also, we tried to ‘want’ only what was ‘feasible’.
It is this ‘need’ that did not seem quite easy to fit in somewhere nearby the want! And, to look at the very beginning of the life form of a child did not help much. We tried out that. The tiny baby did not seem to ‘need’ anything at all! On the other hand, it seemed to want everything that it laid its eyes upon! The baby’s needs were taken care of by its mother.
Oh! I was just trying to look back at how we used to start with these basic questions during those tender-age-years. It helps to understand where we started mis-taking life in between, and then we lost that childhood joy almost irretrievably! Adults too, chase so many wants, and end up trying to compromise with just a little peace! But that was what afforded us, initially, to ‘want’ something more!
Any way, this time a question was clearly set, to know the difference between ‘need and want’ I was reminded of that other question “What is man's greatest need?” and we had kneaded it well enough some time ago.
(The skill of present the day “techies” depends upon their ability to divulge ‘info’ on a need-to-know-basis’ if they seek to remain afloat!)
Psn(4th November, 2010)
What is the difference btwn a NEED and a WANT?
My answer:
Want is a matter of choice, and once decided to be a 'want' it "becomes" a need.Situation decides a 'need' irrespective of whether a person knows about that need or not.
(For instance, two good friends become sworn enemies due to a stupid misunderstanding. The need is that they get clarity about their stupidity or the misunderstanding. But they do not want any clarification, because they feel that they are quite right about deciding to become inimical to each other! ).
Nice question. Perhaps, if we are reminded about the difference at right time, most divorce cases would get dissolved even before they ripen! Perhaps, students would get the priority about going to a school right, if they maintain the awareness about the need of going to school, and would prevent other desires from becoming "wants", to spoil the true priority!
No comments:
Post a Comment