This is a re-post

Being sick and in bed really does have its advantages. I am finally getting back to reading and catching up on some of my favorite programmes in television. Keeps my mind occupied. Ya I do have meaningful conversations with Brownie (my softie) but then Brownie agrees with everything I say…. so there is not much conversation. So I have to watch some real stuff happening. The books I read these days do take me to my favorite pink cloud but then again i need something challenging for my grey cells. It is all pink there. My cells are in perpetual fear of getting white…. so I watch TV. Hey!!! i no that they dont make your cells grey, rather blue, white, red and even yellow (maybe the bile manages to reach up) thanks to ekta kapoor and himesh reshammiya. They seem to dominate every channel I surf. I so hate them. Thanks to discovery and travel and living. I get my trivia from there.

I came across this advert the other day of an insurance company who was selling the concept that everybody desires a little something more. It showed a young guy crossing a street vying for a motorbike that another guy drove. The guy who drove (oops rode!!!) the motorbike vied for the chipku girl who sat behind another guy on his motorbike. The girl vied for kids with the mom and the mom with the kids for a diamond necklace. The diamond necklace was being bought by a man who was bald who again vied for the hair the first guy on the street took for granted. Neighbour’s envy owner’s pride. Everybody today wants something more that he does not have and somebody else has. (grass greener on the other side). The whole economy is surviving on this very sentiment.

I am reminded of a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes :

Contentment
Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Man wants but little here below.”

LITTLE I ask; my wants are few;
I only wish a hut of stone,
(A very plain brown stone will do,)
That I may call my own;
And close at hand is such a one,
In yonder street that fronts the sun.

Plain food is quite enough for me;
Three courses are as good as ten;–
If Nature can subsist on three,
Thank Heaven for three. Amen!
I always thought cold victual nice;–
My choice would be vanilla-ice.

I care not much for gold or land;–
Give me a mortgage here and there,–
Some good bank-stock, some note of hand,
Or trifling railroad share,–
I only ask that Fortune send
A little more than I shall spend.

Honors are silly toys, I know,
And titles are but empty names;
I would, perhaps, be Plenipo,–
But only near St. James;
I’m very sure I should not care
To fill our Gubernator’s chair.

Jewels are baubles; ‘t is a sin
To care for such unfruitful things;–
One good-sized diamond in a pin,–
Some, not so large, in rings,–
A ruby, and a pearl, or so,
Will do for me;–I laugh at show.

My dame should dress in cheap attire;
(Good, heavy silks are never dear;) –
I own perhaps I might desire
Some shawls of true Cashmere,–
Some marrowy crapes of China silk,
Like wrinkled skins on scalded milk.

I would not have the horse I drive
So fast that folks must stop and stare;
An easy gait–two forty-five–
Suits me; I do not care;–
Perhaps, for just a single spurt,
Some seconds less would do no hurt.

Of pictures, I should like to own
Titians aud Raphaels three or four,–
I love so much their style and tone,
One Turner, and no more,
(A landscape,–foreground golden dirt,–
The sunshine painted with a squirt.)

Of books but few,–some fifty score
For daily use, and bound for wear;
The rest upon an upper floor;–
Some little luxury there
Of red morocco’s gilded gleam
And vellum rich as country cream.

Busts, cameos, gems,–such things as these,
Which others often show for pride,
I value for their power to please,
And selfish churls deride;–
One Stradivarius, I confess,
Two Meerschaums, I would fain possess.

Wealth’s wasteful tricks I will not learn,
Nor ape the glittering upstart fool;–
Shall not carved tables serve my turn,
But all must be of buhl?
Give grasping pomp its double share,–
I ask but one recumbent chair.

Thus humble let me live and die,
Nor long for Midas’ golden touch;
If Heaven more generous gifts deny,
I shall not miss them much,–
Too grateful for the blessing lent
Of simple tastes and mind content!

Yeah!!! I no!!! me and my poems. But honestly I do not know of anyother method that expresses emotions and sentiments so well than……. poetry!!! Yeah pictures!!! Hey I am working on that so just settle for this till i start producing them. The poet here says I want a simple hut, one with brown stone will do which will overlook the sun. I will do with plain food but three courses and vanilla icecream would be nice. I dont want money or gold or land, instead a bank mortgage, bank stock, and some shares will do. I dont care for titles he says, but a chairmanship somewhere would be good. I dont care for big diamonds but i could do with some small ones on my pin and some rubies and some pearls. For my wife i dont mind her wearing cheap clothes but some heavy silks and true cashmere are never expensive for her. I do not want great horses, good ones, some of them would do for me. I would also like to own some pictures not much but of raphaels and titans because their style is impeccable. How could I do without them. I cannot understand the wasteful tricks of wealth he says. I am a humble person. I do not want much in life. I am grateful to god that my tastes are very simple and my mind content.

I am reminded of a poem my mirza galib (or may be of mir dont remember)

kisi ko mukkamil jahan nahin milta
kisi ko zameen to kisi ko asmaan nahi milta..

another one related

hazaron khwahishyen aisi ki har khawahish par dam nikle…..

Need I say more!!!! Some want money, some want fame, some love, some luxury, some material or for that matter some want GOD. The common thing in everything is WANT. You cant live in today and not want something. The something can be different but you do WANT something whether you accept it or not. You cant have everything. The disparity is created so that you want something and strive for it and to fill that blank in your life you have to work hard – physically, sometimes emotionally, sometimes both ways and in all this you look forward to tomorrow. Mostly quite bleak but then that is all you have.

Wants and desires are something that I guess will never end. When one want is satisfied another comes up. Humanity is surviving on this very sentiment. This act is justified by the fact that if you dont have wants and needs you will have to probably have to leave the common man world and take vanvaas/sanyaas. Man works hard day and night for this very purpose. With the market today booming with choices and options, Man’s desires to own the latest of everything keeps going up. Sometimes it even exceeds what you can afford. Sometimes it is to be in midst of the “IN” crowd and sometimes for the status symbol. Everybody wants that little extra. They strive for it. They push a little harder, work a little harder. No wonder I see people of my generation working so hard to be better providers for their families than I probably saw my father and his generation. They work a lot harder these days. My dad always had ample time for us. I dont think that today’s parents have that. Yeah they go for vacations…. lots of them!!!

I once had a friend who gave me a weird concept. He was neck down in mortgages on his car, house and even took personal loans. He told me that it is actually a motivation for him to work harder than he was doing presently. The loans motivate him to push a little more harder and work a little more. I wonder what will happen if there is a breakdown in his scheme of things…… something that he had not planned for. Is he really ready to face the repercussions for that or for that matter is his family ready to face the realities in case something happens to him??? Would they be able to sit on the leather couch and watch the LCD tv (brought on loan) thinking of him sick or something else??? I wonder!!!

I am not averse to more wants and desires. I once claimed to my aunt that I did not want anything in life, I had very simple tastes and could live in a meagre income. But that is not true like the poet I wouldnt mind the something extra but it does not mean that i cannot live without it. I can!!! But no I will not vie for what others have – materially or otherwise. That is something i would not ever do. I guess that comes with my middle class upbringing that I was brought up with and I am proud of it!!! I once heard someone say something on the same grounds and I actually scoffed him because just days back he had returned from a vacation with his family in Singapore, his favorite place for a holiday with his family and mind you all this on a personal loan.

I think a easier way to remove this frustration of running a treadmill of wants and never ever reaching anywhere, is to concentrate on NEEDS. The world of NEEDS is not different from the world of WANTS…. sometimes even synonymous. But then NEEDS are easy to deal with. But I think that before embarking into the world of needs and wants – one should check their balance sheet for both their assets and liabilites and make sure that their sinking fund can bear the burden of the losses incurred. I mean that both materially as well as emotionally.

Moral of the story : Try to be satisfied with what you have else you may not have even what you have today. I end today with a song from a bollywood movie khatta meetha (oldie) “thoda hai thode ki zaroorat hai” somehow not able to get upload the song so posting the link watch it. It is beautiful.

thoda hai thode ki zaroorat hai
zindagi phir bhi yahaan khubsoorat hai

jis din paisa hoga vo din kaisa hoga
us din pahiye ghumenge aur kismat ke lab chumenge
bolo aisa hoga
thoda hai thode ki zaroorat hai

sun sun sun hawa chali saba chali
tere anchal se ud ke ghata chali
sun sun sun kaha chali
main chune zara asman chali
badal pe udna hoga
thoda hai thode ke zaroorat hai

hamne sapna dekha hai
koi apna dekha hai
jab raat ka ghungat utre ga
aur din ki doli guzre gi
tab sapna pura hoga
thoda hai thode ki zaroorat hai.

chotisi ye duniye meri poori duniya hai
ang liye rang liye sang chalenge
sath hai hum sath hai sab sath rahenge

thoda hai thode ki zaroorat hai
zindagi magar phir bhi yahan khubsoorat hai