The aftermath...

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is something that stuck with me from my MBA needs. We learnt this as part of Organizational Behaviour and how motivation revolved around people finding themselves at different level of needs and so the motivation strategies should be aligned with the level the person is in currently. 

If the theory is new to you I will lay it out in simple terms. Man begins with physiological needs, physiological means basic needs to survive like air, water, food, shelter, clothes and reproduction. When a man is not having food to eat will a movie ticket that cannot be sold enthuse him? If you see the image once man achieves his need in one level, he strives to move ahead to the next level. This ascent is natural and ends at the fifth level when man achieves what is called self-actualization where he will be in nirvana and will renounce everything around him. Few achieve stage five, many are content with one of the lower levels and this is normal. What is abnormal is jumping levels to satisfy ones needs with the wrong wants. 

If this is confusing let me simplify. Yesterday was a day that was a blot on the country and I will not go deep into the same stopping with the fact that equating the temple movement to the independence struggle shows how little our nation in its present form means to people. If you look back at the start of the lockdown two needs of people were cast aside for another fundamental need of survival. The need to survive from a deadly disease was paramount and to that end other needs were kept aside; the fact that many died of hunger than the disease itself due to the reasons we saw became a footnote in the larger story. Two needs education and religion were knocked off their high pedestal and relegated to one corner in the fight against the disease because education would probably fall in level 2 and religion in level 3 and both come into play if the individual survives. 

Politics today has transformed into offering things at higher levels to people who are still at level one and a great many have fallen for it. Religion, nationalism are needs to those who are having food to eat, a place to sleep, a job to ensure that there is a tomorrow, clothes to cover the nakedness and support to reproduce to grow another generation. To a great majority of those who do not have one or more of the above, what use is religion or nationalism? Why does development and prosperity remain with those who already have it and now aspire for higher things; these people are denying the basic necessities to the have-nots? Will a building or a non-secular nation bring a nation of no hunger?

The NEP may have its merits but our former Tamil Nadu chief ministers have shown with their policies of free food in schools that education to a empty stomach is meaningless. The student needs a sound body to build a sound mind. Our state is the leader in education and the rest of the country can take a leaf out of  Tamil Nadu book. If the nation must grow, it needs to put first things first. Remember when we fall sick we run to a hospital, for  treatment and then fall on our knees in prayer.