The idiom If wishes were horses, beggars would ride, traced to a collection of Scottish proverbs about 1628, seems to mistakenly divert attention to horses and beggars, masking the message that if wishing could make things materialise, then even the most destitute people would have access to everything they wanted. Further, the veiled insult hurdled at beggars seems to be both undeserving and not called for, as it amounts to adding fuel to fire or branding a wound with a burning ember, drawing from a Kannada idiom. The expression, focussed on wishes, may be dissected leading to a fascinating debate on desiring before pondering over deserving what is sought, or much worse, without deserving, jut driven by passion. The child’s desire to have a toffee or a toy and an adult’s irrepressible desire to get rich, irrespective of the means, are different kettles of fish. More importantly, while the child’s delight is unalloyed, the adult’s desire, particularly to acquire wealth or power with authority often sees no end. Chasing name and fame undeservedly marks the phenomenon of desiring with pitfalls, not to forget loss of face in society.

Thanks to cut-throat competition amidst limited and steadily shrinking opportunities at different stages in life, starting from schooling upto landing a job, the desire to cross the hurdles by hook or crook prompts one to invoke the caution sounded by the wise that unbridled desire is the root cause of sadness, depression in case of disappointment and finally tendency to commit suicide.

While the economic health of a country is rated by estimating many parameters such as gross domestic product, index of industrial production, current account deficit, unemployment, life expectancy and so on, rating the country’s level of happiness could be based on the extent of satisfaction on the part of the diaspora. The words of wisdom not to stretch desires beyond one’s means to meet the basic needs of life don’t have many takers in the land. The political class figuring in the disturbing reports being published now-a-days by dailies of all hues and blared on the small screen portray the consequences of chasing desires by unethical and unlawful means, which is engaging the attention of public.

Without meaning to demonise desire, the current scenario across the country of the well-marked sections of society hell bent on enjoying rights of all kinds, forgetting the sweat and toil to earn those rights, unmindful of the responsibilities is the undoing of the land’s masses. “First deserve and then desire”  is the prescription of the wise.