Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

A friend of mine, told me about this Maslow’s hierarchy of needs when I was asking him a very stupid question, why do women buy jewelries?  He told me about the hierarchy of needs.  This theory might be old by now but there is a truth in it.  I would definitely not say this if I hadn’t proven it by myself in little room with a tin roof, covered with a mosquito net, attacked by a mouse and a goat and a cockroach constantly and still combing my hair….

So the theory is that first come the physiological needs for us.  Breathing, food, water, sleep etc.

I could breathe.

I had some food that I might not be crazy about, but it fed me.  Water was ok, sleeping was a struggle for the first few days but the first step was ok.

When I arrived here in this little house in the middle of endless fields, my initial concern was to be insect-free.  Since I had been living in flats and not used to have all this nature around me, all those bugs, geckoes, wasps, leeches, cockroaches, crickets bothered me to death.  All I wanted is to sleep in the safety of my net, waking up every morning with all those creatures on and outside of the net… I had this fight with the little mouse that lived on the roof and came to my room every day when I was not there…  The huge spider that I ended up calling charlotte and shared the room with, that first scared me to death…  I did not eat much for the first week, just a small plate in the morning and a little in the evening.  I didn’t really care for much either. I couldn’t read much, or enjoy the music I had with me, didn’t take off the bandana on my head.   But slowly I got used to all the creatures moving around in the room, the mouse was coming and going, the geckoes were catching the mosquitoes, charlotte was killing the poisonous spiders,  leeches you could take of your skin with some salt, wasps were not a big threat unless you irritate them… So finally I was sure I wouldn’t die.

So I was safe.  I contacted my family telling them I was ok and knowing they also were. Since I started getting used to the environment my morality was higher.  Health was ok too.

Moving 1 step higher, talking to Shreeram and his wife. Having discussions and classes with the children, was the social needs being met.  So that was ok.

From this point I don’t really care for the Maslow pyramid.   After the social needs, I imagine there should be a totally unnecessary act.  Because once you are safe, fed, content you shouldn’t need anything anymore.  But human kind is not like that.  The moment we are safe we start looking at the neighbor’s house.  Is theirs prettier than ours?

I was safe, fed, clean, and social, I even found books in the library and started reading them, next step was to comb my hair and look at the mirror.  Maybe even get the tweezers. 

And when I finally found myself sitting on the couch after a small manicure & pedicure I gave myself, with my chai and some cookies I bought from the store in the village, reading cosmopolitan, solving the test about how hot is your partner, I realized I was ok…

I realized I was only ok once I was enjoying something I didn’t need….