When nothing is ever enough

There is something strange about human happiness. We spend years chasing something, believing it will finally make us content. But once we get it, another desire takes its place. The joy lasts for a while, and then the chase begins again.

Mirza Ghalib understood this weakness of human nature nearly two centuries ago. In one of his most famous couplets, he wrote:

Hazaron khwahishen aisi ki har khwahish pe dam nikle
Bahut nikle mere arman lekin phir bhi kam nikle.

Ghalib speaks of countless desires, each so powerful that it seems capable of taking his breath away. Many wishes may come true, yet they are never enough.

Is this not how most of us live today?

A young person wants a good job. Once employed, the next goal is a higher salary. Then comes a better position, a larger house, a car and perhaps a more comfortable life. There is nothing wrong with these ambitions. They help us grow and improve our circumstances.

The problem begins when every achievement loses its value the moment another goal appears.

Social media has made this feeling even stronger. Someone else’s foreign holiday makes our own weekend seem ordinary. A friend’s promotion makes our progress appear slow. A neighbour’s new car suddenly makes ours look old.

We are no longer comparing our lives only with our dreams. We are comparing them with the lives of hundreds of people.

But Ghalib’s words are not necessarily an attack on desire. They also capture the beauty and pain of being human. Without dreams, life would become dull. Without ambition, many of us would never discover what we are capable of achieving.

The real question is whether our desires serve us or begin to rule us.

There is a difference between wanting a better life and believing that life cannot be good until we possess something more.

Perhaps happiness does not depend on having everything we want. It may depend on recognising the value of what we already have.

Ghalib’s couplet remains powerful because it offers no easy solution. It simply holds a mirror before us.

And the face we see in that mirror is often our own.

There is nothing wrong with wanting more. But there is something sad about never finding enough.