Uncommon Needs - Satisfied

Companies seemed to me to all be vying to satisfy the same needs. All male deodorants seemed to be targeted at getting gaggles of women chasing the man who chose to use them. You may argue that women cosmetics addressed different needs - to become an air-hostess, to be able to attend a surprise party and what not - but it all reduces in the end to increasing fairness in various visible and invisible parts of the female anatomy or in addressing the needs of the dead keratin that covers the scalp (Yes! The green-eyed monster - Jealousy - is rampant in me).

Please do not cite the product that addresses the need of a woman to pull a truck out of a pothole with her hair. What the woman wants to do with her hair may be uncommon but it all reduces to that damned keratin again.

Coming across a few products that address some uncommon needs was, indeed, a pleasant surprise although they shattered my complacent view of the ways of companies. Offhand, I can recollect only a few of them.

Have you ever thought of what would happen if you were in a woods and some desirable damsels made off with your shirt? You feel the need to go chasing after them - and are, as yet, not clear whether you want the shirt or the dames. And, once you find them you suddenly discover that you needed neither the shirt nor the damsels and could make do with sunglasses instead? We have just the bike for you.

How about if you have never stepped into water because you are afraid of it. You, of course, are absolutely confident that, if only you could shed that irrational fear, you have the ability to jump into the sea off a hundred foot high cliff without breaking your neck and, also, that you will not go glug-glug after that and pickle your insides with salt-water ( All this confidence even though you are not Rajnikant. You just cannot be Rajnikant, can you, if you can be afraid of anything at all). If only a company could make a product to rid you of that fear. Well, we have - drink our soft drink and, voila, you are ready to take the plunge.

What if it feels awesome to you to go to the very few pristine unpolluted areas of the world and pollute them with chemicals? To jump into an arctic pool dressed in nothing much more than foam singing all the while about how awesome it is. Sing hosannas to our soap.

It is so comforting to know that companies are only too eager to tailor products to suit our needs - no matter how uncommon our needs are. And we keep complaining about how little they care for us. Life is so unfair.