Motives refer to a 'universal cohomology theory' for algebraic varieties proposed by Grothendieck in the 1960's. Till date the construction of a category of motives is still conjectural. Regardless, the idea has led to far reaching consequences in Algebraic Geometry and has been a guiding light. The goal of this lecture is to motivate and discuss some conjectures and their implications. The lecture would be elementary and we hope by avoiding technical details we shall be able to get across the underlying ideas surrounding this beautiful theory.