The Expectation

“Expectation leads to disappointments”. You might have read this many times at many different places.
If we make our expectation 0, then the maximum percentage of our disappointments is also 0 and our happiness is 100 percent. But is it possible to make our expectation 0? Why not give a try? If not 0 at least we will try to bring it down to a smaller number.

The equation.
disappointment <= expectation.
happiness = 100% - disappointment.

Why suddenly a post like this? I want to narrate a small incident from my life. I like my higher secondary maths teacher a lot. During my school days, my friends and I went to his home lots of times and had our doubts clarified. I was one of the guys expected to score a centum in maths (that didn't happen finally :) ). So he knew me very well.

Recently I saw him in a marriage function. I wanted to talk with him. I thought he would remember me and inquire about me, my job etc. So I went and talked to him, asking him about his health. He didn’t remember me and simply replied ‘Fine’ and asked ‘how are you?’

I was very upset that he couldn't remember me at all. But finally he asked me, ‘you are the one who studied at Amrita right?’ I said ‘Yes.’ He said ‘Ok, bye’.

I was still upset. I came home and started thinking about the incident. Finally I understood that, according to me he is the only maths teacher; but according to him, I am the one of the thousands of students he sees in his life.
(Just like how one girl might be special to you, but to her you might be one of the 100s of guys she met :) )

After thinking a lot, I was very happy that he remembered my college name at least. That’s a great thing.

But the important question here is why I expected him to remember me? That is what made me unhappy and disappointed. What if I didn't expect anything in return and just did my job from my side? I will be much happier, right?

So after this incident I am trying to reduce my expectations. I will just do the things from my side and will not expect anything in return. Till now I was failing most of the time (and not all the times). So I am making progress in my chosen path. I am sure I will decrease the value of expectation to a smaller number.

Friends, who read this, please try it out. Also let me know your point of view.

(Thanks to Ramkumar for correcting my grammar mistakes :) )

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-Jeyabalaji