Expectations!

We are born with them And we die with them... largely unfulfilled in too many cases, I must admit!
A child is born and the parents expect a genius from day one...And that's just for starters! As for the child? He (I am not going through the whole hassle of being PC and say he/she!) expects the parents to put the world at his feet because after all he didn't ask to be brought into this BIG, BAD world!
And it doesn't get any better, any time soon...
The expectations yo-yo back and forth...
The parents: He must get 99.99% in +2. Only then will he get into IIT!
The child: Who wants to get into IIT? I have to go abroad. All my friends are going!
The parents: He must get a good job - in a IT company or a BPO.
The child: Ha Ha! I don't want to get into a boring job... I am going to be a VJ on MTV and meet with all those hot chicks!!!
And so it goes...
And then there are the expectations that go with relationships - whether sanctified by
the church, temple, mosque or synagogue...
He: She should be a sexy but sweet and simple.
She: He should be talk, dark, handsome AND sexy but not look at another woman - ever again (a patent impossibility I have been told!).
He: She should be smart, clever and wonderful in bed and in the boardroom but NOT as smart, clever and wonderful in bed and boardroom as me!
She: He should have loads of cash and go from management trainee to CEO in one fell swoop.
He: She should contribute to the household expenses but I am the bread winner.
She: He should be romantic, take me out to candle lit dinners and woo me with roses - at least once a week!
He: She should hold down a good job and come home to hearth and home on the dot of 5 pm - no working late or going out with friends after work. Who will welcome me home at 10 pm after a hard day's work (and carousing with pals) with a hot dinner and even warmer hugs?
She: I work as hard as he does. So why should I be the only one to cook, clean, do all the housework and look after the kids? That's like holding down 5 jobs - at one and the same time!
He: A man brings home the bacon - isn't that enough?
Nuff said about marriages (relationships) made in heaven!
There are expectations one has of friends, family, jobs, community, the government and one's country...
John Kennedy said (I am roughly paraphrasing this): Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country... And that is where the catch lies, my friends!
From all fiscal indications our country is going great guns! Everyone knows the statistics! But could we ask ourselves whether we live up to the expectations of our country?
Could we, perhaps, live by the rule of law, hygiene and common courtesy? In simple things...
Like maintaining lane discipline while driving (then maybe the BRT would work!)? Like not braking to a stop in the middle of a high speed expressway and killing innocent people. Like not crossing the road anywhere and everywhere the fancy takes us simply because we don't want to walk to the zebra crossing. Like not driving on the wrong side of the road or zipping through red lights.
Like not throwing the trash on to the road because who cares about the road as long as one's home is clean? Like not trying to get one's files moved by judiciously tipping a somnolent clerk a 50 buck note. Like not bopping people over the head (fatally quite often) because they don't agree with you or have the wads of cash you must have, right now.
Ad infinitum, ad nauseum...
Maybe our expectations would be realised if we did our little bit to fulfill the expectations our country has of us! That way we might really find ourselves not just a developing but a developed country - in the near future.