I was on my way to home. On the way, there was a stop from where public buses and taxis left to different parts of the city. I noticed one of my students sitting in one of the public taxis. As his eyes struck with mine, he quickly turned away his face and started looking at something else. It all happened in a moment or two and I passed away. After a few days, it happened again. This time, he had already turned away his face and appeared as if he was looking at something else. This behavior came to me as something strange. But later on I found out that he was much ashamed to show that he travelled in a public taxi. He was trying to show that he did not notice me or I had not seen him.

As a part of our policy to develop better relations with parents, we visit the houses of our students. In this connection, I asked a student to inform his father and tell me about a time suitable to meet his father. I knew that he belonged to a poor family but it was never a matter of any discrimination for me or for other teachers as he was a very obedient, well-mannered and gifted student. Anyhow, I waited for a few days but there was no reply from the student. Then I reminded him of this and he told me that he had forgotten to talk to his father and would inform me after he finalizes a time with his father. But again, many days passed but he did not come up with a reply. On my second reminder, he told me that his father was much busy these days and has no time to welcome me at his house. I asked him to inform me when his father gets free but again there was silence even after the months of this.

Once, all the students were leaving to their houses on the occasion of Eid. I informed the student that on the second day of Eid, I will visit his house and he should ask his father to be at home. With this the color on the face of the student changed but he faintly said ‘ok’. On the second day of Eid, I reached to his village and asked a person to guide me to their house. When we were near his house, I saw the child coming towards us. Though it was the occasion of Eid, but he had not worn any new clothes. He appeared to be very serious and not pleased at all from the arrival of his teacher. Later on, he took me from a number of small and dirty streets and at last ended up in a house that included of one room only. The room was an absolute picture of poverty and there were very few things in it. Though his father was trying his best to appear good to us but it was clear that both the father and the son were very ashamed of their situation. After a while, tea was brought along with some biscuits in a small plate. The situation inside the room was very tense and all my efforts to bring it to normalcy were not much successful. As soon as I finished the tea, I asked their permission to leave and they were much relieved with this. I was feeling ashamed to make people feel bad about themselves.

The above two stories can be taken as a sample from innumerable stories when we take our poverty as something shameful and remain ashamed of our reality. In order to hide our reality, we do many stupid acts. Just like any illiterate society, where money and wealth are given too much importance and people’s personal qualities are given the secondary place, our society is also not an exception. We give too much importance to the wealth. This is not a bad thing or not something unusual or strange but with this comes two difficult situations; first, the person who is having wealth, develops a feeling of pride and superiority and these feelings earn him an invisible confidence. Till here, this thing is not bad because if your wealth can earn you confidence and tranquility, this is a worth-praising quality but the problem starts when you try to show-off yourself just because of your wealth and creates problems for the others. These problems may not be physical but emotional and psychological. On the other hand, a person who is poor feels ashamed of his situation and this feeling or realization intimidates all his feelings and social life interactions.

Unfortunately, this situation of feeling ashamed may not harm the elders so much but it definitely affects the children a lot. I have seen a number of children who appear to be very silent and shy just because of their weak economic situations. He feels too much when he looks at his clothes, his torn shoes and his inability to spend money in school or with the children of neighborhood. If the child remains under constant pressure, it may affect his performance in school and in social life too much. He may hesitate to develop friendships with the kids of his age, may not join their games and social gatherings, may not be confident and happy in school and may try to avoid the social interactions or mass gatherings. This would gradually instill in him a permanent belief of feeling bad about his situation.

In this regard, both our elders and children need to be given counseling and guidance. The elders can be given guidance by their friends and relatives while the children can be best guided by their parents, family elders or the teachers. Teachers can perform this duty more effectively as they are taken as role models by the students and their voice carries more weight.

In this regard, first thing to be understood is the situation of being poor. Being poor is not a crime or mistake and right from the inception of the human race, there have been poor and rich and it would continue in the same pattern. This is a reality that needs to be understood and accepted whole-heartedly. Feeling bad about it won’t change the ground realities. But if we accept it as a reality and try to live with this reality happily, that would definitely change the world of our feelings and emotions. Secondly, being rich is not a quality; it is just a condition. In case of children, it is the achievement of their parents and there is no contribution of children in this regard. It is also a reality that wealth can only provide us with opportunities to grow but if we don’t have our own personal qualities, this wealth is not going to do anything for us. Similarly, the prophets and saints were all poor and they never longed to accumulate wealth. Rather, in the religious and theological teachings, wealth is considered as a thing given to some to test them. Due to wealth, very less people control themselves or use it in proper way and thus it becomes a source of failure, both in this and the world to follow.

And we need to feel pride and give importance to hard work, politeness, perseverance, intelligence and other heavenly qualities which cannot be achieved by any wealth and these qualities make the people different from others. There can be many points in this regard, but understanding the above may also suffice to free us from the feelings of being ashamed of our poverty and lack of facilities.