Noor Rehman stood at the entrance to his Class 3 classroom, clutching his school grades with shaking hands. First place. Once more. His teacher smiled with happiness. His peers cheered. For a fleeting, wonderful moment, the nine-year-old boy imagined his aspirations of becoming a soldier—of serving his nation, of causing his parents pleased—were attainable.
That was a quarter year ago.
At present, Noor has left school. He aids his father in the woodworking shop, studying to sand furniture in place of mastering mathematics. His school clothes rests click here in the closet, clean but unworn. His learning materials sit arranged in the corner, their pages no longer flipping.
Noor never failed. His parents did everything right. And even so, it couldn't sustain him.
This is the tale of how poverty doesn't just limit opportunity—it erases it wholly, even for the most talented children who do everything asked of them and more.
When Top Results Proves Adequate
Noor Rehman's dad works as a carpenter in the Laliyani area, a small community in Kasur, Punjab, Pakistan. He remains talented. He's dedicated. He leaves home ahead of sunrise and gets home after nightfall, his hands rough from many years of creating wood into pieces, frames, and embellishments.
On successful months, he earns around 20,000 rupees—about 70 dollars. On difficult months, less.
From that wages, his family of six people must pay for:
- Rent for their modest home
- Groceries for four children
- Bills (electric, water supply, gas)
- Doctor visits when kids fall ill
- Travel
- Clothes
- Other necessities
The calculations of financial hardship are straightforward and harsh. There's never enough. Every rupee is already spent before earning it. Every choice is a decision between requirements, not once between necessity and convenience.
When Noor's academic expenses needed payment—along with fees for his brothers' and sisters' education—his father encountered an unworkable equation. The calculations wouldn't work. They never do.
Some cost had to give. Some family member had to give up.
Noor, as the eldest, grasped first. He's conscientious. He remains mature beyond his years. He comprehended what his parents were unable to say out loud: his education was the expenditure they could not afford.
He didn't cry. He did not complain. He just stored his attire, arranged his textbooks, and requested his father to show him woodworking.
Because that's what young people in hardship learn from the start—how to relinquish their hopes without complaint, without weighing down parents who are currently bearing greater weight than they can bear.