After exactly three days, in which time Sadia's impatience had not died off a single bit, the reply came. This was what it said:
"Thank you Sadia for replying. True I do not know you in real life, but like a window in your heart, your comments have always made me believe your heart is beautiful. I have been following your comments with a religious punctuality and, although I never responded to them, I have always liked them. I wish we could know more about each other."
Sadia's unease was released to a good extent after she got the reply, yet it was not over, in fact, in some sort, her discomfort had multiplied. She was not sure if it was ok to develop that kind of feeling for a stranger whom she had not even seen. She replied:
"Well, thanks but I do not think I am any different from the other people. I opened a facebook account only to kill time. Anyways, I am a tenth grade student, and you?"
Kamal replied:
"Same here, I too use Facebook to kill time. And nice to know that you are a student. I am also a college student. May I know your hobbies? Can you please tell me what is your schedule on a routine day? BTW, I like it so much to remain in communication with you."
The next one week or so passed in this frenzy exchange of message. At first it was two to three messages per week, then a message daily and then several ones in one day.
One day, Sadia got a message from Kamal:
"I know Sado (that was her nickname at home, and Kamal too had started using it for her) you belong to a very conservative family and that you have never talked to a guy before; however, I can not anymore suppress my urge to see your photo. Can you please bless me with the pleasure of seeing your face?"
Sadia was too scared to send him a photo. Although, deep inside, she always wanted to let him know how she looked, not to make him feel that she was so beautiful but to satisfy her own curiousity as to how she appeared if looked at through the eyes of a man.
No matter how beautiful Sadia was to everyone, she herself always felt she was not beautiful enough, if beautiful at all. Ever since she was a little child, she felt she was not goog looking. As a child, some of her class fellows told her she was too fair, they told her skin was too white to be called pretty. And this created a sense of inferiority in Sadia. She always believed there was a possibility that she was too fair--- to the point of albinism (although this was most certainly not the case, and she was amazingly fair skinned). She always wondered if it was possible for her to be reassured that she was indeed pretty. That her nose was not too short, as she thought, that her lips were not too thin as she believed, that her she was not too fat as she felt (her weight was about 55 kgs and height 5'6"), and most of all that her overall appearance was not scary as opposed to pretty.
This was a good chance for Sadia to show a photo to Kamal to get an opinion from him. She initially thought the time had come at last when she would change her perception about her appearance and would start thinking that she is indeed good-looking. But her wishful thinking was soon cut short by the fear of being rated as plain or worse bad-looking. She almost choked on her saliva when she thought what if Kamal too pointed out the same flaws in her appearance that she believed were present in her. And what if he decide to quit the correspondence after finding her picture "horrible"?
After exactly three days, in which time Sadia's impatience had not died off a single bit, the reply came. This was what it said:
"Thank you Sadia for replying. True I do not know you in real life, but like a window in your heart, your comments have always made me believe your heart is beautiful. I have been following your comments with a religious punctuality and, although I never responded to them, I have always liked them. I wish we could know more about each other."
Sadia's unease was released to a good extent after she got the reply, yet it was not over, in fact, in some sort, her discomfort had multiplied. She was not sure if it was ok to develop that kind of feeling for a stranger whom she had not even seen. She replied:
"Well, thanks but I do not think I am any different from the other people. I opened a facebook account only to kill time. Anyways, I am a tenth grade student, and you?"
Kamal replied:
"Same here, I too use Facebook to kill time. And nice to know that you are a student. I am also a college student. May I know your hobbies? Can you please tell me what is your schedule on a routine day? BTW, I like it so much to remain in communication with you."
The next one week or so passed in this frenzy exchange of message. At first it was two to three messages per week, then a message daily and then several ones in one day.
One day, Sadia got a message from Kamal:
"I know Sado (that was her nickname at home, and Kamal too had started using it for her) you belong to a very conservative family and that you have never talked to a guy before; however, I can not anymore suppress my urge to see your photo. Can you please bless me with the pleasure of seeing your face?"
Sadia was too scared to send him a photo. Although, deep inside, she always wanted to let him know how she looked, not to make him feel that she was so beautiful but to satisfy her own curiousity as to how she appeared if looked at through the eyes of a man.
No matter how beautiful Sadia was to everyone, she herself always felt she was not beautiful enough, if beautiful at all. Ever since she was a little child, she felt she was not goog looking. As a child, some of her class fellows told her she was too fair, they told her skin was too white to be called pretty. And this created a sense of inferiority in Sadia. She always believed there was a possibility that she was too fair--- to the point of albinism (although this was most certainly not the case, and she was amazingly fair skinned). She always wondered if it was possible for her to be reassured that she was indeed pretty. That her nose was not too short, as she thought, that her lips were not too thin as she believed, that her she was not too fat as she felt (her weight was about 55 kgs and height 5'6"), and most of all that her overall appearance was not scary as opposed to pretty.
This was a good chance for Sadia to show a photo to Kamal to get an opinion from him. She initially thought the time had come at last when she would change her perception about her appearance and would start thinking that she is indeed good-looking. But her wishful thinking was soon cut short by the fear of being rated as plain or worse bad-looking. She almost choked on her saliva when she thought what if Kamal too pointed out the same flaws in her appearance that she believed were present in her. And what if he decide to quit the correspondence after finding her picture "horrible"?