# Email to a friend
At one point in my life I hired a Virtal Assistant (VA) from India, whose name was “Nirmal N”. A Virtal Assistant is like a personal assistant but they live remotely and all interaction is online. And to be clear, they are real humans not robots or chatbots.
A bit of background: I was an early reader of Tim Ferris’ The Four Hour Workweek. In the book he expains the mechanics of running a profitable business with only 4 hours of work per week. One of the keys to this is “automating” your business with cheap labour using the benefits of international wage arbitrage.
Unfortunately, for the things I was automating I found that the VA wasn't a good fit because:
- the work quality was terrible, and
- the time to prepare the tasks took as long as completeing them myself.
Since I had already paid for the VA I figured I might as well put Nirmal to good use. I am awful at keeping in touch with my friends and family so I decided that was a good thing for Nirmal to solve.
I sent Nirmal a list of family email addresses and some bullet points of possible things to write about. In this task, I was not disappointed. None of my friends or family knew that I had a VA - I received a number of messages telling me that my email had been hacked - which made it even more enjoyable for me.
The following email was sent to my cousin, Michael. It was one of my favourites. I have not modified any of the words or grammar - they are all the genius of Nirmal N.
Subject: Email to a friend
Hi Michael,
Hope you are doing well.
I am Nirmal, Paul’s virtual assistant.
I am writing this email on behalf of Paul as he is too much busy and he asked me to write this email to you. He is very much keen to know the progress of your trip and the way things are going on for you.
How is your trip going on? I wish it is going in a smooth and comfortable manner. Paul informed me that, currently you are in Holland. How is the weather in Holland?. Is it moderate?. Paul also wants me to check what you are doing at present.
A wish from Paul : “The experiences are so innumerable and varied, that the journey appears to be interminable and the Destination is ever out of sight. But the wonder of it is, when at last you reach your Destination you find that you had never travelled at all! It was a journey from here to Here.”
I wish you a fantabulous time ahead.
Thanks And Regards
Nirmal.N