High Society

I came across this post (http://shaziawish.blogspot.com/2011/04/hi-society-blues.html) today and I loved it. Very nicely written.

Customer Service

I read this blog (http://royatkinson.blogspot.com/2011/03/not-just-button-not-just-number.html) on customer service.

Read especially the comment trail below the post. On one hand are the comments in Junkbook (oops Facebook), juvenile and inane. And here we see a lovely exchange between the author and a reader.

And here is an interesting article (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/business/28borker.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&hp) on a harrowing experience that a woman went through when she bought stuff from on an online retailer. 

Pilot License

I read this (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Daughter-of-DGCA-No-2-got-licence-from-school-with-no-plane/articleshow/8094783.cms) article about a an aviation school that was awarded a license to train pilots.

The article alleges that the person in charge of awarding licenses gave the school the license in gross violation of rules (the school didn't have a hangar or an airplane) and a month later his daughter joined the school and got her pilot license from the same school.

How does a person do this? It is common for a parent to have a strong desire to help the children. But to what extent should you go? When there is a conflict between desire and ethics / morality where do you draw a line?

Would the parent travel in a plane that the child flies? How safe is it for the child to pilot a plane? What about other travelers?

Perhaps "We will cross the flight when we come to it" is how we delude ourself. We pray that our child will become a good pilot by god's grace.

What an awful set of principles some people live by.

Grunt And Gunshot

My friend recently informed that her husband got transferred to a different city far away.

I immediately asked her to give me a list of things she is scared of now that she would be living alone.

She looked at me fondly and said "you are so worried about me, you want to ensure nothing happens to me".

I am honest. I told her I wanted to ensure that all the things she is scared of happen to her. And I told her I was in a hurry, would she please make the list and give it to me ASAP.

Here I have to pause for a moment to recall exactly what her response was. It wasn't a Yes. Nor was it a No. It was a cross between a grunt and a gunshot. And sound seemed to emanate from her ear, nose and throat.

I still can't figure out whether her answer was yes or no.

Way To Go India

I read this article http://www.zeenews.com/news702410.html about women police constables who got pregnant while undergoing training. The training instructor is apparently the person responsible.

Way to go.

Pets Around The House

This is a nice article (http://www.hindu.com/mp/2011/04/23/stories/2011042362330500.htm) with a beautiful photo on pets 

Vodafone Bowling Animation And Norwegian Airline Advertisement

I saw this advt (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvnLQvyAelA) and I loved it.

And a friend showed me this advt for Norwegian Airlines (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqJ9I80Z5gM). Nice one.

And this one on arranged marriage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5HLsvwLPpQ&NR=1&feature=fvwp

Kiddo Goes Shopping

My friend Kiddo (refer http://Calmisc.blogspot.com/2011/02/i-am-in-business.html, for more details) is one of those smart modern women who knows exactly what they want. She wanted a phone. She had got the specifications right.

It had to be white. It had to be light. Not exceeding 110gm. And no touchscreen. And preferably a Sony Ericsson. And of course radiation had to be low. Not like some of those Samsung / Motorola models which have high radiation levels. (I mentioned to her that a white one is prone to get dirty. She told me that should would wash the phone often and said something about whites and coloreds having to be washed separately. I didn't quite understand what she said but let it go.)

So she browsed various phones, shopped for prices online, offline.

She checked with a few friends.

And then she went out with a vengeance.

She came back with an Apple IPAD which weighs 543gm, grey color, about 10" (250mm length) with a lovely touch screen interface.

I asked her whether the IPAD met the specifications that she had drawn up earlier.

She replied acidly "In life you gotta be flexible and not be rooted to what you originally thought. Only idiots are inflexible."

Acid Test For The Right Man

A quote from a friend

"Any man can love a million girls anyday, but it takes a real man to love one girl in a million ways."

Desire For Peace

A friend of mine lives with 2 men in her house.

One man is her father who crossed 50 years of age a few decades back and the other one is her son who in a few years will enter his teens. But the two have been trying her patience with their constant need for women and she is going out of her mind.

She wants peace and wants to get them both married off and out of her house. Immediately.

Old And Beautiful

This article (http://www.hindu.com/mp/2011/04/23/stories/2011042352430200.htm) is about an old and interesting place - Jordan.

Additional reading:
http://www.happytrips.com/jordan/travel-guide/the-fascinating-cities-and-towns-of-jordan/gs47229576.cms

Pets Around The House

This is a nice article (http://www.hindu.com/mp/2011/04/23/stories/2011042362330500.htm) with a beautiful photo on pets.

Personality And Health

Personality defines health as per this article (http://in.lifestyle.yahoo.com/wellness/little-miss-conscientious-will-live-the-longest-of-all-blog-58-mailtoday.html).

The biggest drawback in being an ass**** is that you might get piles.

European Intelligence

I showed a picture of the beach in Chennai to a friend (in Europe). She commented that it looked very clean and it was hard to believe that it was a beach in INDIA.

Uhhh.

I said to her "Sometimes I meet a very intelligent and knowledgeable person, hard to believe he/she is from Europe. But it happens".

She had the grace to burst out laughing.

It's sad to see the opinion that people have of India. It is not undeserved.

Poise

A friend gave me this quote by PG Wodehouse and I loved it.

"At the age of eleven or thereabouts women acquire a poise and an ability to handle difficult situations which a man, if he is lucky, manages to achieve somewhere in the later seventies."

Another Lovely Blog From CTKingstom

Read this http://ctkingston.com/are-you-done-with-the-f-word/ for fun. The author has made a long list of things we all do but wished no one knew we did. unfortunately this site is no more.

If you are feeling bored and if you want a good time online, I would recommend ctkingston. This site is light, funny. Every post has something to keep you alive. 

India News

Fire broke out in the prestigious Rajdhani train from Bombay to Delhi (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-04-19/india/29446504_1_pantry-car-passengers-train). An alert pantry car employee woke up sleeping passengers and saved their lives. While this is very nice that lives were saved, what caused the fire in the first place? What kind of systems or processes went wrong? How many such issues could happen in the future? Who is looking at these?

Monsoon is expected to be normal this year (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Itll-be-a-normal-monsoon-this-year-forecasts-Met/articleshow/8032943.cms) as per the meteorological department. That is good for the economy in India (not to mention relief from the heat). The NIFTY index is already at 5800 and the Price to Earnings ratio of NIFTY companies is 21.65, fairly high already. And if companies' 2011 Q4 results turn out to be decent we are looking at a P/E touching 25 by Q2 of 2011-2012.

India doctor wins Pulitzer prize for his book on cancer (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Another-malady-another-Pulitzer-Indian-Docs-book-on-cancer-wins-prize/articleshow/8029070.cms). Let's hope that doctors are able to find a cure for and eradicate cancer in the near future.

I had earlier written about harassment of Indians (students, largely) in Australia (http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2011/03/studying-abroad.html). Today I read that a teenager pleaded guilty to the killing of an Indian student in Melbourne (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/other-news/Australian-teen-pleads-guilty-to-killing-Indian-student-Nitin-Garg/articleshow/8034543.cms). While I appreciate the fact that the they have identified the killer (something that would take ages in India), I still wonder why hordes of Indian go to a place where they are obviously not welcome. Quite interesting is the recording of the conversation between the boy (who killed the Indian student) and his mother.

Both parties are confident of winning in the recent election in Tamil Nadu (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/With-fronts-hopeful-of-victory-lobbying-starts-for-ministries/articleshow/8031938.cms). The results will be announced on May 13. I have all fingers in my mouth. Between a rock and a hard place. That's how it is. No matter who wins the election.

Another rocket launched (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13141562) which would help research. 

A realistic vendor of old comics in Mumbai sells books at a discount (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-others/tp-variety/article1710474.ece). He has his own interesting reason for this.

Pretty good overall.

Nice Joke

This is a nice one (http://www.funtoosh.com/jokes/indian_jokes/513).
And this one too (http://www.funtoosh.com/jokes/stupid/420)

Feeding Babies

I read about feeding babies offline (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Mom-at-work-most-kids-feed-on-stored-breast-milk/articleshow/8010653.cms) today.

This is probably better than feeding the babies milk made from milk powder while not as good as feeding them directly.

With increasing need for money and for women to go and earn, some basic things in life are getting diluted.

Hmmm.

A3 Problem Solving Template

A friend gave me this (http://www.crisp.se/lean/a3-template/A3-problem-solving-template.pdf) on problem solving, as apparently followed in Japan.

It includes a template for problem solving with an example. Nice reading.

Lovely Photographs

I came across this site (http://www.rathod.co.in/web/). If you want to see some lovely photographs, do visit this site. Unfortunately this site is no more.

Search For Mr Right

This is a well written article (http://in.lifestyle.yahoo.com/love-sex/will-you-wait-for-mr-right-blog-1-marie-claire-india.html) on the search for Mr Right. Google may do well to address this too.

Carry The Bride Once Again If You Can

A friend gave me this story (http://www.snopes.com/glurge/carry.asp). Nice reading. It's a slightly long one. Read it till the end.

Lovely wife. How many times we don't realize fully what's happening around us..

Different Personality Types: White, Red, Yellow, Blue

A friend showed me this (http://www.cobbk12.org/kennesawmountain/character/The%20Hartman%20Personality%20Test-COLORS.doc_new.pdf) description of 4 different personality types. 

Each one is described with its positives and negatives and what to with to positively reinforce them and what not to do.

I could spot persons that I know based on these types. Quite interesting.

A problem that I see with this kind of classification is that (many) a person would not fall into any of these 4 types. I foresee that as a common possibility. A categorization which has a larger coverage of all people would have been better.

Additional reading: http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2010/09/big-five-personality-test.html
http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2012/01/predicting-relationship-success.html

Dog In The Hotel

A friend sent me this joke (http://xeniajokes.blogspot.com/2008/01/dog-in-hotel.html).

Loved it.

Recipe For A Happy Family

I read this post (http://in.lifestyle.yahoo.com/relationships/perfect-combination-happy-family-article-ilgg.html) on what constitutes a happy family. Specifically this post is about the number and gender of children that constitutes a happy family. The data is based on families having more than one child - for some reason single child and childless families have been excluded from the study.

I wonder though how happiness was defined. Did they ask the respondent "Are you happy? Or "Rate your happiness in a scale of 1-5"?

Based on the survey, apparently a 2 daughter family is the happiest. 

Interesting.

Additional reading: http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2010/11/politicially-incorrect-truths-and.html

My Friend Caught In a Strange Place

After a long time my friend decided that she needed to get reacquainted with the kitchen. Consider that her in laws were planning to visit she didn't want to be caught not knowing the difference between the stove and the belan.

She planned out the dishes nicely:

1. Pasta

2. Dal (we all know how well pasta goes with dal)

3. Egg salad (and we know how egg salad and dal go well together)

and as she was busy multi-tasking a rather unfortunate thing happened. Moong dal became black dal.

Pasta also kind of became rock solid. You could have played baseball with it.

The salad turned out really nice. It was incidental that it involved no cooking.

Well she did the one thing that any person would have done. Euthanasia, mercy killing of the dishes. They were gently flushed..

Models In Saris

It's halloween time in India. So people have turned out in fancy dresses (nice though), http://in.omg.yahoo.com/galleries/photos/who-wore-it-best-325-1.html

Turbulent Priest

As some states go to the polls we hear some interesting stuff (http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/Manifestos-focus-economic-ians-742007206.html relates to promised made in West Bengal). The great lady there has promised a "single window" system for approval of setting up of new industries. Now who was it who made Tata leave in a huff from West Bengal and go to Gujrat instead of running the factory in West Bengal?

And someone else has promised that rice will be sold at Rs 2/kg (4 cents /kg). Wow. 

Let's come to Tamil Nadu. (http://in.news.yahoo.com/money-money-money-moolah-gets-around-tamil-nadu-20110412-044526-055.html). As I had mentioned in an earlier post (http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2011/01/capitalism-at-its-best.html) capitalism is working 24/7 here. What is the best way to win an election? Purchase the voters. Mr K and Ms J are creating a KJ kind of melody here. Unlike in Bengal these two realize that for the voters a $ in hand is worth 2Rs (per kg) in the future.

Mr Vijayakumar, chief electoral officer has been quoted as saying "he is astonished at the systematic and scientific manner in which cash is being distributed by political parties desperate to win the elections that pits the ruling DMK against the opposition AIADMK".

As in the case of the 2G Scam, SWAN telecom made an investment about $45million from which they made $500m by selling the license. The same kind of investment is happening here by purchasing votes now and encashing it once a party gets elected. Perhaps we can teach a thing or two people around the world about the power of money.

Of course Mr K has categorically denied that he is related to his wife and daughter who are accused of being involved in the 2G scam. He is also about to issue a denial of being related to the DMK party.

God help us. I am reminded of an English King who cried out in agony, "Won't somebody rid us of these turbulent people".

Social Interactions in The New World

A friend was frantic yesterday. She wanted to know how to set up videocam on skype. Her sister was coming and she did not know how to set it up.

I had heard of colleagues in office sitting in cubicles next to each other and emailing each other instead of walking two feet to the other person's cubicle and talking to him.

But what my friend was planning was something even stranger. She planned to do a cam to cam chat with her sister who was coming soon.

This internet has completely taken over social interactions. What will happen if we have something urgent to discuss with people at home and if the internet is down or there is an electricity outage? Eeeeek.

Human Rights Violation

I read an article today about a poll.

I thought it would be a good idea to conduct my own poll and get some data about senior citizens.

I found the following statistics:

78%     People who had never heard of sudoku or other online games

67%     People who did not have a gmail account

85%     People who did not have a facebook and twitter account

94%     People who did not have any fans/followers in FB and Twitter

89%     People who did not hang out in the bars nor in malls

97%     People who did not write blogs

More than 70% of the people above said that they would like to do all the activities above but first they need someone to explain to them what these are.

I believe that this is a gross violation of human rights. We need another Hazare to rectify this situation.

I have decided. I will start observing a (north Indian) fast* until such time this is rectified. I implore people to support me in this noble cause.

* North Indian Fast: This is a special type of fast where you don't eat what you don't like for an extended period of time.

God's Own Hotel Keralafornia

A friend showed me this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHxEO28s8Mg) today. Lovely.

The original version of "Hotel California" by Eagles is lovely.

God's Wife

Another lovely post (http://www.funtoosh.com/jokes/life/173) sent by a friend.

Jokes

I loved these jokes.

http://www.santabanta.com/jokes.asp?catid=10453

http://www.funtoosh.com/jokes/garam_masala/641

Worst And Weakest

I came across this  http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/22649z/www.deesecret.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/find-a-heart.jpg.

I thought my friends would love it.

This is dedicated to all my friends who have such appalling taste. Sure enough, all of them loved it and thanked me. I just can't believe it.

India The New Tax Haven

Welcome to India, the new tax haven. I read this article (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri-tax/us-taxman-gets-after-wealthy-indian-americans/articleshow/7918848.cms) today.

Apparently an Indian American stashed undisclosed income in the Indian branch of a foreign bank.

And the IRS has asked that bank to list all Indians living in the US who have large balances in their India branches.


Can't believe that India is a place where people are stashing undisclosed money. Usually Indians hide money in banks in Switzerland / Cayman / Mauritius etc.


Hmm.

Satyam and Tax

I read this (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/ites/sc-orders-status-quo-on-rs-617-crore-tax-demand-from-satyam/articleshow/7883404.cms) today.

I could not understand the position of the income tax (IT) department. As I understand the company called Satyam Computers (Satyam for short) fudged its incomes and over reported (not understated) their income. Presumably the company paid income tax on the higher (fictitious) income reported.

Shouldn't Mahindra Satyam be filing a case for a refund of the tax paid on the difference between the higher income reported and the newly restated lower income?

Am I missing something here? Does the IT department feel that it is always owed money no matter which way the income was reported?

Updated on 12-Apr-2015:
http://www.financialexpress.com/article/companies/satyam-computers-rs-14000-cr-scam-full-text-of-b-ramalinga-rajus-letter-to-board/62101/

Bihar and IIT

I came across this article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anand_Kumar) of a man coaching students from a relatively underdeveloped state Bihar and how most of the students end up getting admitted to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).

I had earlier had a doubt as to whether this news could be incorrect. (There are so many spurious things in India). A good friend of mine who is fro Bihar disabused me. He told me this news was authentic.  

The guy Anand is amazing. I wish we had more such guys. As of 2017, Mr Anand has been doing a splendid job.

Additional reading: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Super-30-founder-invited-to-speak-at-MIT-and-Harvard/articleshow/43790773.cms

Workaholics

There (http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/Indians-among-most-vacation-ians-2077085642.html) you go. 

Indians take the fewest days as vacation (they are the 4th smallest vacation takers as per the survey). Of course, I am not sure whether this survey is representative. While people in the private sector do take very few days as vacation, those in the government sector spend very few days working.

Get Calls On Your Skype From Abroad Almost For Free

I came across this service (http://www.ring2skype.com/). This service is available in select countries.

If you have a skype ID, you can get a free phone number in a country (where the service is available), so people in that country can call your number (it is unfortunately not just a number but a telephone number with an extension). Then the call is routed to your skype ID (no matter which part of the world you have logged in to skype).

Here is the number to call me:
(Remember you will be charged for the call as per the plan you have with your telephone operator)

If you are from:       Dial this number (and extension)

Australia               +(61)280-148229  Ext 662
Poland                  +(48)223-988027 Ext 967

Romania                +(40)318-103743 Ext 803
South Africa           +(27)105-002316  Ext 437
USA                      +(1)267-7020901  Ext 170

Ain't this nice?

Out Of The Box Thinking

Someone sent me this (http://sallini.com/rumors/rumors_in.php?id=76). I loved it.

Nice Blog

I came across this blog (http://saucethefoodblog.blogspot.com/p/what-beast-is-this.html). The author has a very natural, easy way of writing. It's all about recipes.

This is another similar one (http://ovshake.blogspot.com/2010/04/seaside-pebble-man.html).

Go ahead read them and have fun.

World Cup Cricket Champion

http://www.thehindu.com/news/article1594925.ece?homepage=true., http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-economy/article1597504.ece, http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article1597036.ece These articles say it all.

I remember the day in June 1983 when India won the world cup championship in England. A generation later India won the championship again last night.

During the intervening 28 years, the Indian team went through some highs and many lows. Good cricketers came and went but big success was not much seen.

I am reminded of a story here. This is about a court case involving the custody battle for a child.

After listening to what the husband and the wife had to say, a judge decided that the mom will have custody.. the child refused saying the mom beat the child often. The judge then said that the dad will get custody of the child. The child didn't like that too saying that father beat him frequently.

The judge was intrigued. He suggested that the child's aunt or grandmom could be given custody. The child said NO, they also beat him often.

Now the judge was at a loss. The judge finally told the child that the custody will be given to the Indian cricket team.

Because no matter what, the Indian cricket team could NEVER beat anyone.

Such was the reputation once of the indian cricket team. It is nice to see the team do well. It was also nice to hear the gentlemanly speech of the captains of the Australian, Pakistani and the Srilankan teams after the quarterfinal, semifinal and final matches, respectively.

Incidentally my niece pointed out that the eyes of the Srilankan captain (Sangakkara) was captivating. And that his doe eyes (http://flashnewstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/sangara.jpg) would suit a woman so much better. I personally was more attracted towards his English. He spoke very well at the end of the match yesterday, good accent and well modulated.

The reactions of the Indian and Srilankan press are summarized well here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/9445113.stm).

This is a nice post (http://ovshake.blogspot.com/2011/04/dear-men-in-blue.html) written the day prior to the match.

Another Kolam

I had written about Kolam earlier. Tamil women are adept at making kolam (which is usually drawn on the floor at the entrance to the house). It could be a small one on regular days and larger colored ones on auspicious days. I had earlier written (http://Calmisc.blogspot.com/2011/01/margazhi-kolam.html) about it.

Today I saw an article on kolam.

This practice and this art is unfortunately fast becoming obsolete in the city. in villages it is still common to see women clean the area outside the house and draw a nice kolam twice a day.

I reproduce here the picture of a kolam that Cashew, a friend of mine, made.

Golden Anniversary

I read a nice post (http://www.hindu.com/mag/2011/04/03/stories/2011040350150400.htm) on golden anniversaries in the newspaper today.

It's true what the author says. That there are fewer such anniversaries these days on account of later and shorter marriages.

Tweeting And Marketing

I was talking to a friend of mine who was thinking perhaps she should advertise her product (a software tool) on social networks. 

I was a little surprised. Advertise on social networks? Like Facebook? Twitter?

Twitter seems like senseless chatter, Facebook equally so.

Tweets especially and even stuff on FB seem juvenile. Could people really be reading this stuff? What purpose do these networking sites serve? 

Here is an answer to that question: http://askville.amazon.com/purpose-Twitter-interested-micro-blogging-overkill-messaging/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=9294424. I am not convinced.

And finally, is social networking the right place to market your product? Is it among this mindless chatter that we expect someone to understand and purchase a software product? I am told that this is a trend these days.

Am I awfully off base here?

Wrestling In The Real World

I was traveling by train recently. There was a family of 6.5 (husband and wife in their 30's, 2 teenage daughters, five year old son and parents of the husband in their 60's) sitting next to me. The younger of the girls was exceedingly fair and pretty. They were a handsome family.

The person that this story is about is the little boy who was too young to have a seat for himself (children up to the age of 5 travel free). He and I got close and we started playing. I asked him whether he knew how to do "panja" (hand wrestle). He didn't know, so I explained the intricacies of the game to him.

It was a little tricky since his arm was shorter than mine and when our fingers were entwined together our elbows could not be together, his elbow was hanging somewhere midair, if you know what I mean. He brushed the issue aside and challenged me to a bout.

People around us were watching this war between a tough north Indian and an equally tough south Indian. I lost 3 quick games in succession each in about 5 seconds.

The victorious man then looked around and pointed to a 20 year old guy (who was a student and who was from Bihar) and told him menacingly "You next". The student was knocked out in a few brief sessions.

The boy couldn't hide his thrill. He looked around and asked each of his siblings and parents. Each one shook their head, none was willing to challenge him.

The only person who was man enough to tackle him was his grandmother. The grandson and the grandmother started hand wrestling. 

I have to go into the psyche of the boy now to do justice to what happened next. Here was the Hitler who had overrun eastern Europe (me) with ease and then conquered the low countries (the student) to the west and north with equal ease. And now looking at his grandmother to lay her arms and beg for mercy. Little did he expect that history would be repeated, that his grandmother would be a Winston Churchill who proclaimed loudly that she will fight on the seats, on the berths, on the beaches, on the aisles etc.

After beating me and the guy from Bihar hands down, he thought beating his grandmother would be a piece of cake. Even at such a young age, children know who would be a stronger opponent and who wouldn't be. And for the life of him, he couldn't accept the stiff fight that his grandma put up.

His entire family family burst out laughing seeing his perplexed face as he tried to pin his grandma's palm down.

It reminded me of a friend who recounted what a doctor said to her "Children (in India) these days are so pampered by their family that when they become adults they are hardly able to face the harsh realities of the real world".

I hope this boy learns to wrestle well.

Recipe For Baingan (Eggplant)

A friend of mine wanted to know a recipe for cooking eggplant. I came across this today, so here is a recipe (http://www.hindu.com/mp/2011/04/01/stories/2011040151391100.htm).

Arab Hospitality

I read a lovely post (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-life/article1589110.ece) today on Arab Hospitality. 

What I love about this post is the very natural way the author writes about her trip these countries, gently touching on the points that she wants to make, giving examples, letting the reader mull over and digest what he has just read. And there is no religious fervor in the writing. Its absolutely sweet to read her article.