Knowing me, knowing you

date: 01 May 2007

Watched Ashutosh Gowariker’s Jodhaa-Akbar on tv today. Beautifully directed and acted. Let down by editing in parts, but worth a watch.
In one scene, Jodhaa tells a remorseful Jalaaluddin he knows to conquer but not to rule.
‘You may conquer a person’s body,
but to rule their heart you have to peek into their soul
through the window of their mind.
When you understand the little thoughts,
likes and dislikes that make a person who they truly are,
only then do you show true respect and win their heart.

In these times of instant gratification, where we come to expect an instant connection with whoever catches our fancy, and focus on grabbing their attention, being cool etc.,
do we really take the trouble of getting to know someone.
Are a few hours enough to undersand someone?

First impressions often make or mar connections.
And getting to know someone can grow or erode the respect you have for someone.

Sometimes people project themselves in a particular manner,
but turn out very different in reality.
And you realise they are keeping secrets or being manipulative.

Either way I think true respect and love
can only grow where there is trust, no secrets, and complete understanding.

Understanding, not being derisive of someones wishes and desires,
however incongruent they may seem with your own thoughts.

Understanding - a simple word, pregnant with meaning.
Getting to know a person’s thoughts, likes and dislikes.
Not shooting them down because their thoughts seem so different from yours,
staying open to someone else.

Maybe that’s why I liked the movie so much.

JNI to Win32 calls & invoking MS app functions using OLE objects

date: 15 Jun 2007

Feels good to learn something new - even if its been done by countless others.
Today I learnt to use JNI to make native Win32 api calls and learnt to build Dlls on the way.

Where Microsoft provides OLE objects for an application, you can use it to manipulate its functionality from your own custom application (automate things), for e.g. to read and send mail in Outlook by calling OLE functionality from within your own app.

Skit at the Office

date: 06 Jul 2007

New workplace covention asks new joinees to stage a skit by way of self-introduction.

No one in my batch of joinees had ever performed one though. I suggested a theme and due to paucity of suggestions from the group, wove in another couple of ideas into a single plot-line.

I narrated the script to the tech writer, Mona Bharbaya, who graciously agree to help us out. She very creatively turned around the storyline we gave her into the basis for a good script. Thanks Mona!

The next step was practicing the script and delivering a credible performance.
To get the batch to show up at practice sessions meant chasing individuals before every meeting despite sending Outlook meeting requests well in advance.

By the end we were reduced to five – me as the Narrator, Ajith as the energetic Java programmer, Nikhil Shah from finance who played the Indian friend and doubled as one of the American colleagues, Saleem who played the counsellor at the training institute, and Mohan who played the Project Manager with great style, and also doubled as the bartender when our progammer was onsite.

We had many anxious moments through our five practice sessions (three of which were on the day of the performance)! Dialogues not in place, mixing up of the order in which to deliver lines, missed cues and low energy…

Everyone contributed though to the script and we had a pretty neat set of dialogues in the end. With me and Mona were directing the performance and energy levels in the practice sessions.

I thought I discovered a new creative side to myself - directing skits (and perhaps if I were to be more ambitious, directing plays as well ;)

I enjoyed coaching the cast in matters of style of delivery for a particular dialogue, and the energy level required for a scene, and all the pep-talk and psycho-babble that I used to raise their energy levels.
Of course it was easier that I didn’t have to act it out myself ;)

It was a five-scene skit that was pretty well-received in the end and felt like a job well done. :D

Why is it so hard to tell you

date: 18 Jul 2007

Why is it so hard to tell you…

I see you every day and think of you constantly.
I long to tell you how much I want to be with you.

I want the distance between us to end
and to talk in terms of ‘us’,
rather than ‘I’ and ‘you’.

I want most to get to know you,
to sit with you and talk at length,
about everthing that matters to you,
until I know you intimately.

Your thoughts and desires, your hopes and fears,
your most cherished dreams and fantasies.
I want to know you.

I want to walk with you and hold your hand,
through the straits of life.
I want for us to be together, sharing our joys n ecstasy.

I see you everyday and want to tell you all this,
and how my heart longs for your gentle touch.
How I want for you to undersand me like I want to
know you.

And yet I sit slouched at work
and I find you couped at yours.

I steal glances and see you smile on the phone,
and jealous thoughts fill my head.
Do thoughts of another live in your head.
That space I want for myself alone.

Oh how I long to tell you…

The eponymous domain

date: 15 Nov 2007

Got myself my new domain: silveira [dot] in
Why? Personal branding – a kick of my own – before I ventured on my first intnl’ trip.
Was so chuffed that I have my own space on the web.

Dashed out a couple of emails from my new domain id to some folks. But nobody noticed! I’m aghast.
Doesn’t anyone read the from id?

The neat thing though, I paid for it by cashing paypal dollars, earned from participating in an online survey. Gotta love the Net!