Documentary filmmaker Yasmin Kidwai, whose latest film Get Set Go: The Pune Legacy, on the October 2008 Youth Commonwealth Games, was screened in New Delhi recently, is fascinated by people. If you pique her interest, she will find ways to know about you, understand you as a person. "I’m genuinely interested in people," she says. If you fascinate her enough, she might even think about making you a part of her documentaries. A set of people, who have made India their home, has already caught her fancy and as you read this she is working on Indians By Choice, a documentary on "people who chose to be Indian, but are not Indian by birth". It also includes "second generation Indians whose parents had gone abroad and children are returning".

Get Set Go captures the behind-the-scenes story of the Youth Commonwealth Games held in Pune in 2008, preceding the main Commonwealth Games in New Delhi this year. It was the sheer scale of the event that struck the filmmaker: With about 300,000 spectators, 5,000 volunteers, 3,000 performers, 1,300 athletes, 357 medals, 71 countries, nine sports and one venue, it was possibly the "biggest sporting event" held in the country in the last three decades.

It’s a breezy Sunday morning. There is a nip in the air. Talking about her craft over cappuccino, Ms Kidwai, who shuttles between Mumbai and Delhi, says documentaries are her first love. And no, feature films are not going to be the natural progression as she is, as yet, loyal to the medium she has chosen. "I don’t want to use documentaries as some kind of stepping stone for feature films," she says.

But that doesn’t mean she rules out that option. She might make a feature film, eventually, if she feels like. As of now, Ms Kidwai, a mother of two, is trying to "strike a balance" between her twin roles of a parent and a professional (read filmmaker). "It’s not that easy," she says.

Ms Kidwai doesn’t seem to be one of those who chalk out plans for the future. It’s carpe diem all along. "When you came for this interview, did you have anything on mind," she asks. "Nothing, really," you tell her, smiling.

"There you have it," she says, adding that she rarely plans out things.

Ms Kidwai, who is a fan of filmmakers from Anand Patwardhan to Michael Moore, says that while documentary filmmaking as we know it has changed over the years and there are more and more people choosing to make documentaries, it continues to be tough to get funds for the same. And, for the new and upcoming filmmakers, things continue to be a bit difficult. She says that while organisations like Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT), which funds some promising filmmakers, have helped, we still have a long way to go towards making documentary filmmaking a popular career choice. "Sponsorship is still a huge problem," says Ms Kidwai. She should know. Her first film never got made as she couldn’t get a sponsor.

But the filmmaker has come a long way from hunting for sponsors to starting her own TV production company called Spring Box Films, which has produced Where Do I Go from Here, a documentary on ageing, for HelpAge India.

Ms Kidwai is known for Sehar, a 13-part serial for the DD Urdu channel, which features Muslim women who have become names to reckon with in the male-dominated professions. They include Shabana Azmi and Sania Mirza. She has yet another film — on the 25 years of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy — in the offing.

Ms Kidwai was working on a documentary on the Gujarat earthquake when a friend took her to watch a polo match where she met her husband, Maj. Atul Gupta, a polo player. Her film on polo, titled Chukker: Around Polo, is a 68-minute long documentary which features real-life heroes like Shamsher Ali, Basher Ali, Anagd Kalan, Uday and the royalty in Rajasthan, including the late Maharani Gayatri Devi, Bhawani Singh and Jai Singh. Her other films include Healing Kutch, Family Ties and Punjab: The Next Revolution.

Daughter of the senior Congress leader Imran Kidwai (chairman, minority cell, All India Congress Committee), Ms Kidwai has no plans to plunge into politics as yet.

A graduate in sociology from Hindu College, Delhi University, and an alumnus of the Xavier’s Institute of Communications, Mumbai, Ms Kidwai is particularly concerned with stereotyping.

"People often tell me I don’t look like a Muslim," she says. Her retort to them: "How is a Muslim supposed to look like?"

By Nawaid Anjum

Lt. Gen. S.K. Sinha (Retd), former governor of Assam and Jammu and Kashmir, recently held a meeting in New Delhi to discuss some important issues related to Assam, needing urgent attention with Mr M.P. Bezbaruah, former secretary, ministry of tourism, Mr B.C. Bora, former chairman and MD, Oil and Natural Gas Commission, Mr Sanjay Hazarika, head of the Centre for Northeast Studies, Air Vice-Marshal Sanjib Bordoloi (Retd) — all hailing from Assam — and Mr E. Ramamohan, former D-G, Border Security Force, and this author, both of who served in and have written extensively on Assam and the Northeast.

DURING WORLD War II, Eva Kor, a 10-year-old Jewish girl, was marched off to Auschwitz with her family. She and her twin sister Miriam got separated from her parents and other siblings, and she never saw them again.

No visit to Egypt is ever complete without a visit to Alexandria, the coastal town on the Mediterranean Sea just over 200 km from Cairo. We were not sure if the Library of Alexandria figures high among the city’s tourist attractions — considering that many people, while chalking out Egypt tour plans, skip Alexandria entirely. But for the literary-minded a visit to this modern library can be

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Chennai is how it is known today. I have always known it as Madras. Or Pattinam. The trains between Madras-Mumbai (Bombay as I have always known it! Or Bambai for the Tamilians), bore the "Pattinam" destination plate on every compartment. Those were the days of trains. Madras Mail and Dadar Express vied with each other for faithful bi-city visitors.

Almost everyone knows by now the offer made to Jyoti Basu in 1996 to take over the leadership of the United Front and become the Prime Minister of India. It is also equally well known how Basu’s party, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), for reasons never made public, turned down this offer, thereby committing what Basu himself described as a “historic blunder”.

2009 WAS AN eventful year. Many things happened which would make India proud. And many things happened which would give us cause for concern. We may not like to admit, but we are under stress. Relations with some countries have improved. But our endemic sources of threat are very much alive.

It’s a new life for them. Until yesterday, they were looked down upon by their neighbours who considered them as cursed souls. None in their respective localities desired to even glance their shadows.

Germany was looking forward to a greater defence and security cooperation with India during German President Horst Koehler’s state visit here from February 1 to 7. The reform of international financial institutions was also expected to figure in Mr Koehler’s talks with Indian leaders.