The Sports Secretary, Anirudh Sharma, arguably the
busiest man on campus so close to BOSM, graced
with us a half-hour long interview. Quizzing him on
what's new this BOSM, he started off by talking
about the new infrastructure that has been set up for
BOSM. The Badminton and the Tennis courts have
been revamped. When asked about the reduction in
the number of events, he quickly asks the Controls
CoSSAcn, who tells us that the number of events
has been reduced from 40 to 16, and hopes that this
will help make things smoother. Two football
matches (Chelsea vs. Manchester City and Leicester
City vs. Manchester United) and a Champions
League T20 match between Kolkata Knight Riders
and Lahore Lions will be screened. The use of ID
cards in food stalls is a go. Speaking of
accommodation, he says that there has been an
increase in space available for outstation
participants’ stay. In fact, there is more space than is
required for the number of participants, primarily
because access has been granted to a few staff
quarters and empty rooms in Malviya-Extension.
PCr has tried to decrease participation from local
colleges because of security hassles and because it
often becomes very difficult to control the inflow
and outflow of people. In accordance with this, the
institute has decided to close all gates, other than
the main gate, after six in the evening. Football,
Athletics, Hockey and Swimming will be occurring
off-campus. Football and Hockey are being
conducted in BPS, while Athletics and Swimming
are being held in BHS. This has been a major
problem for the teams and the Sports Council. For
the Sports Council, it has been tough in terms of
getting permission for using these schools'
premises. A bus service has been made available
for participants, to take them from BITS to the
required locations. Football, one of the more
popular sports out of these four often ends up
getting lesser support primarily because of it being
held off-campus. Anirudh feels that while Athletics
has a long way to go in terms of facilities, the
Swimming Pool renovation has already started. The
Football and Hockey grounds exist but will have to
be improved by next BOSM.
An obstacle course has been set up in Gym-G, by
the newly formed Adventure Club. They are making
use of the mounds of sand in Gym-G and while
Anirudh agrees that the idea has promise, getting
inventory for them has been tough and feels that it
is important to see how it turns out. Another new
event which is being conducted is 8-bit gaming, an
event organised by Jhankar based on the Oasis
theme, “That ‘90s Show”. A third new event which
is being organised by Informalz this time is
“Zombies vs. Plants.” On a concluding note,
Anirudh tells us that he has many hopes for BOSM;
top of this list would be for the rain clouds to stay
away.