The BOSM English Press recently interviewed Sara Chincholkar, the BOSM Coordinator of BITS Embryo, where she spoke about her club and its role in the fest’s events.

Sara said that BITS Embryo was responsible for calling a suitable chief guest for the fest. Additionally, they also conducted two Pre-BOSM talks this year—one on ‘Sports and Mental Health’ by Mrs Madhavi Latha and the second on ‘National Security and the Spirit of Sport’ by Lt Gen Balbir Singh Sandhu.

Sara relayed that this year, the Chief Guest is slated to be Ms. Santosh Yadav, a Padma Shri awardee and the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest. Speaking of what the Chief Guest does, Sara explained that they give a speech at the inauguration and light the lamp in the main auditorium, following which they head to Gym-G to light the ceremonial fires and officially inaugurate BOSM. After this, they are given a brief campus tour, ending with them having dinner with the Director.

Sara said that for BOSM, BITS Embryo typically tries to invite sportspersons with achievements on the national and international stage. She emphasised that BITS Embryo strictly did not pay Chief Guests for coming to BITS Pilani. All invites were pro-bono. She noted that this meant that BITS Embryo could not afford to invite highly in-demand guests such as high-profile cricketers or badminton players. She further mentioned that it was somewhat difficult to contact a Chief Guest this year because sports such as archery and wrestling—whose players reside fairly close to Pilani—had tournaments occurring during BOSM. 
Sara also mentioned how, this year, BITS Embryo had managed to contact and call an artist for the Bollywood Night professional show, with logistics to be handled by the Department of Live Events.

She stated that the groundwork for both the invitations had begun during the summer. Members from the 2024 batch worked to shortlist a set of suitable, available and willing Chief Guests and artists, and members from the 2023 batch made the final decision. She found the CoSSAc cooperative and helpful throughout the lead-up to the fest.

To the GBM, Sara recommended attending the professional show during BOSM as well as the talks organised by BITS Embryo throughout the year, since the speakers were ‘highly qualified and worth listening to’.