With BOSM 2025 just around the corner, The BOSM English Press interviewed Sankha Suvra Saha, the Coordinator of the English Language Activities Society (ELAS), to talk about the club and the events it has planned for the fest.
Sankha clarified that in spite of the club’s name being the ‘English Language Activities Society’, the club did not engage in many activities related to the English language per se. Rather, the club was largely dedicated to quizzing, both internally and externally. This BOSM, the club would be hosting two quizzes: a general sports quiz, and one on cricket and football. This was a change from last year, where the second quiz also featured F1. Sankha explained that this was done to make the quiz more accessible to a broader crowd and increase footfall. He added that they had a combined prize pool in the range of Rs. ten to fifteen thousand.
When asked to compare both quizzes, Sankha stated that the cricket and football quiz was likely to be more approachable to an amateur audience while the general sports quiz could require some relatively obscure trivia. Additionally, he mentioned that the theme of the fest did not particularly correlate to the quizzes in any manner.
Regarding the work leading up to BOSM, Sankha stated that ELAS drafts quiz questions across domains throughout the year, and that it is not a process done uniquely for BOSM or any fest. In the lead-up to the fest, the work primarily done is ‘managerial’, such as finalising the quiz questions, deciding the quiz master, and taking care of the logistics of room-booking, inventory, and so on.
When asked about the work distribution, Sankha talked about the relative egalitarianism of ELAS, and said it had fairly little hierarchy. Quiz questions were drafted by all members similarly, but managerial work would be handled largely by the third-years. The culture in the club, he said, was broadly collaborative.
Regarding interfacing with the CoSSac and administration, Saha said it was all smooth sailing, with no major issues. About his own time in the club, Saha called it ‘fruitful’, ‘joyful’, and ‘very rewarding’. When asked to say a few words to the GBM, he advised them to just “Show up to more quizzes, man. You might just enjoy it.”