With APOGEE 2026 right around the corner, the English Press Club sat down with Sankha Suvra Saha, the Coordinator of the English Language Activities Society (ELAS), to gain an insight into the workings of the club.
Sankha admitted that though the club called itself the ‘English Language Activities Society’, the only activity they did was quizzing. He mentioned that they had planned four different quizzes for APOGEE this year and that each was a different way to show how ELAS was the ‘best in the business’. These quizzes were the Business Quiz (Biz Quiz), Overhead Transmission (OHT), Science and Technology Quiz (Sci-Tech), and Brain of BITS (BoB).
According to Sankha, BoB has been ELAS’s flagship event since the club was first created in the ‘70s. He elaborated that this was an individual event, where the winner of each year’s quiz has hosted the next. He added that the Business Quiz is one for the ‘finance minors’, with the quiz focusing on business and finance, and it will be hosted by Aryapriya Ganguly, one of ELAS’s regular quizmasters. Further, he said that Overhead Transmission is a general quiz where students can form teams and compete for a substantial prize pool. Sci-Tech, also a general quiz despite the name, is an exclusive quiz restricted only to members of ELAS.
Sankha emphasised that ELAS’s quizzes were ‘painstakingly crafted’ and not merely simple trivia questions. He remarked that these quizzes should be ‘treated as marathons and not sprints’. He mentioned that last year, ELAS had to lay out mattresses on the auditorium stage for BoB participants, stressing that the events lasted for long hours and were not something one could ‘just show up to’.
When asked about any obstacles in their path to universal supremacy, Sankha wished that they could control the moon’s orbit. He said that it would have been ‘really cool’ if BITS’ APOGEE coincided with the moon’s apogee, which would now, unfortunately, take place early on 7th April. On to more trivial issues, he hoped that all events would conclude in their allotted time frame, so as not to cause any hindrance to the ones scheduled next.
Speaking about his position as APOGEE Coordinator, Sankha said that it basically meant being a ‘food bank’ for his juniors, so much so that he was forced to change his phone password just so that these ‘very good juniors’ could leech off his SU App. ELAS’s members, he said, were a passionate bunch. They had once wasted a lot of time debating whether the ELAS logo was a buzzer or, in fact, really just a squished red mushroom.
Concluding the interview, Sankha encouraged everyone to try quizzing. He hoped that everyone would try out new things and make fun memories during APOGEE.