Sohan Pattanayak, the Coordinator of Anchor, sat down with the BOSM English Press to discuss the club’s preparations for BOSM 2024. Sohan explained that Anchor is a gender and sexuality cell that tries to provide a safe space irrespective of one’s sexuality. Anchor’s stall will bring back nail painting, face painting,  and posters, but Sohan stated that they had a lot of other fun stuff planned, which he would like to keep a surprise for everyone. Anchor’s membership has increased considerably, from seven students last year to an anticipated 20 this year, enabling them to assume additional responsibilities during the fest.

Addressing the problems Anchor faced last year, Sohan highlighted how the Anchor stall was damaged during the day in the previous edition of BOSM. He stated that Anchor incurred a lot of damages and lost a lot of inventory, and a lot of their hard work had just washed away. Sohan, however, stated that this year, they would come back stronger than before. He also added that this year the Anchor stall would have a few ‘surprise elements’, which would be contrasting to all the nuisance that Anchor had to deal with the last time around. He expressed his gratitude to the students for their support after the horrific incident.

Sohan mentioned the preparations that Anchor has made for the upcoming edition of BOSM. He stated that their most intensive work was with the posters they made and that they started working on them a few weeks before BOSM. He added that all of their posters were hand-drawn or printed, and Anchor has a very talented team of designers who have been working extremely hard on the posters. He expressed that the message the Anchor stall wants to send is that irrespective of whatever your sexuality is, everybody should get a fair and equal chance to represent themselves in the fields of sport, education, engineering or whatever it may be.

On a parting note, Sohan urged all students to come out and cheer for and support our sports teams who have been working extremely hard for BOSM. Sohan also expressed that students should visit the Anchor stall this year because they have multiple surprises in place. Finally, he reiterated that if anyone ever needed a safe space irrespective of who they are, Anchor would always be there for them.