There’s less than a week to go for BOSM 2016 to kick-off and like everything of any importance in this world, this BOSM will have its fair share of lovers, haters and people who just don’t care. And like everything of any importance in this world, some context needs to be provided to understand exactly why this BOSM is important.
Over the years, BOSM has grown from a humble sports meet to a sports festival, and it is not lightly that one uses that word. With so much of the effort put into BOSM paying off, BOSM is no more about singlemindedly focusing on a set of sports, but about so much else that it hardly comes as a surprise that there is a constant influx of people from all over the country and abroad into this humble hamlet, after a time – 25 years ago – when there were no outstation participants apart from localites. Ladies and gentlemen, the future is here.
If BOSM needs to prove its worth as a festival anymore, consider the fact that the last BOSM was the first to have a professional music show. Yes, a music concert in a sports meet. While many were sceptical of the idea of temporarily taking the focus away from sports, it became very hard to continue to scrutinise a decision that ended up with The F16s ripping the stage apart, in more senses than one. Professional shows are here to stay, with Bengaluru-based band Lagori and their folk rock fusion providing a contrast to their electro-indie predecessors.
One also sees the infrastructure of the campus growing with BOSM, a point frequently going unnoticed by many. With constant renovation and improvement of sports facilities, we have finally reached a stage where BOSM will see all its sports being held on campus, a result of years of meticulous planning by the institute and multiple organising committees. This may seem like an obvious requirement of a sports meet to blissfully ignorant first years, but this is a big step forward for BOSM. Due to a general lack of high-quality facilities, a large number of events during the fest were previously held off campus. These locations were farther from campus than the average BITSian was willing to travel to watch a match, meaning that exciting sports that would have otherwise drawn in a large crowd drew in none, which further implied that the fest seemed less happening, as there wasn’t much going on during the day.
With events happening so close to each other this year and with redis to satisfy one’s gastronomical needs on the way, the optimist expects to see a marked boom in event attendance this time around, especially for crowd-pulling sports like football.
The evenings, however, were and are a different matter entirely. All one had to do in previous BOSMs to find signs of life was to walk over to GymG, and there is no expectation for this to be any different in this year’s edition. Numerous food stalls and ongoing events attract BITSians and outstation participants alike, and it is infrequently that the nighttime does not see the campus abuzz. Overpriced food, events that the general BITSian could participate in, and an aura of insane energy define BOSM for the non-sportsperson.
Moving ahead, BOSM is becoming more than just a competition for athletic glory. With the campus finally becoming the sole hub of activity and the competition only getting fiercer, sports entertainment value is not something anyone expects to be compromised on in BOSM 2016.
And even if that is not what your idea of entertainment is, there’s always Zorb Ball.