The BOSM English Press sat down with Kalyani Naik, the CoSSAcn of the Department of Controls, BOSM,  to discuss their preparations for the upcoming edition of BOSM.

BoCo, also called Bontrols by some, was notable for handing out free bananas during BOSM.

This practice, however, had been halted for the previous two years. When asked about whether participants would be receiving free bananas this BOSM, Kalyani stated that while she would have liked to keep the tradition going (partially since the department’s logo featured a banana), it would not be possible to hand out free bananas this BOSM, a development she noted to be ‘quite sad’. Besides this, Kalyani explained that her department was the backbone of organising the fest, and that their work included a lot of ‘pre-fest work’ like handling requisitions of various clubs and departments, organising the ‘Audi Inaug’ and ‘GymG Inaug’, and ‘a bunch of other things’.

Besides this, she added, the department was responsible for the scheduling of matches as well as non-sporting events, maintaining score sheets, procuring the medals and trophies to be distributed, and organising the valedictorian ceremony. This, she noted, was only a fraction of the complete list of things her department did, and that she ‘forgot’ the rest. As the saying goes, if you cannot remember something, then it probably wasn’t important enough to begin with.

On how her department was different from the ‘other’ Department of Controls, Kalyani stated that BoCo, unlike Controls, did not handle the travel of participants and guests to the fest. This job, she added, was very kindly borne by RecnAcc– a practice she was very much keen to continue. Another major difference was that a bulk of BoCo’s scheduling work was dependent on the outcome of matches, and so BOSM was practically ‘four days of no sleep and only Excel sheets’. When quizzed on how this year’s BOSM would be different from BOSM 2025, she noted that it appeared to be larger in scale, mainly because she was working more for it. In addition to that, she added that there might be more registrations, more non-sporting events and an audi show. 

On whether she preferred the name BoCo or Bontrols, Kalyani remarked that BoCo sounded better and more fun to say, and that Bontrols sounded weird, ‘like some chocolate, or the name of a monkey’, while noting that it was ‘more appropriate’ since they did hand out bananas in the past.

The BEP shall henceforth refer to the Department of Controls, BOSM, as Bontrols, since the Chief Editor of the BEP loves chocolate and is the proud owner of a pet monkey. 

When asked about the challenges faced so far, Kalyani first went on a short rant against people not filling out requisition forms on time, and instead approaching her days later to ask for requisitions. The biggest challenge, she finally revealed, was the constant theft of Parle-G biscuits from the Bontrols tent. It remains to be seen whether this is the handiwork of fest participants or GymG’s resident canine quadrupeds. 

On her experience as a CoSSAcn, she sighed that her alarm clock was ‘random people from Haryana with stupid queries’, before showing the BEP her call history of a gazillion people in a span of 24 hours (exaggerated for dramatic effect).  She then acknowledged the efforts of her juniors (in her own words, her ‘kids, grandkids and great-grandkids’) and Keval, the coordinator of the department, whom she then called her ‘underboss’.  She expressed her gladness at getting an opportunity to spend more time with the department in her final year of college, and then, for reasons unknown, went on a completely different tangent on how she was going to be ‘high on chai’ for all four days of the fest, before dropping her own redi-ranking based on the quality of chai. The ranking is as follows: Ram Redi, Nagar Ji’s Redi, CVR Redi. 

On a parting note, Kalyani urged the readers to go out and make new friends, and to collect Parle-G biscuits from the Bontrols tent, if they happened to be in a sports team.