With BOSM around the corner, Raghav Khandelwal, the Sports Secretary, led a member of the BOSM English Press to the far back of the Student Activities Centre (SAC) into the Sports Union’s newfound office. Raghav remarked that the previous headquarters had been unfortunately positioned next to a men’s washroom near the Gym Grounds, and declared that enforcing this change of scenery had been one of his proudest accomplishments as Sports Secretary.

Raghav explained that the Sports Union, much like the Students’ Union, worked throughout the year, and that every activity with any connection to sports (a screening of a cricket match, for example) was under its purview. He said that the functions of his post were described very briefly in the Constitution and Charter, but with BOSM fast approaching, he felt the full weight of every clause. He described his days comprising endless EPMs and meetings with the CoSSAc and team Captains to deliberate on budgets and inventories; calls from team Captains followed him late into the nights and his only reprieve was when his phone ultimately drained of battery. As a former Captain of the boys’ badminton team, he understood the everyday challenges of the teams. Aside from the basic objectives of profit, Raghav said that he wanted BOSM to be to every team’s satisfaction.

Raghav described joint efforts with the Department of Publicity and Correspondence (PCR) at ensuring a more uniform distribution of teams across the various sporting events, a welcome change from last year when certain events saw a lot more participation than others. One result of this alteration has been better prize pools for each event. He said that all potential challenges had been deliberated with appropriate precautions taken, but rains had been historically known to put a damper on events every year. He identified other obstacles during the fest as the outbreak of sometimes violent altercations and assured the GBM that the offending persons had been blacklisted. The Sports Secretary then admitted that he was most looking forward to Bollywood Nite this BOSM. Events such as concerts, Casino Nite, and a neon badminton event attracted audiences of non-sportspersons as well. These developments had been permitted by an increment of 4 lakhs from last year’s budget.

Speaking about the occurrence of classes during BOSM, Raghav admitted to his fears that a holiday declared during the fest would mean the campus emptying out, and spoke about a possible suspension of classes during BOSMs of the future. Raghav echoed his beliefs that BOSM had something to offer for everyone, and urged everyone to attend matches in large numbers to cheer for their BITSian teams.