How would you describe your first year at IITD? How was your experience?
My first year was all about cricket; when I came to IIT, I had decided that I had to play inter-IIT anyhow, so my first semester was all about it. I even missed Speranza, BRCA orientation, and other important events and unfortunately, I couldn't make it to inter-IIT team, and even my acads were a little bit miss balanced. So in the second semester, I tried to balance things. I reduced my time for cricket and started studying more and startedparticipating in some cultural activities. I even participated in inter-hostel Drama and GD (till practice) while all this was going on, minors were approaching, and then; we got the covid mail and were told to go home, which sums up my first year. My mentors and seniors told me to try different things. I didn't listen to them at first and just focused on cricket and neglected other opportunities around me, but later I realised that they were right, and when I became a mentor, I ensured that my mentees wouldn't make the same mistake.
How did your journey with BSA begin, and how has the experience been until now?
I did not know anything about BSA in my first year when I was playing. I just went to play cricket and only knew about the hostel sports secretary. I was a regular and earnest player who used to play, so when I came to my second year, our hostel sports secretary became the DGSecy of BSA and made me an executive in BSA. Things were online at that time, and BSA organised some new online events, I contributed a lot in managing those events; this way I made a lot friends in BSA,. And I bonded with many seniors, and from this point, my journey with BSA began…
What has been your best memory with your team?
I have played many matches with the team and have many pleasant memories. In one of those matches, we were in a tight situation. The game was on our side, but the person who threw the second last over gave away a lot of runs, so in the final over only few runs were left to defend and I had to bowl the final over. In the final over, I just gave 2-3 runs, and we won. It's a lovely memory with my team. I also have good memories of playing with/against the alumni team and the junior teams.
How was your experience as Sports Secretary? Any memorable incident that you'd like to share?
First of all, it was a real hassle after which I became the sports secretary so once I became the sports secy I was really motivated to win the GC. So when it was finally announced, we were really excited. I often used to sit with all the first yearites and decide our course of action. We used to plan on board the SWOT of different hostels and stuff like that. All this bonded me a lot with them. I used to go to the Dean's office so that all those PG players who don't have any hostel and would like to play would be allotted my hostel. And we would get an edge over other hostels by having more PG participation
The Election season is difficult and stressful for all. Could you tell us about your experience of the same?
Yaar... elections are stressful, I always had a wish to contest, and I also had the support of many seniors. Elections were extraordinary for me. You have to make people aware of your SOP, so I narrated my SOP to 125 people. BT toh hoti hai, I often used to miss lunch and sometimes even dinner. You need to work really hard for elections. The results were great, and when I look back, I feel that "Sahi Tha". Often relationships are also spoilt in this time, and this is something terrible, but overall you learn many new things.
In the transition from Online to Offline, the participation of people in sports has decreased considerably. How do you plan to increase it?
So currently, I am DGSecy in BSA, and there is a hierarchy in BSA, so I can't go to every place and motivate people, but this year there were like two meetings of the Board. In those, we emphasised on this point to the sports secys that it's your work to ensure that as a team, from every individual hostel, there is maximum participation in sports. We need to work on this as a team to make the change. Apart from this, we plan to restart the BSA orientation, which happened every year before covid. And we are also deliberating over restarting the refreshments for the team.
You mentioned in your manifesto about organising a BSA Orientation. Can you tell us more about when and how you plan to make it happen? You also mentioned that refreshments would be provided for players. What will it constitute, and when will it begin?
Just like BRCA orientation, BSA orientation used to happen in Dogra hall, so for the upcoming year, we want to organise a proper BSA orientation of all sports in Dogra Hall. So that everyone knows what all sports they can try out on campus.
Pre-covid, the whole team used to drink juice or eat something, and BSA reimbursed everything. This might be a small thing, but I have talked to seniors who have passed out, and they said things like these motivate more people to play sports.
Many people are excited about the GC. When can we expect it, and what all changes will be there from the previous GC?
If covid doesn't come, we hope to hold GC in January after the inter IIT. As for change, you can expect that earlier, and everyone knew which hostel was good in what sports and all, but now it's pretty vague. Every hostel has an open chance of winning any tournament. So let's see.
There has been a lot of talk about inter-IIT lately. What can we expect from inter-IIT this year?
So this year, inter-IIT is being hosted by Delhi+Roorkee, so some games like Basketball, Badminton, Athletics, Chess, Aquatics, and TT will be held here. You can expect the aquatics meet to occur sooner than the rest of the games, which are planned for late December. The campus will be lively during that time, with a lot of heated cheering and anti-cheering during the matches. So I would like to say that you should see how inter-IIT is kept and cheer for our team. And if you plan to stay over the winter break, there will be some open for all events in which you can participate for fun.
Any note that you'd like to leave for our audience?
I want to say something which I feel a lot after covid, that people are looking at things way too objectively, like should I perform in XYZ activity? What will I get back? Over this, I'd like to say that if you've come to IIT, you should also enjoy it a little. From my experience, the people who've inspired me the most are those who aren't afraid to do things they love. I feel everyone should bring this change in themselves. If you like something, then pursue it. I won't say that just spoil your career over that, but you can always manage to give some time to it. Try to do some things you like, and do them just for fun. This is especially true for sports. We don't play to add some points to our CV.
Another thing, like most fachhe, only have "POR waale senior" as the point of contact. I feel that this is really bad. There are lots of machau seniors who do a lot of things and don't have PORs. I think this needs to change.
Interview By: - Rajat Golechha
Design By: - Prisha Jain, Shivam Jhanwar
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