Notes

The first day of Parakram, the sports fest of Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad was held yesterday with much hustle and bustle. Being held from 12 to 14th of February, the annual fest includes a flurry of events from a wide range of sports, indoors and outdoors. Be it squash, basketball or even paintball, there was an event for every sporty person on campus. While there was no shortage of sporting events, it seemed that sportsman spirit was present in even greater amounts this time around.

Since time immemorial, booing and demoralizing the opponents has been accepted as part of playing a sport. This tradition has been taken to a whole new level by our college in recent years. From making sexual innuendos on the girls’ teams visiting the campus to cursing the umpire after an unfavourable decision, the audience left no stone unturned. Of particular note were the basketball matches, where rude comments on the opposing players were spoken over a microphone for all to enjoy. Carried away in the adrenaline rush of seeing their team win, the audience was wise enough not to stop and question the consequences of their actions on the playground. After all, there’s nothing that can bring a raucous mood down faster than being made to look into a mirror.

Not only does this much antagonizing leave the visiting players distressed (making victory much easier for the home team), it also leaves a blot on the college’s reputation amongst others in the area (reducing competition in future events). Take the BIT Mesra girls’ basketball team for example, which boycotted the fest this year and refused to visit choosing not to be the victims of degrading remarks as they were last year. In fact, only one girls’ varsity basketball team visited for the fest this time, and whether that number will reduce to zero next year is debatable. This generated a mixed response from the crowd, some lamenting the reduction of targets to pass lewd comments on, and others joyous on the better odds of winning for the ISM team. Things were similarly lively on the football and cricket fields. In fact, chess may have been one of the only events where the home team fans weren’t found berating the visitors, as is their wont.

The grounds were even noisier on the second day, where commentators and audience members united in passing revolting remarks on the visitors with much aplomb, finally prompting the visiting basketball teams to forfeit the match and leave, to much joy of the home fans. An anonymous message was posted onto ISM’s confession page on Facebook later in the day, apparently by one of the visiting students, criticizing the actions of the students strongly. Perhaps it’s time that opposing teams get used to the strong support that the college’s students show towards their teams, lest the sports fest be left boycotted by all, the sports courts turn to barren lands, and the ISM teams be the default winners, leaving the fans in a satisfied bliss, finally having achieved what it seems they’re trying to do.