-Written By Adithya Pradeep
Ranbhoomi 2021 was the first fully-fledged sports event for the academic year 2021-22. Ranbhoomi is usually celebrated as a grand inter-college sports fest, with multiple colleges from areas surrounding Indore taking part in it. However, due to the complications caused by COVID-19, it has been conducted as an intra-college fest for the past two years.
In a weird way, this very development seems to have been one of the reasons for its resounding success this year. In “traditional Ranbhoomi”, only the college team could play. This meant that only a handful of folks from Planet-I actively got to participate in the event, while everyone else joined the spectator brigade. However, the modified format of this year gave almost everyone interested, a chance to participate – a chance to get onto the ground and have some fun. This significantly increased the buzz and fanfare surrounding this edition of Ranbhoomi.
This year, six sports were conducted: football, cricket, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, and badminton. The latter two were also conducted as team events. Each sport had six teams competing with each other. And in each sport, these six teams were divided into two pools of three, with the winners of each group facing each other in the final. The specter of COVID-19, of course, loomed large at the event. And so all the matches were played adhering to strict COVID-protocols. The people coming to watch the matches also had to ensure social distancing.
The event kicked off smoothly on 12th November, with the planned matches for cricket, basketball, and badminton finishing as per schedule. Three days into the event, the schedule was muddled up somewhat due to the spate of health issues of a few participants. But after giving the participants a day of recovery time, the event roared back into action.
The captains and players of the teams were highly cooperative, and as such, the games could be completed without a considerable delay. Ranbhoomi 2021 officially concluded on 21st November, with the much-hyped finals for both volleyball and football held on the last day.
As the first sports event for this academic year, I believe that Ranbhoomi did a good job in entertaining the sports fanatics on campus and bringing some competitive spark to Planet-I. Of course, there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the pandemic as we speak. A majority of PGP-1 students are sitting in their homes, waiting to get back to campus. And when that day arrives, here’s to hoping for many more such events to enliven the campus!
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