Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru gets new Sports Secretary and she comes with towerful of promises.

The newly elected Sports Secretary of Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru, Rashmika Rajan, who will take over the post from June 2020, has a lot on her plate. On November 29, she was named as the new Sports Secretary. In a chat with Fisto Sports, the 19-year-old spoke passionately about sport being an important part of the college which gives both athletes and non-athletes the opportunity to build the character and resilience they need to succeed as an adult.

Formative years and what is better: Tennis or Basketball?

Rashmika hails from a sports family background as both her father and mother were former international basketball players. Talking about early days of sports, Rashmika says that it didn’t take her long until she realised how much she like Tennis.

“I used to play Basketball and Tennis both at one point at the same level, then I had to choose between the two. In the end, I chose Tennis because I was doing much better a day and I really liked the sport a lot,” Rashmika recounted. When asked about her favourite player, she tells us she deeply admires Novak Djokovic, the current World No.2 and tries to incorporate aspects of his game.

Beginning

Rashmika stated claimed that her college has been phenomenally supportive adding that the college staff has been given her lot of permission to miss classes and take part in tournaments.  

“I have been studying at Mount Carmel College for the last four years now. That includes my 11^th and 12^th here," she said. "The college have been supporting me a lot. They have been giving me a lot of permission to miss classes and take part in tournaments. 2020 is going to be my final year, I wanted to do something back for the college. I got the motivation to stand for the post, so that way I would be able to give back something for the college because of what they have done for me in the last four year,” the youngster said. Rashmika’s journey to the post of Sports Secretary began back in 2018 when she found out that her mother, aluminate from Mount Carmel College, who also served as Sports Secretary during her time. “I Immediately felt that the need to take up the responsibility and try for this post because it was already there in my family. I knew that I had the potential to do so, it’s been there for almost two years, and I have been working to it ever since,” she recalled.

'Eiffel Tower Girl..'

On being asked about her experience towards formulating a manifesto during the election for the Sports Secretary post, Rashmika said that her whole strategy was to make herself known through her achievements. She further explained: “I felt it’s not easy for the entire college to know you. So, I wanted to give out my achievements and I wanted everyone to be aware of how much I had taken part in the sports field and how much I had achieved."

“I am 5 feet 11 inches, so I campaigned myself in such a way that I used my height as my advantage. When I campaigned, I made a slogan called ‘Girl with the Power as tall as the Eiffel Tower’. So that way people could remember me and also they could relate with my achievements and know that she’s the tall tennis player and that’s how actually people referred to me even though they didn’t remember my name, they remembered me through the “Oh, Eiffel Tower Girl..!”

Commitment on 'sports for all'

Being played both individual and team sports acted as a huge advantage and separates her from the rest of the candidates, as she said it also helps her to deal with any kind of situations, athletes and structure of the tournament. “I think my vision is completely different from the usual promises that you would find on any candidate’s manifesto,” said the B.Com student. “The thing that separates me from all the candidates is that I have experience in both team and individual sports. I know how to be in a team situation and how to handle it and how to work as a team, and even If I have to handle someone in the individual sport, I know how to even guide them on how they should single-handedly carry on responsibilities,” she opined. She expressed that even though there is a lot of responsibility on her shoulders, and the time commitment is immense, claimed that she didn’t face any problems during the time of election campaign. “I actually had other candidates who have stood with me. And In fact, one of the girl was from my class itself. We all had a healthy competition.” Rashmika also emphasized the importance of organising variety of activities and workshops related to sports. “I would like to conduct various kind of activities, different kind of workshops like aerobics workshops, that way sportsman and non-sports man can take part, everyone in the college can be part of sporting and non-sporting activities. That’s one of my goal when I take over next year.” She also believes, will serve the purpose of encouraging participation for the event. Introducing couple of individual sports is also one of her major agendas.

Making plans for Khel

Another of Rashmika’s major goals is to inculcating a good sports culture on the campus, plan well in advance and bring about concrete changes, not just viewing her post as a PoR for the resume. “Our college Sports Fest titled Khel happens every year in the month of January or February.  I would like to organise the sport fest much better. If given a chance, I would also like to extend more sports,” she said. “Right now, the college have majorly focus on team sports like Basketball, Football, Throwball and Cricket, I would also like to add few more individual based sports, probably Tennis, Badminton and Table Tennis so that more students can take part. We can make it more fun as well." On a parting note, Rashmika said that she hopes she is able to implement the changes that she wishes to see when she first came to campus, and that more people on campus get the motivation to be involved in sports. “I want to make sports and its facilities available for all students whether you are sportsman or non-sportsman which at the moment is not really happening. So that way everyone can be part of sporting activities, I don’t want anyone to feel left out. I would like to stress on that when I come to that position,” she concluded.