The crowd roared as the boxers moved towards the ring and each spectator cheered on, hoping for the best for his House and friend. Each dusky evening brought boxers to the red or blue corners and saw them fight their hearts out until they won...or lost. And none of us spectators sitting easy in the Rose Bowl can have even the faintest clue of the fear that besets a boxer before his bout. But then, as Himmat Singh said, “Boxing is a sport that teaches you to overcome your fears.” The Chief Guest for the event, Col. Daljit Singh, an eminent boxer in his time, made it clear that everyone is afraid of stepping into the fateful ring and those of us who have actually overcome this fear, can truly be called warriors.

In the three days of triumph and despair, we all witnessed excellent displays of the talent that our school embodies in this sport. Nawang Bodh spectacularly wrapped up both his bouts in a matter of seconds as the referee was forced to stop the contest and Saket Mahajan and Sujai Banerji emerged victorious in a similar manner against Jaspreet Singh and Utkarsh Agarwal respectively on the third day. Prashant Negi won in a neck-to-neck battle against Agrim Joshi, but Jehangir, with his technical guard and strong defence, beat the Tata House boxing captain, ending Prashant’s dream of winning his weight. Later in the evening, he was quoted as saying, “During the bout, I was oblivious to the outcome of the challenge, and boxed my heart out, but I felt greatly disappointed when a lot of the spectators told me that they thought I would win.” Adhip Chopra, one of the spectators, called boxing a blood sport and said that, in the end, it is the hungrier lion that wins. Prateek Ghei, the winner of his category said, “Boxing requires speed, strength and, above all, stamina,” and we are all aware of the fact that no one can even enter the ring without sheer grit and courage.

Kamran Cooper, another winner, told us that boxing is a painful experience, making it clear to all of us that even the winner doesn’t always relish his bouts. On the other hand, the more violent crowd clearly found it an awesome experience. Boxing is a sport that can draw an audience easily, for who does not like to see others getting hit on the nose! While the boxers dodged, jabbed, hooked and landed upper cuts to their opponents, the audience shrieked in horror and exulted in joy. The magic of this sport is what keeps the tension going on both ends. Pushparaj Deshpande, former Most Scientific Boxer, said, “Boxing is all about punching, dodging, winning and getting disappointed, but graciously.” Rachit Khaitan, one of the spectators remarked, “Boxing is a most scintillating experience for all Doscos.” One of the gutsy D formers, Arvind Sharma, disappointed with his loss, told us, “I lost because he was tall and had a long reach. Being relatively short, I was unable to cause any significant damage.” His opponent, Rajan, was warned by the referee a number of times for paddling and not punching, but he narrowly escaped getting disqualified and battered his form mate without using much technique, but a great deal of barbaric swinging.

The boxers must all be acknowledged for the tremendous show they put up during the competition for even as they won or lost, there was constant pressure on them to win, which either came from the captain, from form mates or, in some cases, even from their own psyche. At the end of the day, the best House will obviously win and must claim credit for it too, but all those who have worked hard for this event must be acknowledged.