12 things that oasis meant to me

Oasis is the cultural festival of BITS, Pilani. It’s a 96-hour event for which we students (the organizers of the fest) worked for over 2 months. Oasis was not just a fest, it was a mixture of exhilaration and liberation. I had a mob of 50-odd people (called art n dee) and being with them made every oasis special. This year I would not be able to go to oasis and these are few of the things I miss about it..

1. Staying out of hostel all night: Oasis is the only time we girls got to be outside the hostel all night. Why should boys have all the fun?

2. Structure and paintings: We, at art n dee (the people responsible for ‘art and decoration’ of the campus for oasis) revel oasis in the joy of completion of a 15-plus feet structure and complicated set of paintings. I used to glow with pride when i used to see people taking pictures with structure and paintings.

3. D-lawns: It is a D-shaped lawn in the center of the campus. Lying on its green grass, listening to the hum of the chilly October winds, seeing the clock tower soar- Ah, that’s bliss.

4. Food: Our campus is abundant with food joints. Coffee from CCD, Domino’s Pizza, greasy no-name chat stalls, maggi stalls fill the atmosphere with an aroma that used to keep us hungry for more. There was one oasis when I traded tickets of an unknown rock band’s concert for pizza and coffee

5. Rocktaves: Rocktaves is an event in which rock bands from all over the country compete. I loved the rush of adrenalin and the goose bumps the music blaring out of the extra big set of speakers gave me.

6. Dance floor: I accept that the oasis dance floor is not as groovy as the ones in big cities but what mattered was being around with people who wouldn’t care how you were dressed or how you danced.

7. M17: That was our base camp - oasis or no oasis . It was a small room filled with graffiti filled walls. It was nothing less than PERFECT with people in it round the clock.

8. Planning a trip: we usually went on a trip for 3-4 days right after oasis. Planning for trip meant deciding a making people agree, convincing people to come, running around for fax, convincing the warden to give us permission and pleasing lots of people with attention and hype. I used to get exasperated then, but now I miss it.

9. Mehendi: Out of the many stalls put up during oasis, the mehendi stall was my favourite.

10. Lack of sleep- out of the 96 hours, I stay awake for almost 88-85 hours living every minute of oasis.

11. Head-banging: Though my head banging resembled kali-mata’s dance, people gave me a lot of publicity that I couldn’t stop myself from doing it.

12. Early morning tea without brushing teeth after spending the whole night head banging in the auditorium was the magic that kept us going on through another sleepless day.

And there are some things that oasis meant to other people

1. Girls from other college: I am amazed how guys can pop their eyeballs out every time they saw other college girls. Though BITS guys used to seem sincerely shocked at seeing these girls in skimpy clothes casually puffing cigarettes, they never stopped stealthily taking their photos.

2. Break to go home: Many people see this 10 day break from classes as a good time to go home.

3. 96 hours of sleep: believe me, there were such specimen.