Campus Central

BITS Pilani witnesses grand participation by Delhi University at Oasis'14

Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr

Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani Campus organized its annual cultural festival, OASIS’14 from 31st October 2014-4th November 2014. With the theme ’90’s show’, Oasis attracted a participation from over 70 colleges with around 5000 students on campus for different competitions.

The quiet campus of BITS Pilani transformed into a carnival for those 96 hours. Apart from the Prof. Shows featuring Benny Dayal, Raghu Dixit, East India Comedy, Mysore Brothers and Sunburn night, here are all the competitive events that took place in the campus.

Oasis Inaugural Ceremony

[caption id="attachment_27394" align="alignleft" width="290"]Sriram Raghavan addressing the crowd at inaugural ceremony | Image Credits: Kashish Madan Sriram Raghavan addressing the crowd at inaugural ceremony | Image Credits: Kashish Madan[/caption]

The inaugural ceremony took place on Friday, 31st October with Mr. Sriram Raghavan as the Chief Guest. He addressed the audience talking of the evolving culture of cinema. He also acknowledged the efficiency with which the cultural fest was organized, following which he declared OASIS 2014 open.

The Mime Club of BITS, Pilani, then performed two acts and the spoof video – ‘Schlumdog Millionare’, followed by a fashion parade displaying Oasis apparel. The Department of Stage Controls revealed the unholy trinity of 90s games, a PokeBall, Mario and a Tetris console.

The ceremony came to an end with the western, folk and semi- western performances by the Dance Club.

Music: Band performances, voacalist performances and instrumentals

Organised by ARBITS, Roctaves Elims took place on Saturday, 1st November while the finals on the 2nd of November. ‘Nice Weather for Ducks’ headlined the event by their performance on 1st November. On the competition front, a total of nine bands including The Chronic Legion from New Delhi, Confuzone from Darjeeling, Cynic Bliss from Jabalpur, Pyramids, Poltergeist, Wire Weed, Stained and WitchKraft  from all over the country contested for the preliminary round, which was judged by Chris Avinash and Shreyas Kendurkar, a BITS alumnus and Guitarist. The judges for the finals were Chris Avinash and Rahul Gopal, a Chennai based Percussionist.

[caption id="attachment_27393" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]Rocktaves Finals at Oasis, BITS Pilani | Image Credits - Chirag Sharma Rocktaves Finals at Oasis, BITS Pilani | Image Credits – Chirag Sharma[/caption]

Among other musical competitions were Tarang, the instrumental event held on the 1st November, Andholika, the vocal competition organized by Music Club, Pitch Perfect, the Capella event and Swaranjali, an instrumental competition with Mysore Brothers as the judges.

Dance: Western, Choreo, Street and Tandav

 Razzmatazz

 Organized by the dance Club, Razzmatazz Finals were held on 2nd of November with seven teams performing. The event consisted of three rounds. The second round was the Props Round and the last round was Footloose.

 Street Dance

 After the Raghu Dixit Project, The Prof Show for the day, Street Dance Finals took place on the 2nd of November at Rotunda. The event was split into two rounds being Choreo and Face-Off with a total of six teams up on stage.

Choreo

 Choreo, a theme based dance competition had its finals on the 3rd of November. The event started off with a professional performance by Soum Singh and Shika Gussain, the Director and Co-Director of Eloquence Dance Academy. Five finalists, Gargi College, Hansraj College, BITS, Pilani, Lady Shri Ram College for Women and Shri Ram College of Commerce were shortlisted out of eight teams.

[caption id="attachment_27392" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]Gargi College, Delhi University performing their Choreo act at Oasis, BITS Pilani | Image Credits - Kashish Madan Gargi College, Delhi University performing their Choreo act at Oasis, BITS Pilani | Image Credits – Kashish Madan[/caption]

Other dance competitions were Desert Duel, a solo dance competition, Tandav, a classical dance competition, Clash of the Lions, debut event, Bhangra and Midnight Prom.

Drama: Nukkad, Stage, Mime and Film Making

 Street play:

Organised by the Department of Theatre (DoT), the Street Play competition was held on the morning of 3rd November with ten teams competing. Each play carried a social message along. The first performance was by Indira Gandhi Technical University for Women followed by students of Pearl Academy.

[caption id="attachment_27396" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce performing Nukkad Natak | Image Credits - Kashish Madan Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce performing Nukkad Natak | Image Credits – Kashish Madan[/caption]

Stage Play:

A minor incident surrounded the stage play event as the first team, Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce refused to perform due to a mixture of reasons related to the audience behaviour and infrastructural issues. “We backed out because we felt that our art was not respected. Our team won both stage and street last year. We worked for days and nights to make this production, it really very painful for us to leave the stage in that manner. We love BITS Pilani and Oasis, and this was first experience of its kind. We have great respect for the fest and look forward to next year’s edition”, said Team Manchatantra from SGGS. Unfortunately with the midnight slot, stage play witnessed performances by few teams with Sri Ram College of Commerce’s play getting the maximum appreciation.

Mime

Mime, the mimicry competition took place on the 2nd of November with a total of 7 teams competing. The judge for the event was Niranjan Goswamy, Padma Shree awardee. The first team to perform was BKBIET and the competition came to and with the performance of PGDAV College (Eve).

Apt to Act, an on the spot acting competition and Metamorphosis, the film-screening competition organized on the 2nd of November were among the other events in this category.

Fash P: Fashion Show and Miss India Contest

The preliminary event took place on the 2nd of November in SAC Hall and the final event on the 4th November with five teams including NIFT Delhi, Trinity and Amity School of Communications performing. The judges for the event were Rati and Vishal and Neil. The Fashion Parade was followed by a Femina Miss India Beauty Pageant with seven girls competing. The judge for this event was Ms. Gurleen Grewal, Miss Diva International 2013.

[caption id="attachment_27397" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]Contestants for Femina Miss India Audition round | Image Credits - Kashish Madan Contestants for Femina Miss India Audition round | Image Credits – Kashish Madan[/caption]

 Miscellaneous

The Oasis Debate, one of the largest debate competitions in the country was organized on the 1st of November. Blab, a jamming event, Kshanika, the Hindi Jamming event and Mock Parliament, the Hindi debate in parliamentary form were some other competitions to look forward to. Banana Man Show, a show by Pierrick St-Pierre, popularly known as Mr. Banana Man, a street performer was one show that attracted more than a fair crowd.

‘With inputs from Oasis English Press’

Update: The previous version of the article has been updated to include a quote from Team Manchatantra, SGGS.]]>

[email protected]; Studying in Gargi College, a final year B.Com(Hons.) student, she is currently the Associate Editor at DU Beat. She hates being idle and loves flexibility in life. She totally agrees with James A. Michener in his saying: “I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.”

Comments are closed.