Enamored with love and luxuries, a delightful journey to the best cities across the globe was explored at Oasis’2015, the 45th annual cultural festival of BITS (Birla Institute of Science and Technology), Pilani, at the Pilani campus from 28th October to 1st November, 2015. With their central theme being ‘Around the world in 96 hours’ this voyage was toured by myriads.
The festivities began with a grand inauguration ceremony, where a symbolic ribbon cutting tradition was held, graced by the presence of the Director, Prof A.K. Sarkar and the Deputy Director, Prof S.C. Sivasubramanian to set the pace for an enchanting experience that lay ahead. A variety of remarkable stage performances by all the cultural societies of BITS along with a colorful panorama of fireworks display lit the spark for the coming transcendence of the world tour. The ceremony was followed by the sublime performance of an Israeli band, which included NirMotzeri accompanied by Yonatan Sharon on percussion instruments and Yanush Hurwitz on the accordion, which left the audience mesmerized by their soulful and hauntingly beautiful music.
Day one, thus, began with a beautiful battle of vocal wars in the solo singing competition of Andholika, and a dance extravaganza in Razzmatazz. The preceding events included the Oasis’ 2-on-2 Parliamentary Debate, a photography Exposure to make the world visible to the naked eyes and an Apt to Act to unleash one’s theatre maniac through spontaneous enacting of on-the-spot given situations in the most creative way.
Organized by Pepsi MTV Indies, the English Professional act featured an exuberant combination of Skrat and Dualist Enquiry. Skrat, is a three piece alternative rock band from Chennai known for their tight and electrifying performances, comprising of band members Sriram T.T, the vocalist and the lead guitarist, Satish Narayanan, the bassist and Tapass Naresh, the drummer. Followed by this performance was the act of Dualist Enquiry, a solo electronic project of Sahej Bakshi, a Delhi-based music composer who, is also known to have worked with electronic dance artists such as David Guetta and Fatboy Slim.
The campus was filled with the loudest cheers when it was time for the Street Dance competition to be held. An exciting Treasure Hunt was also organized with a goal to unearth a proverbial treasure chest by travelling the ‘world’ around us. The day ended with a spectacular display of mesmerizing musical performances in the classical group singing competition of Tarang.
Day Two of Oasis comprised of the event of Beg, Borrow, Steal for all the street smart students, which was met with most enthusiasm. The list of items was a unique blend of objects that were easy to find like a selfie stick or a dongle, and yet, some crazy stuff that were impossible to attain such as socks with golden snitches or Yaoi painting. The team ADP which showed unique creativeness by making a Hawaiian guitar out of thermocol, was the one that eventually won. The following events of the day included vocals workshop for singers, movie quiz for movie buffs, Metamorphosis which served to be a heaven for budding film directors, a Spell Bee and The Golden Gravity Show which showcased stunning aerial acrobatics by a Swiss Trapeze Artist. Preceding these events were delightfully melodic contests for all music lovers such as Swaranjali, displaying the depths of Indian Classical Music and Pitch Perfect exhibiting the extent of one’s vocal prowess through a capella. A bounty of knowledge was received through Skiller, the World Beatbox Champion 2012 from Bulagria and so was the true meaning of love and life through the movie screening of ‘Amelie’, a fanciful comedy of Switzerland. Dance Duels, a solo dance competition was also held which raved great reviews for all its performances.
Day Three included exciting events like Triathlon, a mind-boggling test of wits and strengths, Tandav, a classical dance competition and a writer’s paradise in The Oasis Reading Session for all closet poets. The much awaited night of supreme pleasure and elevated spirit levels had finally arrived with the amazing acts of Sunburn’s Zenith and Shaan and Russian Hard Rock Sofa’s electrifying performance which left the crowd grooving on both feet in no time and longing for more and more with each passing moment. Mr. and Ms. Oasis, a contest for the hunt of the most talented and charismatic male and female personality of Oasis made everyone stay up all night in the cold just to hear the final results. In the midst of the decisions being made by the judges, the audience was also rewarded with a visual treat of Sonya Nakti, a belly-dancing-fire-spouting performer who, surprisingly, enthralled high amount of cheers from the tired audience even at three in the morning.
The Last day of Oasis was celebrated at the N2O Comedy Show with Biswa, Utsav Chakraborty and Daniel Fernandes who made the crowd roar with laughter till the point they could laugh no more, making everyone forget their worries. In the end, the beautiful Lantern festival made the sky gleam brightly from the farthest distance, with smiles spreading from one face to another thereby creating a perfect end to a perfect festival.
Therefore, it can be said with certainty that there were beautiful memories made for every person to take home during this extraordinary Oasis of ninety six hours.
List of Winners for the above mentioned competitions:-
- AND MS. OASIS:-
Kushal and Ashmita
ANDHOLIKA:-
Western Andholika-
1st -Male: Paritosh Pande from Vivekananda Insitute of Professional Studies, IP University.
1st– Female: Shradha Kapoor from Pearl Academy of Fashion
Eastern Andholika-
1st– Male: Lakshya Sachdeva from Vivekananda Insitute of Professional Studies, IP University
1st– Female: Harleen Kaur from Shri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce
TANDAV:-
1st– Priyanka from Lady Shri Ram College for Women
2nd – Shonan from Lady Shri Ram College for Women
PITCH PERFECT:-
1st– Miranda House: Aishwariya Kukrety, Anukriti Singh and Emily Ralte
2nd– Lady Shri Ram College for Women: Satwiki Adla, Anna, Faith and Bhavya
OASIS READING SESSION:-
1st– Prabhat Chaturvedi from Shri Venkateswara College
2nd– Kushal Jasoria from BITS Pilani
TARANG:-
1st– Shri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce: Rahul Bansal, Shubhankar Jain, Ekyum Singh, Harshit Kumar, Harleen Kaur, Harjinder Singh and Sidhanth Gupta
2nd– Sri Venkateswara College: Zaran Hashmi and Vibhor Sumon
APT TO ACT:-
1st– Sri Venkateswara College: Ananda, Sahir and Tanvika
2nd– Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College: Abhitanshu, Abhilash and Sanyam
METAMORPHOSIS:-
1st– Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology: Sarthak Malhotra, Suyash, Rajat, Mudhit and Dharamjay
2nd– St. Stephens’ College: Nirbhay Nitya Nanda and Rajiv Savio Herald
STREET DANCE:-
1st– College of Vocational Studies: Abheet, Puneet, Vikas, Gaurav, Divyanshu, Chetan, Raghav, Animesh, Rishabh, Yash and Aman
2nd– BITS Pilani: Vishal, Prabhatt, Kapil, Tanveesh, Prabhakar, Samarth, Palash, Srinivasan, Sourabh, Riddhi, Hitesh, Akarsh and Naman
Shagun Marwah
Image Credits: Chirag Sharma for DU Beat