TRULY 'FLIPSIDING' :OASIS 2K9

FLIPSIDE – when I learnt that this was Oasis this time, I smiled in my usual cynical way. The Posters said “discover your flipside”, ”the way in is the way out” and blah blah blah… Yup, so they are gonna show me my flipside now which I was not able to discover for myself in the last two decades.

The gruesome BITSian test schedule makes fests, especially oasis, a much awaited event in every bitsian’s life. My first oasis (in my 2^nd year) was more of a cultural shock to me. As if the crowd was not from Delhi but Miami. This oasis was a much more needed and hence awaited one.

In my school days, I remember, music was synonymous to the fat harmonium and some undecipherable chants to me. Needless to say, I was miserable at it. The definition of music changed a little during my stay at Kota .There, it was the old melodies being hummed on The “Vividh Bharti “ channel of the AIR, chiefly to drive away the sense of loneliness. Never ever in the wildest of my dreams , had I comprehended that music could be so soul liberating as it was in the shanker -Ehsaan -Loy concert. Dancing to the lovely beats with friends hugging and falling all over is one moment of my bitsian life that I shall cherish forever. As the songs went by, so did my unaccounted anxieties. It was so very therapeutic. It has become so very difficult to find such moments when you can just lose your identity and drift away in a totally different world altogether. I had heard all of these songs ‘n ‘number of time before and never imagined these could produce such a hallucinogenic effect.

This oasis started off for me quite a few days before the inaug(ration).I tried to weave a story out of absurd facts for the event “stokes”. Even after striving for about half a week, I was clueless…and therefore decided to quit. But thereafter participating in “POEM A PIC”, qualifying for the finals of
“COUNTERSTRIKE” and WINNING “KAUN BANEGA PATRAKAR “ gave me a much needed boost of confidence with regards to my writing skill which had been languishing for so long. It was such an exhilarating moment to climb the steps leading to AUDI(torium)’s stage after a gap of about 2 years. After that APOGEE prize in my first year, I had always secretly feared that I might never get the chance to go on the stage again.

This oasis was made special by the persistent demands of my friend Rungata(alias Saurabh) to dance .To which I eventually had to succumb . Initially all the moves that I could think of were basically our warm up aerobic exercises in Hockey. For a shy guy like me, dancing in front of the blackberry lounge was nothing short of rediscovering oneself or rather discovering the flipside of myself.

The fact that Shankar Mahadevan had himself come earlier as a participant leaves very little to be sung in praise of the fest.

This Oasis 2K9 has now become a source of endless nostalgic memories .Kudos to everyone involved in making this oasis such a” flipsiding “ experience!!!