A Farewell to remember..

It's been a busy week, with formal tea parties, informal farewells, naughty write-ups, free dinners, PS - 2 stuff, project work and make-ups. Now I have several times, expressed my love for my department. Not the work and stuff... that's always secondary. The people and the fun times. And recently my juniors gave me even more reason to be proud. Now we have all seen and experienced farewells, but none like this one.

In case you have the time, do come over to Bhag new wing, Ram upper front wing, and Ashok pi wing, and look at our invite. Invites are made to be different, but this one stood out like an oasis in a desert. This was just a sign of things to come.

The next day, we psentisemites were asked to be ready by 8am... :) No need to smile, we weren't late, actually we were an hour early(keeping in view psentisemites' rule of arrival 2 hours behind schedule). We weren't told where we were going, outside campus was a 20 seater bus ready to take us to... Surajgarh. A piece of advice, do in your BITSian life visit it once. Awesome place. Its a former fort, that's been renovated into a resort.

Once we arrived, we were given red carpet treatment... literally. And with each of us being accompanied up the stairs, by lovely young ladies on eitherside, we felt nothing short of royalty. After a brief trip through the palace cum fort cum resort, filled with wierdly posed pics, singing, some really really weird games :) and otherwise generally running around, we spent time at the pool.

If I ever have to list out some of the best times I have had here (and I have had many) this would definitely be in the top three. It was really fun, there weren't any tensions, worries, phone calls, arguments..anything of that sort. Just a bunch of really good friends, having fun. The water brought out the best in us, the child within. We could have been mistaken for little children who have just found a new game to play.

The food was brilliant... I mean seriously GOD LEVEL, a customised preparation for us exteemed psentisemites with handpicked dishes.. the hands that did the picking i.e. our juniors did a fantastic job of it.

After hours of lazing around, we sat down for a session. Recounting all the great times we had, all the laughs, the work... (I wasn't involved here much :) ), the great times, the trips (ohh.. the trips), the politics :) , the fights, the arguments... in hindsight they all bring a smile to my face. I have no regrets for the things that I did, but just for a few for those that I didn't. We felt like learned gurus, sharing our knowledge for the benefit of posterity.

Thus ended a day that I will never ever forget. Despite all that has happenned, we... I speak for all of us psentisemites, love you all. And no matter, how much you screw up, we will always be there for you. Thanks again for a wonderful farewell.

OASIS 2K8... a psentisemite's review

I guess its time for some reviewing. OASIS '08 has been the most enjoyable OASIS for me yet. The reason I will place it above last year's, is not because I didn't have fun then. It was one of the best experiences of my life. But it was a totally different kind of fun, one that many of you will be unable to really appreciate.

So what made it so enjoyable? The whole feel was great. Now ORC aaj raat hai, so let the pros do the criticising, I'll just do the good parts.

The Alumni Band was brilliant. The name itself, 'Not Yet Over The Hill' brought in so many expectations. I guess it was this that really marked the beginning of OASIS. Brilliant enthu, people in their 50s coming back to their alma mater, and doing what they do best, entertain. True BITSian spirit. 'Girl from the Western Coast', our anthem from yesteryear lost in the annals of the 80s and 90s was passed on to us. Lets just hope some of us have that much life inside of us, when we're that age.

Being in Psenti-sem has many advantages, the best being, not caring about delays and screw-ups. So you can enjoy it all, without cribbing and complaining. I attended majorly the Audi events, street plays, Dance workshop a couple of times('twas more fun that I imagined..) Especially the girl teaching, Neil. I made so many mistakes hoping she'd come to correct me but saala woh uska boyfriend hi aata tha :(

The biggest problem was of sleep. There is just that amount of control, I have over my sleep. So had to walk out of good performances to somehow scramble to my room and rest my eyes.

Then of course, Choreo, Razzmatazz, Tarang, Fusion. Every one of them brilliant. A special mention of KK. Totally above my expectations!! What energy yaar, he was like red bull on steriods! I don't think I've ever danced with such silliness in my life. Lounge Piranha too was great, I must commend their stage deco. They had some very simple moving images, of train and fields and fishes, projected mirrorred on stage from the centre. Totally psychedelic!

I was totally determined to headbang for rocktaves, but saala so gayaa. Its unbelieveable. I have slept through so many rock, metal and all those types of performances, that I think I have a problem. I've slept really really clost to the speakers also. I guess above a certain threshold, it sound like a lullaby to my brain.

Waise the greenery/hariyali doesn't need to be remarked upon. I guess most of us can just close our eyes and images come flooding back :) . Very satisfactory!

Lastly I need to mention the company that actually made this Oasis the most special. PCr both psentisemites and juniors, Chussi's brothers and Bharath.

Chussi had invited his brother and his roomie in MBBS from Nagpur for Oasis. They were ammazing company, had a lot of fun with them and being doctors how could we resist asking questions? :P

Bharath is an alumnus, who we out of a stroke of good luck, could accomodate on campus. I can never forget the session we had, where we recounted so many of our experiences. He passed out in '93, but it was like talking to a batchmate. We introduced him to a few BITSian traditions and he reminded us of a few too. The experience was like gazing into a crystal ball for us, we saw ourselves in our future. Still very much BITSians.

Thank you all for a wonderful wonderful time. Can never forget it!