Oasis 2003 - The Alumni Edition

"What a party that was!"

Thanks a lot for making "Oasis 2003 - The Alumni Edition" truly memorable. One American hotel guest stopped by and said, "you guys certainly are having the time of your lives in here!"

The Atmosphere:

The venue was packed with nearly 200 attendees! There were 16 BITSians from the 1970's batches alone! Nearly 50 BITSians from 1997 batch and later. The youngest was a 2001 graduate (Pallavi) and she got a prize for just showing up. Some BITSians met each other after 25 years!

There were 12 BITSian couples at the event and they were invited on stage for a picture. Make that 13 couples if you counted the two guys that wandered on stage by mistake.

No expense was spared for this party. The most elegant venue, the best desi food, and the most popular desi DJ were picked for the evening. All tables were named after BITS landmarks. The brochure was a collectible in itself (thanks to Deepak Das - Stuccan Art & Decor 1990)! The backdrop of the clocktower was brilliant (thanks to Sri Krishnamurthy, 87B1A4).

The Marriott service was unbelievable and the food from Rajpoot was delicious (thanks to Tirthankar Das - '91). Even those former mess-secs (who are accustomed to better food than the average BITSian) were raving about the veg biryani and goat curry!

The prizes and giveaways were numerous ranging from BITS car decals, BITS and DreamCricket t-shirts and a cricket bat from DreamCricket. DJ's Vic and Nas pumped up the place in style as one would expect from the country's best desi DJ! They even played a couple of Tamil songs!

The feedback on the evening's program which featured a movie, some games, auction and contests, has been amazing. Most felt that the party was truly a clone of the real Oasis!

333031 - The video

How the campus has changed? The sight of the ATM and computers at the UCO Bank freaked people out. Networked hostel rooms with PC's was a major conversation piece. The new 'wired' classrooms were like StarShip enterprise, with lots of technology but few people! The laptops and overhead projection in the classroom 'jhooled' people as they would say in BITS lingo! The sight of Engineering Graphics using PC's left everyone reminiscing about their first big purchase in Pilani - the drafter is extinct - long live the drafter! Footage of BITSConnect showed BITSians how serious BITS was about wiring the campus! The Diro, faculty, and students thanked the viewers for their support of the project.

Nagarji's redi brought back some interesting memories. And Pappu's speech was drowned out as BITSians were overjoyed to see their old pal. For those who missed the audio, his message was "Pilani is a different place. Aaj kal, sab ghotu hai sala - all everyone wants to do is ghote these days. Be sure to come by and I will have a sam and chai ready for you." Mess servant, Bachcha Singh, much older and visibly balding, was his usual courteous self although nobody quite understood what he said. The BITS Coop looked like WalMart!

It is official - Malaviya Bhavan is a girl's hostel! That didn't go down too well with some guys who promised to fund an insurgency to take it back for the guys! One BITSian nearly fell off the chair in disbelief at the sight of students using mobile phones on campus!

It was amusing to see BITSians writing one of those Open Book Compre exam. Most of them were staring at the text book in the exam hall as if it was the first time they had seen it! Just like old times!

The only thing missing in the movie was Mr. Chandok going "movie is over please."

Want to buy a copy of the 1/2 hour long video or any of the merchandise offered on sale? If you haven't filled an order form at the venue, you are welcome to order online at the newly launched BITSAA Store.

BITSConnection: The memorabilia

For the contest titled - BITSConnection, BITSians brought pictures, t-shirts, peacock feathers, and other memorabilia from Pilani! Narayan Pillai brought a letter that his anxious mom wrote to him because he had stopped writing home around Oasis time! Ajitha brought the Casaram - the 1987 Oasis trophy. Prasad Thammineni brought his class photo - evidence that his classmates really had a full head of hair! Sri Krishnamurthy brought his 1987 id card. Simu showed off his 1993 bulletin. One 1987 BITSian brought the letter from BITS offering admission into Economics and a grade card announcing he made the highest grade in his thesis, probably his best grade at Pilani - he blacked out his GPA but forgot to black out "second division"!

As part of this display, BITSAA had a bank of monitors continuously streaming pictures of Pilani and its alumni.

Down Memory Lane - The mixer

The idea was to get BITSians talking about their time at Pilani. BITSians started sharing funny stories from campus immediately. Gaurav took home a cricket bat for his story on how his wingy (nicknamed Pondy) locked up an uncooperating professor in his office. Apparently Pondy was annoyed with the professor because he was not allowed into the prof's office. Understandably so because the professor was tired of Pondy's persistent requests for more marks on an exam.

The Opening Address

MC Chaaya started the evening welcoming BITSians to the "only Oasis where booze did not have to be smuggled into the audi in Thums Up bottles." Most BITSians were thinking "this isn't Chaaya, she is Kranthi, our MC from last year." To which her response was "on EBC Radio, I am Chaaya! And in Bollywood, I am Aishwarya. I look different on screen!"

Chaaya did her customary count-by-decibel-level of BITSians from various batches. BITSians from 1995-2000 did not disappoint - they nearly brought the roof down! But the 70's batches stole the show! These BITSians were missing at the last two reunions, but posted a double-digit total this time around!

In his opening remarks, Prashanth Palakuthi, CEO of Reflexis, challenged the audience to pledge $80K before the day ended to cover the BITSConnect deficit. He dedicated the rest of the evening to helping BITSAA to do just that. And he never shied away from putting his money where his mouth is. Not only did he pledge a significant amount, he also injected some enthusiasim into the auction bids.

The Auction

Two original works of art by MF Hussain; a cricket bat signed by Gundappa Viswanath and Joel Garner on their induction to the Cricket Hall of Fame; and the event's backdrop were all grabbed by eager BITSians at the benefit auction for BITSAA. Although the BITSian that bought the 'horny Madhuri' (actually a 1972 'Untitled ink on paper' by Husain) did not seem too eager in the early stages of the auction.

Fundraising for BITS East Coast Endowment

In the end, although ticket sales and sponsorships were not enough to cover the cost of this magnificent event, we did manage a small surplus of $1,300 thanks to the auctions! Surplus proceeds will go towards the East Coast endowment that supports two scholarships in Pilani. Of course, this surplus is aside from several pledges received for the BITSConnect project which are 100% allocated to the project.

Next Event - Cricket in the C-Lawn! Saturday, October 25, 2003.

Next event is a 100% free event. The aim is to provide East Coast BITSian grad students (both girls and guys) a chance to meet with senior BITSians. We encourage every BITSian to show up and just have a great time.

The event itself is a cricket match between two teams - one comprising BITSians from 1951-1985 batches and one team comprising post-1985 batch BITSians. The match will be played at Sayreville and gear will be provided by NuWare - the sponsor. DreamCricket will give away a trophy to the winning team.

Please e-mail Venu Palaparthi if you want to play in either team or want to just be there as a spectator.

Photos

Photos of the event will be uploaded to the website by Wednesday. Please visit BITSAA after Wednesday (Oct 22) to access these. You can click on the photo and print them via SnapFish.

About our sponsors

Gold Level

Radiant Systems has sponsored every event of BITS East Coast since BITSAA International was founded in 2001. Venu Myneni, the company's co-founder is a spouse of a BITSian (Jyothi Myneni - '88) and employs several BITSians at his firm.

NuWare has also been a major supporter of BITS East Coast over the last three years. Venk Krishnan, CEO, and Praveen Kesava, COO, are both BITSians.

jPeople has been with BITSAA since day 1. In fact, BITSAA's website is hosted by jPeople. Prasad Thammineni, CEO of jPeople, and Anand Rajaram, a senior employee of jPeople, are actively involved with setting technology strategy for the BITSAA web-site - a web-site that recently featured in a Rediff article!

Advantecs is a first-time sponsor of BITSAA. A leading IT consulting company in NJ, Advantecs was founded by Seri S Reddy along with Manish Krishnan (both BITSians). Raj Jilakara, Director, is also a BITSian.

Silver Level

VirtualGold and its founder Inderpal Bhandari are active supporters of BITSAA and are a Silver Sponsor this year. Inderpal advises BITS East Coast on organizational matters.

DreamCricket is a regular at BITSAA events. Co-founder Ara Pararajasingham has arranged several of the sports memorabilia auctioned at BITSAA's events in the past.

IndiaPlaza.com helped BITSAA International in 2001. Just prior to this year's event, IndiaPlaza announced that it will donate 2% of all purchases made by BITSians at IndiaPlaza to BITSAA. India Plaza's CEO Rajesh Ananthasubramanian is a BITSian ('92).

Area BITSConnect Sponsor

ValueMomentum, founded by an all-BITSian team, is a fast growing technology firm based in Edison, NJ. It has also been a committed supporter of BITSAA. In 2003, it was one of the major sponsors of BITSConnect in NJ.

Media Partners

EBC Radio 1680 AM ran several free spots announcing the event in the weeks before the event. In fact, several of the 1970's batch BITSians discovered BITSAA thanks to these spots.

Indian Express NA was instrumental in convincing HE Pramathesh Rath to speak at our event. Although he could not make it due to a last minute conflict, we appreciate the help offered by India Express.

India Abroad and Rediff have been terrific supporters of BITSAA. We are grateful for their ongoing support and coverage.