By-Two Kaapi in an oilfield

One year ago: Oasis 2004 - The Annual Cultural Fest of BITS Pilani was a couple of days due. I was running around the whole of the institute building, meeting scores of people, thinking of insane stuff in the name of creativity, working on Flash presentations, updating process status docs, getting things in place for an event, and in my free time (which was reduced to a blimp in the space of time) thinking about Z. It was Prayag - a first date with entrepreneurship, an event organized by CEL here. I was the Logistics Co-ordinator and I was a damn busy man.

Today: A couple of days to go for Oasis 2005. Its crossed 4 AM in the morning. I am sitting in front of my computer, shamelessly browsing, GTalking, flicking through pages of Dilbert - I am alone. Out there, I see a whole group of people running around in fervent ardor to make yet another Oasis a success. To me, it has been a case of 'been-there-done-that'. Yet, I miss those days. The work I had kept me busy and made me happy. Not that I have work now (I can list down names of atleast a dozen books that I need to cram), but it isn't what I would want to do now. I just read Anand's post on his last Oasis, and those visions just crossed my mind. I don't know what this Oasis holds for me (as I sit here hopelessly and shamelessly jobless), but all that I can say with conviction is that I will certainly miss -

• 3201 whacko sessions - carefully masked as 'creative sessions'
  
• Sleepless nights conceptualizing 'Entretainment'
  
• Harsha's ramblings after his cough-syrup overdose
  
• Srevats - the legend and his trademark enthusiasm
  
• Anand and his confessions
  
• That eerie walk with Anand, Uzma and UdKi
  
• The laptop breakdown during 'Entretainment' and Anand's mental breakdown
  
• 'Do you want to sit here?'
  
• The dancefloor and the mood-swings
  
• Anil and the girl in Blue
  
• Vox Populi with Uzma, and the block-and-tackle round
  
• Dance at the Dhaba
  
• On stage at OQ
  
• 'Darkness' and how I was ditched by everybody
  
• Srevats' spooky stories
  
• Rock show and Uzma, Anand dozing off
  

Yes, Prayag was a confluence in its entirety. A confluence of great people, great minds and loads of fun and memories. And true, it has faded away, only to remain as a memory in our hearts. Sometimes, I do wonder, whether I took the right decision in calling off Prayag, but then, it was simply not possible this time to take Prayag to greater heights, and I hate to do an event again - at the same level as the last time.