One can predict how close-at-hand a fest is by visiting the Student Activities Centre. Visiting it a couple of weeks before Oasis or APOGEE will present a picture of a host of people all slogging away to get the fest up and running. Kaushik Mour, the enthusiastic co-ordinator of the Hindi Activities Society sat down to talk to the APOGEE English Press in SAC Lawns.

HAS is organising two events – Word-a-maze and Ahvaan, along with a professional performance this APOGEE. Word-a-maze is a game meant to test one’s Hindi vocabulary. It is conducted in a quiz-like format, and will have rounds like Hindi Pictionary and Taboo. On the other hand, Ahvaan is a more serious event encompassing quizzes, debates, presentations and speeches. The elimination round will be a quiz whereas the final rounds will require participants to express their views on social issues. For the Entertainment Night comedy gig on 25th March, the stand-up comedian Zakir Khan has been invited to perform.

Before organising stand-up comedy events like N2O for Oasis and the Entertainment Night for APOGEE, HAS’s kernel event used to be “Kavi Sammelan” which showcased Hindi poets from all over the country. However, from around 2010, the club switched its focus to N2O. The APOGEE comedy show was born later with this year’s being just the second edition of the event.

“Being coordinator is an enormously different experience from being a member. In HAS, first years are generally like volunteers. We start taking responsibilities from the second year onwards. This Oasis was a great experience for me and my seniors helped me a lot coming into coordship” says Kaushik gratefully. He is sure that APOGEE will continue to grow in participation and scale and urges the BITSian junta to stay back and take part.