With Oasis getting ever closer, Parth Kashikar is a man who is difficult to get hold of. As the StuCCAn of the Department of Controls, Parth is integral to the day to day operations of the department, as was evident from the scheduling meet happening in his room during the interview. With enough screens set up on the table to rival a command centre, work was at full swing, with a few other members from the department sitting with Parth, hard at work completing the schedule for Oasis.

Controls has most of its work streamlined around the schedule. Parth believes that Controls’ work is not just logistics and operations. When running a fest of this magnitude, hiccoughs at the last minute are bound to happen, and Controls needs to be there to fix things. They think of their work as communication and resource management, with all tasks being broadly split as such. Taking complex problems and divided into specific job streams like “Judge-sheets”, “Travels”, “Reprography”, among others, helps simplify things.

Parth was a member of the “Judge-sheets” job stream in his second year and a member of the “Audi” job stream in his third year. Judge-sheet work was done mostly behind closed doors and included tallying of scores and background checks. The Audi stream had him at the helm of work, in liaison mostly with Stage-Controls, helping to ensure the fest events ran smoothly. One was analytical, while the other was more about logistics and thinking on one’s feet. Controls, thus maintains a philosophy of diversity when it comes to recruitments, to ensure that the varied requirements of each job-stream are met.

The major pre-Oasis time crunch is scheduling work, requisition work, and negotiating with the Institution. Like every year, the schedule for Oasis is prepared with great care, in an attempt to avoid major clashes, putting in buffers and other contingencies that will help in the event of a major delay. Controls is in constant contact with all the clubs and departments conducting events, to make sure everything is running on time. If an event is getting delayed, they attempt to get to the root of the issue. Usually only a worst-case scenario, cancellation is also something Controls has to deal with. Parth adds that as unfortunate as cancellations are, club coordinators are generally very cooperative about them and understand that there’s no other choice.

Last-minute requisitions are also a major challenge. That is where the three-event pitching meets and the two Controls meets come in handy. Being able to meet with club coordinators multiple times and make sure that they get everything they need, while also ensuring that clubs are transparent and certain about their requirements is essential. Malfunctioning equipment and bizarre inventory requests at the last moment are Controls’ greatest fears, and so they try to maintain backup equipment. Permission forms—both general forms for the club as a whole and event-specific forms—are also signed and kept at the ready as early as possible.

A major change this year is the introduction of the EMS portal made by Controls in collaboration with DVM. This now permits judge-sheet work to be entirely paperless, the whole process being shifted onto the portal. Certificates will most probably be online this year, with serial number tagged unique certificates being provided to participants in digital format.

Another recurring problem that they face is issues with prize money, and they plan on resolving that issue by attempting to provide the prize money for all events on the spot this year, with the exception of Rocktaves. Controls is still in talks with the Institution to receive the initial amounts as a reserve, and Parth is confident that this will be done before Oasis starts. Clubs will be given specific prize money brackets, which are flexible enough to permit last minute changes, but at the same time, also keep the amounts in check.

On being asked about the theme, Parth says that the theme has both philosophical and visual aspects. It is all about paradoxes and contrasts, the neon and the noir, he says. As a theme, Controls believes that it should be easy to integrate, and while Controls itself conducts no events, they have been emphasizing to clubs and departments at all meets the importance of theme and prop integration.

The focus of the fest he believes, is not just the prof shows. Parth would like the focus to instead almost equally shift onto the club events as well, because he sees the fest as something that is for BITSians. If the denizens of Pilani are taken out from the fest, how can they relate to it? His message to BITSians is to not be holed up in their rooms in the first year, but to get out, and see everything. ‘The fest is for you all,’ he says, ‘That is the whole point of the fest.’