With Oasis ’26 knocking at the door, the Oasis English Press (OEP) sat down with Matrix’s Joint Coordinators, Vihaan Goenka and Rabin Mustafa, to discuss the club’s preparations for the fest.
Matrix, they explained, was BITS Pilani’s club for cinema and literature enthusiasts, which organised movie screenings, book-reading sessions, and book reviews. The club also held ‘Book Intros’, during which members would pitch books that they had recently read to the rest of the club. These sessions allowed people to discover new authors and niche genres, some of which would make one question the limits of human imagination. After all, who knew that there existed a cyberpunk novel about a computer virus that also infected humans? Ask a Matrix member. The Coordinators also revealed that some members were particularly keen on introducing communist literature to the club.
For Oasis ‘26, the club planned to screen two movies every day, with selections inspired by the fest’s desert-themed premise. These included the decidedly niche (according to the Coordinators) Mad Max: Fury Road, Lawrence of Arabia, Sholay, and Dune Parts One and Two. When questioned about Sholay’s connection to the theme, the coordinators defended its desert credentials with considerable conviction. The club was also organising a book fair, where visitors could purchase a box for a fixed price and fill it with as many books as they could fit inside. Unlike last year, individual books would also be available for purchase. The Coordinators remarked that cramming as many books as possible into the boxes was a game of skill, and ‘part of the fun’.
When asked about their preparations, one of the coordinators admitted, ‘I mean we genuinely haven’t done any work.’ While honesty is appreciated, the OEP would like to draw attention to the fact that this interview took place less than a week before Oasis ‘26.
When asked about their experience as Joint Coordinators, they were quick to highlight the main perk: one could skip half the meetings as long as the other showed up. The Joint Coordinators described their working arrangement as ‘fairly relaxed’and extended a special thanks to the ExComm members for their constant help in Matrix’s preparations for the fest.Their principal administrative challenge, meanwhile, had been remembering to fill out the forms sent by the StuCCA. Rabin admitted to having become somewhat afraid of the term ‘EOD’, with missed meetings and last-minute reminders also making an appearance in the conversation. The OEP would like to remind its readers that EOD stands for ‘End of Day’, although the coordinators’ fear of the term suggested that it could just as easily stand for ‘End of Department’.
On a concluding note, the Coordinators encouraged BITSians to enjoy Oasis, keep watching movies, and visit the NAB Auditorium for the screenings. They also urged students to stop by the book fair. Vihaan offered a final piece of advice to prospective buyers: ‘Be performative guys.’ He explained that owning a substantial collection of books made quite an impression, regardless of whether one actually read them. After all, nothing said intellectual quite like an impressive bookshelf and a complete lack of familiarity with its contents.