On entering SAC-24, one might notice a secluded Arnav Kundra hunched over, meticulously perusing a spreadsheet. Oblivious to the cacophony that plagues SAC in the evening, especially before a fest, he continued populating the sheet with details regarding department inventory. Arnav Kundra is the StuCCAn of the Department of Reception and Accommodation for Oasis 2017. “Our work can be broadly classified into three categories – Logistics, Inventory, and the titular duty of Accommodation. Barring accommodation, we deal with stuff like the stall layouts; we also arrange the entire third-party inventory required by clubs and departments.”

“The scale of Oasis may pose a few problems”, stated Arnav. Last Oasis there were around four thousand registrations and the number of potential participants has increased by nearly fifty percent this time. Furthermore, the budget for the fest has crossed one crore, also a first. The problem of organization has been compounded by the lack of consecutive working days prior to Oasis, giving departments only a week’s time to work. The list of participants has not been finalized and mess signings began only on Tuesday, which happen to be just one week before inauguration, putting the profitability of the fest into jeopardy.

Renovations across campus along with the surge in participation have led to accommodation problems. “Initially, we planned on housing some participants in tents but after negotiating with the institute we will now be able to house them in empty staff quarters” reassured Arnav. The renovation of Krishna Bhawan has led to the relocation of some stalls to the FD-1 parking lot. Since the tender for tents has changed, food stalls will now be made of plywood.

A common complaint last Oasis was that club budgets were too low which led to lackluster events. “This year the StuCCA has increased club budgets across the board which will hopefully trickle down to the quality of events. I hope that this, coupled with the reduction of food stall prices, will make this a fest every BITSian can enjoy” concluded Arnav.