The quality of the considerable number of quizzes
we’ve seen this Oasis has been all over the spectrum.
We’ve had a challenging ‘90s Quiz that saw teams scramble
to ferret out facts you-used to-know-as-kids, a Movie Quiz
on trivia you-mostly-don’t-and-probably-wouldn’t-care-toknow, a decent, if not particularly balanced, Music Quiz, and
a slightly unappetizing smorgasbord of pop culture in the
Entertainment Quiz.
fantastically innovative anagram-based written round
that would have undoubtedly taken great efforts to make,
and was twice as thrilling to solve. The tension in the room
was palpable as veteran DC Anagram players grappled to
unscramble complex anagrams and connect them to answers
to regular quiz questions.
Nearly every little fact revealed felt worth knowing - an
essential feature of a good quiz. Amidst the participants’
intense brainstorming, the quizmaster hurtled across spheres
of knowledge in his trademark laidback demeanor. Though
first place was already secured by the team of Krishna Akhil,
Madhusudan and Srikar, the final round saw a few other
teams still racing to the finish. A brilliant last-gasp crack saw
the team of Tanay Shankar, Abhishek Veeraraghavan and
Suyash finish second, and conclude the
quiz well into the wee hours of the
morning.
But every once in a while, comes along a quiz that confounds
and delights in equal measure; where the initial fog of
impenetrability for every question parts to make you smack
your head at the absolute simplicity of its answer.
Meticulously researched and impeccably conducted by
maverick quizmaster ‘Captain’ Major Chandrakant Nair, the
Oasis Quiz opened to a packed Entertainment Theater at
midnight. The prelims round consisted mostly of ‘work-outable’ questions that spanned the horizons of that poorly
defined umbrella term called ‘General Knowledge’. The
Thus concluded what was one of
unveiling of answers to several questions drew ovations from
the best quizzes in recent
the audience for their masterful construction, and eight
memory; one that succeeded in
teams moved on to what was to be a thrilling final.
striking that elusive balance
While a fairly traditional format of kolstylz and regular infinite between being challenging and
-bounce and written rounds comprised the remainder of the accessible, and will be fondly
quiz, nearly every question was generously sprinkled with remembered by many in times to
clues to help work it out. The grueling contest saw several come.
great questions being passed around with no dearth of
imaginative guesswork. Deserving of special mention is a
Choreo was kick started with a professional performance by Soum Singh and Shika Gussain, who also were the
judges of the show. They are respectively the director and co-director of the company, ‘Eloquence Dance Academy’,
which is the official dance partner of Oasis. They danced to the famous Hindi romantic song, “Tum hi ho’ from Ashiqi.
Their brilliant steps and smooth moves wooed the audience off their feet.
In the finals, out of eight teams, the following five were shortlisted - LSR, Hansraj, SRCC, Gargi college and BITS
Pilani. All performances lasted around ten minutes each and were loudly cheered on by a completely filled Auditorium.
All the outstation teams did very well, but the audience was
shouting extra loud for the BITS team (as told by Akshay Menon,
DoT Coordinator) and everybody appreciated the different
formations they made and the visual effects that accompanied
them. Akshay said that the show is a huge crowd puller and they
try to maintain the same standard or increase the quality of the
show, to ensure that this effect does not diminish. They also plan
to include differently planned out rounds to bring about a variety
in the event and also give a chance to the teams to showcase their
talent too, so look forward to this event next year.