In brief: the Audi is only a little changed. The same chandeliers, stage and weekly movies.
What you notice first when entering are the new seats, with seat numbers no less. Gone are the folding metal rattlers that would drive the visiting classical musicians mad.
The view from the stage:
We were lucky to chance upon a play rehearsal,
being prepared for the following week's Apogee.
Seeing the play of course led us down memory lane.
This is backstage, the headquarters of, well, Backstage in Oasis:
I don't recall any graffiti in our days. Both the
backstage areas, the old student union, the music
club (next to the cafeteria behind the Audi) and
other student-run rooms are now all covered with
graffiti.
Some pictures of the green room:
The old music club now has junk, including,
ouch, the old upright that has obviously seen
better days.
We were also lucky to chance upon a group practicing
music. This group of students and faculty (how's that
for a nice addition?) were practicing that Rekha showtune
from Parineeta.
The drum set (I apologize for the bad photo)
looks like the same one from 1984 that itself replaced
the far older and clunky red one.
We tried in vain to meet the secretaries of the
drama and music clubs. I wanted to get a sense of what
kinds of plays they were staging and what music nights
were like. One of the student union reps promised that
they would show up for a breakfast meeting, but probably
that (breakfast!) was too much to hope for.
Sridhar did get to meet the ELAS (English Language
Activities Society) secretary, who was excited to
meet an ex-Brain-of-BITS (Sridhar) and who had made
it his mission to collect all B.O.B. names to engrave
on a future prize cup. Apparently, most activities
are exactly, and therefore depressingly, the same.
Sridhar couldn't resist suggesting a few new ones.
Let's hope they are taken up as enthusiastically
as they were received.