THE BANGALORE HASH HOUSE HARRIERS

THE BANGALORE HASH HOUSE HARRIERS
PRESENTS
Run # 408
SUNDAY, 26th February 2006

I ran last Sunday with this really freaky, weird club - Bangalore Hash House Harriers.

What it is: Its the Bangalore chapter of Hash - “The drinking club with the running problem”.
They run every alternate Sunday afternoon, for like 10-15 kms in serene countryside. The club has a heterogeneous composition in terms of age, sex, shapes, nationality. But, surprisingly they all beer alike – down down down.

First we all met up, ahead of Golden palms spa and resort (I sneaked into the resort for some fotos and a peep into the poolside). Take left at the Brick factory and follow the hash signs – shredded paper and chalk marks. It takes you to a lake, where we wait for the hares to burrow out. Then they come - one night stand, useless widget, hernia, ffu, zulu, sexobics, use-her friendly (all nicknames) and the virgins (us newbies).
We started the run a lil after 5. After about 3.5 kms there was a water spot, hydrate yourself and move on. The trial itself was amazing – paddy fields, eucalyptus groves, kachcha roads dotted with villages. Though we all started off together, we kinda spread soon. Surprisingly, the order was not in accordance with age, sex (usage noun, not verb), or weight. (Btw, weight actually helps rolling down a slope)
And if you lead or fall behind, you have to find the trail yourself. I went on false trails a couple of times. You realize there is something wrong when you don’t see shredded paper for sometime. One fellow runner, Ninaad offered the moral of the false trails “You should chase a false trail sometimes”, he said, “if you are in sales, you will sell more”. Well, in consulting, you also handhold the client on the false trail and get paid for it too. (Actually, the handholding seems good, mabbe I should try my luck at work tomorrow.)

At times, during the run, when you cross the villages, you have stray dogs going bow vow, and some kids running after us. We have a sizeable no of firings running with us, and they pass comments in kannada or in broken inglis.
And finally after about an hour of running, we got back to the lake. Beer flowed easily and mixed well with some below-the-belt jokes. Most jokes were on Bird flu. My Pj mates, am sure, would have seen the connection – bird-chicken-chick-hen-cock…. And then there is a ceremony to express gratitude to the hares responsible for the run. There is this Ice slab on which the ‘awardees’ are made to park their asses. The hash anthem is sung by the group… I didn’t get the words exactly, but I know there was this down down down at the end, when the guys on the block need to go bottoms up. (gawd, not literally!! I meant the beer. Life’s so much better with that, otherwise imagine doing a bottoms up).
I shared the ice slab with 2 other ‘virgins’. One was this dude from the US of A (faintly remember hearing abt it somewhere), who said his name was AC Milan (!!), and the other, Naina, who thought she didn’t qualify to sit on the virgin block. Then the anthem followed, ending in the down down down.
And that, members of the grand jury, is how I lost my virginity at hash!
Then the disperse took place.
The effort that goes into getting all this happening is truly amazing. The moderators have to do a lot of homework, find a place where a run trail can be set. Then they go and mark the trail with shredded paper and chalk. Once this is done, there are smaller logistics issues like getting the drinks van, the snacks, the beer, the ice slab and so on… all this for the honor of cooling off their asses, literally.
“The Rinking Club with a Dunning problem”

Fotos ke liye check kare http://www.flickr.com/photos/manojbhat/sets/72057594071343483/