Run # 419

Sunday, 30th July 2006

Hares: Flame thrower, push mush, shrinking prick, illishit relationship
With the marathon happening next month, I needed a hash dose to provide the impetus to the preparation. This Hash run was conveniently on Bellary Road close home. My bullet had also got back from Nandan’s and I was raring to test ride. Good chance to test my legs and the bullet, I thought.

The run location was at Greek Agora, a eco-farm off Chikkajalla police station on Bellary road. The weather in Bangalore is only getting better by the day. There were only about 15 of us for the run.
As I was running I had these random thoughts on why I run at all. There was a steady uphill on the tarmac road. I was running with another veteran hasher, (yes, I forgot the name, so what!!!) we were silent listening only to the tip toe tip toe rhythm our shoes made in sync as they hit the tarmac. Prisil in his Chautauqua, Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance talks about three kinds of quietness – the physical, the mental and the value quietness.
The inner peace of mind occurs at three levels of understanding. The physical quietness is the easiest to achieve, although there are levels and levels of this too, as attested by the ability of Hindu mystics to live buried alive for many days. Mental quietness, in which one has no wandering thoughts at all, seems more difficult, but can be achieved. But value quietness, in which one had no wandering desires at all but simply performs the acts of his life without desire that seems to be the hardest.
I would think of mental quietness to be addictive in a way. It must be that which gets us spending those Sunday afternoons in the blazing sun, rather than the warmth of our homes. Tip-toe-tip-toe we reached the starting point. It must have been about 7-8kms run, we had run for close to an hour. There were a couple of walkers who were lo(a)st-in, causing a delay in starting off beering.
The Hash circle, albeit a small one this time, had enough entertainment. Hares were iced, there was a virgin too. New-shoes deserved some rough treatment. There were 2 firangs with new shoes, as they were iced, they were made to drink beer off their left shoe with the hash song in the background.
“Here's to new shoes, they're so blue
They are Hashers through and through
They are hashers so they say
Tried to go to heaven but they went the other way
Drink it down down down down ... (until beer is finished or tipped on head)”
On the closing on the circle, hard-on took us through the “Sweet Chariot” song.
Swing low, sweet char-i-o-ot,
Cumin' four two carry me home...
Swing low, sweet char-i-o-ot,
Cumin' four two carry me home.
I looked over Jordon,
And what did I see-ee,
Cumin' four two carry me home...
A band of An-gels,
Cumin' after me-ee,
Cumin' four two carry me home...
A pleasant ride back and I was home before the sun went down.

For all the uninitiated, if you made it this far without figuring out a word of what I was saying, I have put together a few links that may help you.

Hash History - http://harrier.net/presskit/shistory.html
Hash Songs - http://www.big-hump.com/songs.html

Fotos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/abnash