Run for beer with the hashers

The Mumbai chapter of The Hash House Harriers sees corporates and expats play a more social version of Hare and Hounds on the last Sunday of every month. That's next Sunday

Sunday Mid Day investigated mysterious circular markings across the city that had a number of people scratching their heads in hopes of extra terrestrial invasion, and discovered they were borne out of a particularly human pastime -- running. It turns out they were nothing more than route markers laid out in chalk by hashers from the Bombay Hash House Harriers.



Their purpose? To show club members where they should be running. "We place chalk markers and blobs on the route to indicate where the track leads," says 'grand master' Ketki Shah aka Bonsai who "sells sofas" when she's not hashing.

Run hasher run
The running club is the local chapter of international organisation The Hash started in Malaysia in the 1930s.

It's a more social version of Hare and Hounds, where you join the pack of hounds (runners) to chase down the trail set by hares (other runners), then gather for a bit of social activity known as the On In or Down Down with beer and song.u00a0

"The only prerequisite to hashing is a sense of humour," says Bonsai, who joined the revelry in 1994, a decade after it was founded in Mumbai by David Reid and Jai Singh. Every hound has a hasher name -- her husband Sailesh is "Shining" -- and tasks are designated to mis-management members like hare raisers (route markers), hash cash (in charge of the moneys) and hash scribe (who update the newsletter Receding Hairline).u00a0u00a0u00a0

What they do
Hashers -- 50 to 70 corporates, expats and professionals meet at a pre-arranged spot on a Sunday
morning, at the end of every month. "It could be in the heart of the city or several hours away. Recent venues have included Khandala, Navi Mumbai, Elephanta Caves, Malabar Hill and Thane," says Bonsai.

Beer flows freely after the hour-long run. "We work up quite a thirst. It's a great way to unwind, meet a wide group of people, and generally have fun," says Shining. The hashers also spend weekends out of town and hold moonlight runs. But cooling your butt off on slabs of ice and parties at Enigma and Cyclone aside, the agenda is to run.

As one hasher put it on Receding Hairlines, "We are a beer-drinking group with a running problem."
u00a0
To join the Bombay Hash House Harriers, visit bombayhash.org or send an email to bombayhash@gmail.com