Indonesia

Rail Jerker’s Diary

BRAWIJAYA HHH, Malang, East Java, Indonesia
Run # 528, Monday, 9 May 2005. Hare: Yuli

115 hashers joined the weekly Monday run of Brawijaya H3 in the hills of Batu, nestled beneath Arjuna volcano, near Malang. It is a mixed hash running since 1994. The name Brawijaya comes from ancient royalty of Java. Their logo, as in the Dhaka hashes, is a tiger.

The Grand Master Bing Soesilo, “Kojak”, his wife Mei Fang, and David and Intam Lam took me to the run. It took us hardly 40 minutes to reach Batu from Malang. The venue was a primary school compound. There was no formal starting of the run, but runners and walkers took off as they arrived. One of the reasons for this flexible start was, I presume, that the narrow hill trails would become too crowded if the whole pack went together. Another could be to accommodate working hours, it being a weekday. I had observed this practice in Bandung also.

Trails tend to be long. Runners take one and a half to two hours and walkers two to two and a half. When we arrived there was a group of about ten starting off. I joined them. My mismanagement friends got busy with their jobs. After climbing a neat and clean village road for about 30 minutes I was left with only two companions – Jalal and Lilik. They were both residents of Batu and join three hashes a week.

JACKETS AND NAMASTE
BH3 is based in Malang, but they usually run in Batu because of the lovely terrain, fewer people, and clean air. Batu is known as “Little Swiss”. In fact, a few other chapters do the same. There is a run in Batu almost every day of the week, and resident hashers usually do two or three. Malang H3 One also had their run on Monday around the same area, with overlapping trails.

It was quite pleasant to walk in the lonely village paths and in the hills. At an altitude of 2,400 to 3,000 feet it is cool. Batu hashers keep their jackets on. From time to time one came across other hashers coming from different directions. The greeting usually was “Are you from Brawijaya or Malang?” Sukarli Arief also joined our three-some from a tangent. An elderly local, he too walks thrice a week, always involving climbing. A 3-hour walk is quite normal. However, with some persuasion and with my companions’ familiarity with the criss-cross paths, I managed to make ours last a little less than 2 hours. A young lass in tights came running and overtook me on a narrow path, looked back, apologetically gestured a namaste, and went her way. After a little while we met her again, still running, still overtaking. Unashamedly, we were shortcutting!

THE CIRCLE
When we returned, the venue was full, most had eaten and others were waiting for rice, which had fallen short. It came and the eating was over in no time. Joint Master Yeoahan assisted by Song Master David “Orang Gila” Lam, conducted the circle. The usual Down Down’s were given, with no ice, but some splashing of water. I presented a Dhaka tiger polo shirt to the GM, and he gave me one of theirs.

Then came the unusual part – a lucky dip with the 115 names in a box and about twenty prizes to give away. The prizes consisted of beer mugs of the sponsor Bintang, and T-shirts from the hash. Then came the most unusual part – a cash lottery with two equal prizes. It is a practice with BH3 to give back to the members each week whatever cash is left over from the run fees after setting aside some amount for the caterer and the down down beer.

GOOD PRACTICE
A praise-worthy feature that I noticed in the Malang hashes is their effort to maintain transparency in financial matters. Each week in their hash trash, Malang H3 Two gives the hash names of the 40 to 50 participants, the run fees collected, the expenses on beer, T-shirts, etc and showing the cash balance in hand. Brawijaya H3 also publishes Hashtistics each week of number of Harriers, Harriettes and “Puppies”! It also gives the details of cash receipt and expenses. Here was something that mismanagement of individual chapters, and national, regional, and, dare I say, international events could do well to keep in mind.

Juned “Rail Jerker” Choudhury
Dhaka H3
E-mail: nishatch@bdcom.com