The art of LARPING!

*Scratches chin*
"Hmm... I wonder what that is..."
"Sniggers. That is one amazing art. It may look  a tad immature, albeit it requires great dedication."
"Frowns. Squints hard at Rudha for a second. You still haven't told me what it really is."
"LARPING stands for Live Action Role PlayING. Shakes head to show the hopelessness of his counterpart."

A LARPING sect- the wizard sect

"A surprised look on his face. Would you mind elaborating more on this? It's something  quite unheard of in parts of the world where I belong.Wait, are we literally describing our actions out loud?"
"I guess so, yeah. Nods head"
"Widens eyes! That's wicked!"
"This type of LARPING is called 'table-top' LARPING and it's super fun actually. Come to think of it, how fun is it when the role players verbally describe their character actions?"
"Tabe-top LARPING you say? Scratches chin. Hmm... Explain, how different is this from dramatics, improvisational theater and the conventional art of acting (theatrics)?"

Improv theater

"Allow me to elaborate. Clears throat, coughs. Extends his hands outward like a magician about to expose his grand trick. Wish I had some music to go with this. Some drum roll would have been nice. Anyway, back to the point.
1. Shows the number 'one' with his finger. LARPING  is an art otherwise called interactive literature or free-form role playing where the role players or 'larpers', physically act out their actions in an environment set in an often fictitious setting and plot. The larpers disguise themselves as the characters that they act and almost literally 'live' their roles during LARPING. 
2.Now shows 'two'. Improvisational Theater is another form of stage play where the script prepared is of the least importance. The script simply acts as a base or a foundation while the dialogues and acting vary according to the scene and how the play proceeds. In other words, the script is 'improvised' during acting. Here, most or all of what is performed is created at the spur of the moment (at the moment when it is performed). Hence, the aliases, 'Improv or 'Impro'.
3.Shows three fingers. Conventional acting is the acting that we all know. It is the acting that we see in movies where almost everything is scripted, rehearsed and prepared. Albeit the director does allow some room for the actors to improvise their reactions, actions or expressions during a particular scene, too much deviation from the actual plot leads to that part being omitted entirely."

One of my most favorite comics- The noob comics. Super fun to read!

"Opens mouth wide in surprise! I never realised that there was this much to know in the world of stage plays, acting and drama."
"Shrugs casually. It just goes to say, never under estimate even the smallest of things. Dramatics, stage plays, scripts and dialogues. These aren't new to me actually. I come from a family that had all these elements. Well, it was just one person though and then that legacy faded into oblivion after his passing from this mortal world."
"That is so cool! Wish I was a part of such a family. Wait, I already am"
"Slaps his forehead with his palm in shame. For once Ani, YOU are DUMB and I have the upper hand."
"How popular is LARPING on the world level?"

Characters ready to LARP

"Quiet popular. There are even organisations that support Larpers, both professional and amateurs. There are plot committees in every organisation who are responsible for deciding on the roles that larpers should play. There are rules as in a game and larpers should abide by it, failing to which they will be disqualified from the act entirely. You should see the level of dedication and passion these larpers have. Yes, they do this for fun and leisure and to bring some excitement in their lives, but there are people who literally exist for just one purpose- LARPING. While digging into this creative art, I came across a few articles where people even traveled a thousand kilometers( sometimes more), just to get together with larpers from across the world, mingle with them and live out their roles. Exciting life? Well, I suppose!

"Sighs... I guess that's about it for now people! Until next time! Drops smoke-bomb, vanishes into thin air... Poof!" 

yup... I am late.... again!

A new year, a new beginning-or so the old saying goes.

It's still the first week of 2017 and as a blogger (an irregular one at it), I am late in posting the "new year special blog post". Is it mandatory you ask? I would say that it's more traditional. You all must have ushered in the new year in one way or the other. While a lot decided to stick to the traditional partying, cake-on-the-face or clubbing, a few decided to do it with a simple new year greeting to their friends and family via text or phone calls. Then there are those who decide to do the latter the instant the clock strikes 12:00 and then completely forget about it, only to realize the next day morning, but then again, people are forgetful.

2017 did have it's own fill of parties albeit the usual type repeated every year. We ushered in the new year with a renewed vigor and with our hopes set high, yet again. While some of these "hopes" turn to "reality", others take their own sweet time- but again, this is for another blog post on it's own. I can however say with full confidence that there are some things that never change with the start of a new year- The mandatory act of taking resolutions.

And ready for a new set of resolutions.

Joke's apart though. I always wondered how this trend of resolving to start something new came about. I did some research and found out this.

The following information is highly confidential and has got prior approval from the Central Department of Internet Plagiarism and Cybercrimes. Make sure you are old enough to read through the remaining of the post. 
Oh, shut up, will you?

The month of January is named after the Roman god Janus, who was considered the god of transitions. He his depicted as a god with two faces on either side representing that he can see the past as well as the future. So naturally, January was seen by people as another opportunity to start afresh. It was seen by many as another opportunity to reboot their lives and get on the right track if they have gone astray. Also, humans are creatures of habit. We tend to do the same thing over and over again once we taste success. It ultimately becomes a habit. All we do at the start of a new year is to hope that our resolution eventually turns out into a habit that bears us the fruits of success at the end of the year.

But does that happen?
Maybe that's for another time to discuss.

But then again, this "art" of resolving to start something new and resourceful and the determination that grows with it eventually dies out as the weeks progress and at the end of the first month, well let's just say that February is January version 2.0- upgraded. As for march, poor guy, nothing special about him as the resolution is long forgotten by now.

Let's wake up shall we? Why not try setting up smaller goals on a monthly basis? By this, we tend to get more breathing space for other activities to refresh ourselves. As an added bonus, we also become somewhat immune to boredom and the urge to give up in times of failure. Success through smaller steps boosts our confidence progressively so at the end of the year, even if we have failed to achieve "that goal", we would have made some progress and with this satisfaction,we can try yet again the following year! Look, I know that there are millions of posts in the internet with the same things mentioned here. But what I am trying to achieve here is to refresh your memory with yet another blog post with the same generic info, thus saving you all the time and effort for having to sit and google it.

But you all are going to do it anyway aren't you? I knew it..! 

So why don't we resolve to start this year with the promise to take one step at a time and continue doing so till the end of the month and the start of the next year. 

Wait, did you just resolve?

Yeah....

Oh man! You are in some deep sh...

Language!

Do you think you will be able to follow it?

What about you?

Do you want to leave that question unanswered?

Sounds like a good plan.

As a closing statement, I spent my new year travelling. 

Ever heard of the quiet ones? Those who spend their new year contemplating on past events? 

Yeah... that usually never ends well... Happy new year everyone..!