Handwriting

“I am still paying the penalty of another neglect. I do not know whence I got the notion that good handwriting was not a necessary part of education, but I retained it until I went to England. When later, especially in South Africa, I saw the beautiful handwriting of lawyers and young men born and educated in South Africa, I was ashamed of myself and repented of my neglect. I saw that bad handwriting should be regarded as a sign of an imperfect education. I tried later to improve mine, but it was too late. I could never repair the neglect of my youth. Let every young man and woman be warned by my example, and understand that good handwriting is a necessary part of education.” – Mahatma Gandhi ¹

Last week, I met a friend to help him in a project. I was supposed to ‘write’ and not ‘type’ 300 words for him. Well, that’s an easy task, I thought. I picked up my fountain pen and started writing. Words kept flowing, but my hand couldn’t keep pace with it. It was tough. Pretty soon my writing turned to scribbling like that of a child. A huge change from the time I was a kid when my answer sheet was shown to the class as an example of good handwriting. Typing ruined my writing. I don’t remember when I last picked a pen and paper to write other than for scratching down a phone number or a quick note. I’m from a generation which knew life as ‘pre-internet’ and ‘post-internet’. When I was a kid, and before the internet, everyone had a pen, phone book & some loose paper in their pockets; had calendars at home and on office desks, marked with all sorts of reminders. But, after moving into the digital realm, all this seems to have taken a back seat. We increasingly tap out our thoughts, messages and reminders on a keyboard or on a touchscreen, and the traditional note or letter appear to have become redundant. The art of handwriting seems to be dying a slow but sure death, thanks to our overwhelming dependance on technology for communication. ²

A research conducted by the online stationer Docmail revealed some interesting statistics:

• Average time since an adult last wrote by hand was 41 days
• 1/3 of respondents have not had a cause to write anything ‘properly’ for more than 6 months
• 2/3 of them said if they write by hand, its usually something for their eyes only with hastily scribbled reminders or notes
• 1/7 of them are ashamed of their written word
• 4/10 replied on predictive text for correct spelling
• 1/4 write in ‘text talk’ – the gbrsh v use in msgs n chat
• 1/6 think handwriting should not be taught in schools
• 1/3 describe handwriting as ‘nice’ but not something they would want to do every day
• Handwriting has noticeably declined for more than 50%

The writing is clear on the wall. Our future generations might end up entirely on keyboards to communicate. ³ We by habit look for ease while communicating which explains why we embraced technology so much in our daily life. With our computers and PDAs no wonder we type more and write less.

I love handwritten letters. I can never get the mental image of a love struck young man drafting a letter to his beloved, on a parchment with a quill pen, out of my mind. I love the sound of the scratching of the nib on a paper, the rustle of the pages, our emotional highs and lows reflecting in the way we cross our t’s and dot our i’s. Outdated, they may be, but, handwritten notes held/still hold a personal touch. Far away from home, touching our loved ones’ handwritten notes would feel like touching them. But, I doubt if our next generation would know this romance.

We cannot blame technology. It has made our life easy and raised our standards. But, we cannot disagree that some simple pleasures of life have disappeared. I miss writing by hand, and, I think it’s time for me to go back to four rule copy writing books.

1: from My Experiments with Truth
2,3: from Daily mail