The Dying Art of Hand-writing

I recently realized, rather shamefully and sadly that the art of hand-writing is nearing extinction. I belong to the generation that proudly quit hand-writing at the time of exit from college, thanks to the advent of computers and mobile phones. Since then my fingers have enjoyed the luxury of just choosing from the many keys on electronic devices. With the exception of a few documents that require my signature, I have seldom picked the pen to write. I call it an art because good hand-writing is not something that comes easily to all of us. I remember the days when teachers used to pick out the answer sheets of students with neat hand-writing and exhibit them in class. Occasionally I have enjoyed the privilege myself, though not always, as my hand-writing goes from good to bad and bad to worse towards the end of the exam.  My sister still treasures the answer sheet in which her teacher had marveled at her neat hand-writing. May be she will have to frame it for the benefit of future generations to let them know that there was an ancient form of art called hand-writing. Possibly future generations might be wonder-struck when they hear that human beings used to write with their hand; let’s hope that doesn’t happen in the near future. Gone are the days of hand-written letters; and with Apps like Viber and WeChat going viral, we are bound to use less of our fingers; and other organs will probably follow suit.

When I started preparations for my CIMA exam in January, I realized that one’s hand-writing could go haywire without practice. It was as if my hand was not in sync with the rest of my system; quite understandably it was trying to protest (in management terms, resistance to change). I could feel the delay in the transmission of signals from my brain to fingers. I was horrified when I tended to use words like ‘u’ (you), ‘r’ (are), n (and); it was so annoying to rewrite every time I did that. I have no one else to blame but myself for falling victim to the whims of technology. The only source of relief is at the fact that I am not alone; I’m accompanied by the vast majority of others who belong to my generation.  

I pity the new generation that gets introduced to computers, mobile phones and Play stations at birth. No wonder kids are more comfortable pressing keys on these devices rather than holding pencils and pens. A handful of professions that earlier used to depend on the skills of a writer are also turning towards modern mobile devices. There is little that I can do about this less-concerning and least-discussed topic, when my mobile is continuously reminding me of an important unread message on WhatsApp. I leave it to the strategic planning teams of Parker, Faber-Castell and their likes to overcome this serious threat.