Rise and fall of Graphology

Graphology : n. study of and reading character from hand-writing. graphologic(al), a. graphologist, n Graphology is the study of handwriting and its connection to behavior, personal information and other human traits



More than a decade ago, I got interested in this skill as one of my seniors in college was a graphologist and I chased her like anything for a year to teach me how to read handwritings. Then, one fine day she gave up to my chasing and gave me the first tips on what to look for in handwritings and how to analyze them. She would not have spent more than an hour or so with me, but I took off from there, went to all possible book shops in town and hunted for graphology books (the net was an unknown entity then), saved money from my pocket money and invested in my first graphology books. Read through them as soon and as fast as possible and then started a phenomenon where I used to look at my person’s handwriting before I looked at him or her. It was a great discovery phase for me when I used to compare handwritings of two or more people and when I saw some similarities, I used to observe them and try to locate similarities in their personalities and behaviors and co-relate the two. It was probably my first sub-consciously conscious effort to understand the human psyche and personalities.



Over the next 4-5 years, I mastered the art of deciphering the hidden personalities in hand written words, learning new dimensions, with every new handwriting that I saw. As I was growing in this space, I realized that along with the skill, my intuition to analyze was improving and I could say a lot of things after the first glance of the handwritten sheet of paper. The best compliment that got about this analytical skill, was from a colleague in Pune, when he said, ‘Guys, don’t leave your handwritten pieces around her, she would read you like a book’. It used to be fun at times when suddenly while writing I used to see a pattern in my own handwriting and used to ask myself things like, ‘So what is it that is making me feel happy today?’ or ‘Am I feeling low, why , what is the reason?’ In fact lot of my intuition got developed by analyzing my own handwriting on a day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute basis.



But then came the era of computers and slowly we started moving away from the handwritings and more and more communication started happening on e-mails. Over last few years, most of us (at least me and most people around me) are using pen only to scribble and that scribbling I am sure is shorter than the short hand that was taught few years back. Now I like taking any notes also on Notepad on my laptop, as it is always with me wherever I am. As of today I use pen only to sign, but I am sure the days of digital signatures are almost there and we may not be required to sign also in the near future.



I miss reading through those so very individualistic patterns of hand written notes, where with the content, I could read through the intent as well…am just wondering will the full circle of handwritings happen with tablet PCs within my lifespan, for me to go back to one of the arts that I would love to practice again anytime….:-)