Handwriting

A few days ago, I heard my wife scolding my son on his poor handwriting. My son told her that he was experimenting with his handwriting...and I saw nothing wrong with that, except that his teacher seems averse to such ideas...particularly when he chooses a strange font and size while answering questions in class tests. I advanced a theory to my wife that though he had answered all questions correctly, since his teacher could not figure out the font, she had given him low marks. My son flashed a grateful smile at me, while my wife was clearly wanting to slap me.

Anyway, guys, that brings me to the subject...when was the last time you tried writing about 300 words ( around 40 lines ) on a plain sheet of paper ? I am not able to remember when was the last time my handwriting filled a full sheet of paper - probably the last was sometime in 1989 or 1990, just before computer invasion.

A couple of days ago, while at our company guest house, since I had nothing to do one evening, I decided to fill an A4 size paper with my handwriting ( cursive ). My assessment of my effort that day are as follows :

> Particularly when it came to "r" and "f", literally my fingers stopped moving. My brain was unable to figure out how I used to write out these 2 letters ! Seriously, it took me a few seconds to get my fingers moving again. I still am not sure if I used to write "f" with a bulging bottom or flat and thin. As for "r", I am not sure if I used to make a tiny circle at its top right or top left....

> Having tried this stunt in English, I next switched over to Tamizh...and I wrote down a few sentences. I was left totally confused over which "Ra" to use....I tried out "ha" and "Ottaga - O" and actually got it wrong couple of times while writing fast !

> How many of you have noticed these days that all Tamizh magazines have switched to Periyar script for "Lai" etc. While my brain has got used to reading it, while writing, it still wants to go to the good old way of writing "Lai' and then it becomes a struggle getting it right on paper.

> Am sure that if my son's teacher sees my handwriting, I would get marks lower than his.

I could not believe that something so basic as my handwriting can be so adversely impacted because of computers.

I would encourage each of you to set aside about 15 minutes and try out your handwriting, (don't consciously try to make it neat and clean, just write easy and fast, like we used to in college) ......... ask your children to evaluate it. It may be an interesting dinner table conversation at home.

S