Making the write choice

After five years in a relationship, marriage seemed the next logical step for Mumbai-based media professional Sharada Muralidharan*. But she had her doubts. “I knew that I loved my boyfriend but we fought a lot,” she says.

A colleague got Muralidharan thinking. “She suggested that we get our handwriting analysed by an expert to see if we were compatible,” she says. Though Muralidharan thought the idea was crazy, the couple eventually approached a graphologist who analysed their handwriting. “We were told that though we were compatible, we had to work on certain areas, like ego. And we did,” adds a smiling Muralidharan, who is now happily engaged.

A science?
Graphology, or the “psychological science” of analysing handwriting, has been hotly debated over the past few years. While some swear by it, psychologists from all over the world have used adjectives like ‘invalid’, ‘puzzling’ and even ‘useless’ to describe it. Though Indians are also wary of accepting graphology as a valid science (some put it on par with astrology, palm reading and other “occult sciences”) many Mumbai and Bangalore-based graphologists insist that couples are increasingly turning towards them to help remedy their personal lives.

Anal Pandit, founder of the Mumbai-based Institute of Graphological Research, is one of them. He says his students and their friends regularly approach him for a handwriting analysis of their boyfriends, girlfriends or prospective life partners. He even gets out-of-towners as clients from cities like Ahmedabad.

The Mumbai-based Institute of Graphology and Personal Success holds classes for troubled couples five weeks a year. Payal Naik, a former financial advisor, is effusive in her praise for these classes. For, it was here that Naik, a Punjabi, learned to embrace her Maharashtrian husband’s cultural differences. “Graphology was a small element in these classes as handwriting analysis was done only when couples requested it,” she says. Today, Naik describes herself as being less aggressive and short-tempered. “Before, I used to question everything in my life but now, my mind only thinks about constructive things,” she explains, almost gleefully.

Subconscious speech
“Handwriting comes from your subconscious mind,” says Mumbai-based graphologist and co-founder of Power of Handwriting, Rahul Jauhari. Using this theory, graphology experts believe that a few changes to a person’s handwriting can have long lasting effects on his or her personality.  After spotting problem areas, they recommend changes in handwriting that must be practiced repeatedly for a fixed period for it to be imprinted in the subconscious mind.

This, experts say, is called graphotherapy.

A few key traits, like commitment, independence, flexibility, sacrificial level and ego amongst others, are kept in mind while analysing a couple’s marriage compatibility level. “After a detailed analysis, you learn whether the person is emotionally expressive or repressive, extroverted or introverted and so on,” says Jauhari.

Bangalore-based consultant graphologist Keith Rosario gets several requests from parents of prospective brides and grooms to analyse the handwriting and, by extension, the character of their child’s future life partners. “I prefer to analyse the handwriting of both the groom and bride,” says Rosario. But after presenting the couple with his analysis, Rosario explains that he does not advise them as he is “not a counsellor”. “I leave the decision to them,” he adds.

Rosario also explains that graphotherapy can change flexible traits like sensitivity, motivation and attitudes. “But most importantly, one must mainly have the desire to change,” he points out.

*Name changed on request

Know your handwriting
Graphology is a complex science and graphologists are unanimous that ordinary persons cannot easily analyse handwriting. But here are some general indicators:

Egostical: If you sign the first letter of your name in a big, exaggerated way
Strong emotions: If you apply a lot of pressure while writing
Fickle-minded: Someone who writes with very little pressure
Confident and outgoing: If you write in big print
Focused: Someone who writes in small print

@prabhakar_anu