<p>Amid the coronavirus crisis, a 70-year-old commercial artist has started online classes, adopting latest technology and gadgets, to revive the fading art of handwriting.</p>.<p>Even as handwriting is fading away, with rampant use of computers and gadgets in all fields A Sathyanarayana, S Narayan for his students, has been training hundreds of persons in the art of writing, over the past two decades, since 2002.</p>.<p>He was conducting formal classes in handwriting and calligraphy, through his Kala Spandana organisation, on the premises of the century-old Mahila Samaja (founded in 1917) in Lakshmipuram, Mysuru. While some of Narayan’s students are LKG students, some are PG students, a few are KAS and UPSC aspirants and also software professionals.</p>.<p>Initially, Narayan used to conduct drawing and painting classes at his home and also at the house of his students. He also had a small establishment — Shilpa Arts -- on the main street, near Chikka Market in Mysuru. He thought of starting handwriting and calligraphy classes after parents of his students started complaining about their wards’ poor quality handwriting.</p>.<p>Narayan developed his own tools, devised a system and syllabus to provide a strong foundation for handwriting. He says 16 classes are enough to train seniors, with a bit of maturity, but juniors need at least 24 classes to become proficient in beautiful handwriting. If a person is able to write 20 words per minute, without compromising on quality, the results will be good, he said.</p>.<p>Unlike in a school classroom, individual attention has to be paid to each person to beautify one’s handwriting, so only a limited number of students are admitted for each batch. Before starting the training, a test is given to identify one’s gait in handwriting. Gait comes from birth. Some people write straight letters, some write them in a slanted way. The handwriting gets spoilt if one goes against the natural way of writing, he said.</p>.<p>Usually, handwriting is inspired by teachers and friends and children try to imitate them. It is the evolving stage. Finally, they get confused and spoil their handwriting. There are some drawbacks, like writing slant towards left, strokes, etc. They are covered up without the knowledge of the student, during the training sessions, Narayan said.</p>.<p>The loss in the beauty of handwriting is a result of a drop in concentration and fear of reaching the target of writing about 40 pages in two and a half hours in examinations. People are also losing touch with writing, due to the use of computers and gadgets. The maximum span of a person’s concentration in writing is 20 minutes. So all these aspects have to be taken care of during the training sessions, he said.</p>.<p>To popularise the art of writing, Narayan has also encouraged his students to conduct classes at various parts of Mysuru. They are training students in their localities, making more people write beautifully.</p>.<p>Narayan said that as parents of his students, who had enrolled before Covid lockdown suggested online classes, he ventured into the new format. His earlier students are helping him in conducting online classes. He will conduct six classes a week, three of them follow-up classes. He said that follow-up classes are crucial as individual attention will be paid during them.</p>.<p>Those interested can call: 99803 37759.</p>
<p>Amid the coronavirus crisis, a 70-year-old commercial artist has started online classes, adopting latest technology and gadgets, to revive the fading art of handwriting.</p>.<p>Even as handwriting is fading away, with rampant use of computers and gadgets in all fields A Sathyanarayana, S Narayan for his students, has been training hundreds of persons in the art of writing, over the past two decades, since 2002.</p>.<p>He was conducting formal classes in handwriting and calligraphy, through his Kala Spandana organisation, on the premises of the century-old Mahila Samaja (founded in 1917) in Lakshmipuram, Mysuru. While some of Narayan’s students are LKG students, some are PG students, a few are KAS and UPSC aspirants and also software professionals.</p>.<p>Initially, Narayan used to conduct drawing and painting classes at his home and also at the house of his students. He also had a small establishment — Shilpa Arts -- on the main street, near Chikka Market in Mysuru. He thought of starting handwriting and calligraphy classes after parents of his students started complaining about their wards’ poor quality handwriting.</p>.<p>Narayan developed his own tools, devised a system and syllabus to provide a strong foundation for handwriting. He says 16 classes are enough to train seniors, with a bit of maturity, but juniors need at least 24 classes to become proficient in beautiful handwriting. If a person is able to write 20 words per minute, without compromising on quality, the results will be good, he said.</p>.<p>Unlike in a school classroom, individual attention has to be paid to each person to beautify one’s handwriting, so only a limited number of students are admitted for each batch. Before starting the training, a test is given to identify one’s gait in handwriting. Gait comes from birth. Some people write straight letters, some write them in a slanted way. The handwriting gets spoilt if one goes against the natural way of writing, he said.</p>.<p>Usually, handwriting is inspired by teachers and friends and children try to imitate them. It is the evolving stage. Finally, they get confused and spoil their handwriting. There are some drawbacks, like writing slant towards left, strokes, etc. They are covered up without the knowledge of the student, during the training sessions, Narayan said.</p>.<p>The loss in the beauty of handwriting is a result of a drop in concentration and fear of reaching the target of writing about 40 pages in two and a half hours in examinations. People are also losing touch with writing, due to the use of computers and gadgets. The maximum span of a person’s concentration in writing is 20 minutes. So all these aspects have to be taken care of during the training sessions, he said.</p>.<p>To popularise the art of writing, Narayan has also encouraged his students to conduct classes at various parts of Mysuru. They are training students in their localities, making more people write beautifully.</p>.<p>Narayan said that as parents of his students, who had enrolled before Covid lockdown suggested online classes, he ventured into the new format. His earlier students are helping him in conducting online classes. He will conduct six classes a week, three of them follow-up classes. He said that follow-up classes are crucial as individual attention will be paid during them.</p>.<p>Those interested can call: 99803 37759.</p>