(Courtesy: The Tribune, By P.L. Jaln) “There is a fine pattern in the excellently shaped letters used in his words, The meticulous arrangement of his words in lines has something ceremonious about it.” This is how we often admire, in absentia, a calligrapher as we look at a piece of his writing, We love to preserve, for years together, some personal letters from friends since they bear an imprint of their aesthetic use of the ink dipped pen on paper. Really, there is touch of the proverbial magic wand in a calligrapher’s pen.
Calligraphy is an art, with a rich past, but a black future. Instead of paving an artistic look to our writing, many of us now hastily scribble notes on all sorts of paper, thanks to the strain of busy life on us. We need not undervalue the tremendous utility of the typewriters and computers in large-scale communication in the business world to justify our waning interest in excellence of handwritten material.
Calligraphy is an ally of painting in the realm of art. Merely legible writing can’t be described as a specimen of calligraphy which has a form and a design in it. A calligrapher must maintain a delicate balance between his mind and hand, Still, the marvel is that it gives no impression of affection or artificial writing. Alas! We have not made much effort to promote in the younger generation, a taste for such vivid, well-shaped and sparkling handwriting.
Several scriptures written beautifully in hand by our scholar saints are still carefully preserved in our libraries and art museums, similarly, the calligraphy immortalized in couplets and quatrains of some medieval poets should be viewed as ‘an eminent part of our cultural heritage. As a teenaged son Haw thome, the American writer, asked his mother, “What do you think of my becoming an author? I think, the illegibility of my handwriting is ‘very author like.” Though this question was raised in a light vein, yet if some writers really can’t write beautifully, it is because the hand cannot keep pace with their speedy fertile mind, That, however, does not reduce the value of calligraphy as ‘a member of the family of fine arts, Doesn’t calligraphy reflect a healthy outlook on life in general? If your boss always gives shabby notes on official papers, he is confused and irritated with life, ‘Again, the man who fails to appreciate the beauty of elegant writing having a neat pattern is perhaps a cynic with no faith in the orderly shape of men and matters in the universe. He makes himself miserable as he sees chaos in all things.
To borrow Arnold’s words, modem life “with its sick hurry, its divided aims, its heads overtaxed, its palsied hearts,” has hit hard at people’s passion for the leisurely writing having an orderly form.
It is not possible to turn the clock back to the preindustrial age when people, as Aldous Huxley says, knew time only in daily, monthly and seasonal rhythm’ and when small units of time like minutes did not exist. Still, when for hours together we are glued to our TY sets, we ‘should be able to find time for writing letters in our own hand to our close relatives and friends who really care for us. ‘Who knows these letters may give a calligraphic shape to our handwriting in due course of time?
Yes, the popular use of the telephone in personal communication is partially responsible for the vanishing habit of writing these letters, But it is the general tension in personal relations in this age that has deprived us of the joy emanating from warmhearted exchange of handwritten letters.
Fondly do remember a colleague who, after his retirement, used to send his new year greetings to the faculty through a single postcard with a self-composed couplet of Urdu beautifully written on it. We may retain our love of calligraphy if we also emulate such examples, Incidentally, what is personal and heartwarming in the expensive greeting cards with vulgar pictures and pieces of uncouth verse printed on them?
Your habit of writing a personal (not official)diary provides you time and opportunity for the growth of your excellent writing. One thing more, When you write your next poem~ pen it meticulously and present it to an admiring friend before your mail it the editor of a magazine for its publication. Surely your friend’s appreciation of your talent for poetry will be accompanied by his tribute to the calligrapher in you, and a true friend’s tribute is so very thrilling.
Really, calligraphy is a creative art. A large number of calligraphers have an inborn talent for this art.
But others can learn it through regular drill in the disciplined use of the pen dipped in ink, However, patience and full involvement of one’s mind in shaping ‘words are necessary for attaining the very best in symmetrical writing that fascinates the reader’s eye.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 7, 1995
