Is Handwriting Dead? Not Quite

One of the major casualties of the computer revolution is the art of handwriting. It has reached such a stage that the only time most of us pick up a fountain pen or a ballpoint is to sign cheques or credit card slips. Even greeting cards only require you to type out the recipient’s name and your own. I know my own handwriting has suffered greatly. The few times I use a ballpoint to jot down an idea, while on the road, I have great difficulty deciphering it later. My doctor would be proud of me.

Newspapers are no better. Reporters and editors pound out copy on a keyboard and use editing software to prepare the typeface for printing. It is a pleasure, therefore, to read about a newspaper where the almost forgotten art of calligraphy is alive and flourishing.

According to a report in the Times of India, filed by Kamini Mathai, The Musalman is the oldest Urdu daily in India. It also possibly holds the distinction of being the only handwritten newspaper in the world. For the employees of the Musalman, the paper is a labor of love. It must be, because no employee has ever quit.

They certainly are not doing it for the money – the average salary is $300 a month. Rahman Husseini, the chief copywriter of the paper joined the Musalman more than 20 years ago as an accountant. While there, he learnt calligraphy, and when the then chief copywriter passed away at the age of 80, he took over the front page and has been working on it ever since.

The newspaper was founded in 1927 and has been operating in more or less the same fashion for the past 80 years – and it has not missed a single day of circulation. The entire paper, comprising four pages, is entirely handwritten. The calligraphers work in a 800 square foot, one-room office; that also houses the printing press. There is no air-conditioning, just two wall fans, three bulbs and one fluorescent light.

Even the editor’s room is from a bygone era. Papers are stacked everywhere; and there is a solitary fax machine in the corner, along with lots of files and ledgers. Not a single computer or typewriter is visible anywhere. It is a scene straight from a Charles Dickens novel.

The scribes, one man and two women, work almost three hours on each page, writing out by hand the headlines and news reports in Urdu. After this is done, they stick the advertisements, send the pages in for plating and then for printing. If the editor spots a mistake, sometimes the entire page is rewritten. Now that is what I call dedication – an especially rare and precious commodity in this age of limited attention spans and instant gratification.