Handwriting and Calligraphy Basics with Rajiv Surendra

I’m getting married in November & when I was addressing the envelopes I took the time to write them in my most beautiful handwriting. I was told by a few people, “Who cares?!” Me, that’s who. & videos like this make reassure me that it does matter. Thanks to this video my thank you cards will be even better! Thank you Rajiv. You’re amazing 😊

My father had a caligraphy lessons between the WW1-WW2. His handwriting was awesome and he was asked to write invitations to officials, thank you notes , diplomas. He was a violinist but made extra money. He paid a special attention to his kids handwriting. All of us were good , we still write nicely.

My mother passed away at ninety. She had award winning penmanship in school. It was beautiful like yours. Her writing was so important go her that in her last months she would pen over and over, "I wish that I could write". She had dementia. 👍💕

As a teacher of 35 years, I loved teaching proper cursive to students. It was out for a bit, but now it is back in the curriculum. Most students love learning cursive. The brain research supports learning cursive for many reasons. I find it is a both meditative and joyful!

Love learning about the gentle, elegant art of calligraphy from this gentle, elegant man. How wonderful to rekindle a love of this important but largely forgotten pastime.

I just realized that you are the actor who was in the Mean Girls movie and honestly I'm so happy to see you thriving. I already subscribed to your channel, your videos and the topics are beautiful. Thank you for sharing some of your insights (I enjoyed your video about journaling so much that I'm checking out the other videos!).

I remember vividly the times I learned cursive at 9 years old. I remember I felt like such a grown up. ❤

When did Kevin G switch from math to calligraphy? I'm so happy I stumbled upon this video!

Hey Rajiv, I bet I’m not the only one who’d love to know the story behind your gold bracelets. If you’re taking questions for a future vid, please consider. Thanks much.

At the 2022 DC Pen show I met a woman who worked for the government for many years as a calligrapher. Her calligraphy skills were used to produce documents, invitations, announcements all by hand. She worked with congressional members, presidents, and other government officials, she had a binder full of the most beautiful calligraphy work. She mentioned that she wrote a letter to her grandson in cursive for his graduation and her grandson was unable to read it, so sad. I hope that more school districts bring back cursive writing as part of their curriculum. Thanks for sharing your beautiful work, I love your videos.

When I was in graduate school, I volunteered at the local history library. I was tasked with organizing court documents from the 19th century. As a millennial who was taught cursive, but grew up with the expectation that final drafts of papers and other more formal documents should be typed up on a computer, there was something so foreign about legally binding documents that were hand written, and not always beautifully hand written. They often were done in very pedestrian looking cursive script.

I am 65 and learned cursive in school, I always got A's and was complemented on my handwriting for years. I now have severe Arthritis in my fingers which makes it difficult to write more than a few lines at a time. I did not realize how much it had affected my handwriting until I found an old journal and noticed how cramped even my signature had become. The letters I write now are shorter and take much longer to finish but I still write them rather than type. Thanks Rajiv.

I must tell you this- as a high school graphic design instructor, a section of my curriculum included calligraphy. Not only was it important to teach the forms, but how the different fonts originated over time. I was teaching from the front of the room, showing the class how to form lower case italic letters. After making a series of lower case “a’s” I critiqued my work by saying “this ‘a hole’ is too small” at which time the class broke out first in snickers and then full blown laughter!!!!! A little graphic design humor.

I'd almost "bet" that the "fluid thought" that cursive handwriting encourages has to do with using one's "right hemisphere"...which, according to Iain McGilchrist (author of "The Divided Brain" and "The Matter with Things") is something that our "modern ways" have been inadvertently "dis"couraging...and leading to imbalance and even societal problems. So both YOU and Iain McGilchrist's work are both HUGE motivators for me. People often ask him what strategies we might employ to help balance the imbalance of our hemisphere usage caused partly by our overuse of computers...cell phones, etc....and by other modern ways of thinking and operating. He doesn't usually want to provide such a "formula" because there are many many ways in which we could do so. Apparently, part of what the left hemisphere does, is to deal with "things" as "parts" or "fragments" which when all put together, make up another "thing"....Whereas the right hemisphere tends to have a better understanding of "wholes" and their "meanings" and "flow" and tends to be much better at deciphering what's "actually" occurring in any given process it's attending to. Basically both of these hemispheres are like different tools....both of which we need...but many of the things we've dropped in modern times (possibly cursive handwriting is one example?)...due to our inability to understand or see the subtle but very important value of....is leading our societies into becoming far too tilted toward left hemisphere thinking and "doing"...which is leading to all kinds of problems. He even often used the example of learning to play a song on an instrument and how one must first learn the notes...and then practice playing the notes together, etc...until eventually one no longer needs to think about the individual notes, or the timing, etc.., but rather, then, hands it over to the right hemisphere from which one can then play it as a "whole piece" and enjoy it the way it was intended to be enjoyed. Anyone who's interested in checking out his latest book, he has a video series in which he summarizes each chapter Here is a lilnk to the introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2ygDb2CozE

This is a VERY similar approach to learning piano technique, arm weight control, proper hand shape and posture. And when you speak about exercising with different shapes, lines and curves it reminds me of how I was taught to shape musical phrases. My students and I refer to it as "hand ballet". So cool!

Trip down memory lane... learned cursive left handed with a left handed ink pen in the early 1960s when they were encouraging kids to remain left handed. I adopted the hand over not hand under to prevent smears. Well, most smears...

Years ago, after my children were born, I decided to improve my handwriting. Unfortunately, this was before the internet was readily available. The first thing I did was to slant my letters toward the right. I had always written my letters straight up and down. I practiced the way I wanted it to look,. and made the change. So my letters are completely unique to me, practiced during my children's nap time. I enjoy writing letters, and have purchased embossed cards and envelopes with my initials on them. Having nice paper to write on helps so much. I have learned much from this video, and hopefully I can take my writing to the next level at 61!!

My middle school required all writing to be in cursive, and when I reached high school I took an art elective that taught calligraphy. Thank you for reminding me how much I loved it, and for a path to start it up again!❤

When I went to grade school (when dinosaurs still walked the earth) I went to Catholic school with American Nuns and we were taught cursive by them, beautifully flowing. My best friend went to a different one with Spanish nuns and was taught completely differently. My parents went to neither, jjst Public schools and their handwriting was do beautiful. When I was older I met a very old Italian man who had been a scribe at an office I guess where there were no typewriters and his handwriting was impressively gorgeous. He gave me recipes in his own writing that I still keep.

💃🏻💕Loved this episode! I went through 12 years of Catholic school. I started script writing in 3rd grade. I even won a penmanship award! School was taught by the nuns & your handwriting was very important. Thanks to my Mother who also had beautiful handwriting. I’m 61 now & my 4 children still make fun of my handwriting. They never practiced script! I always get such compliments when people see my handwriting but my children think it’s like another language. Thanks for sharing a lost art. I would love to send you a handwritten note since you may be the only person on earth that would appreciate 12 years of practice. You don’t know how many lives you touch. Thanks for making my day! Bravo to your beautiful calligraphy! 💃🏻💕Mariaknits27