Graphology – Handwriting tells all

Yesterday I attended a 20 minutes presentation on “Graphology” by Mr. Vinit Bansode, who was described as a “Graphologist”.

“Graphology is the science of understanding the human mind through person's handwriting. When a person writes, the signal in the form of letters get decoded / printed on the paper by the fingers. Graphology aims at understanding & interpreting these signals through the writing. Using this we can know a person’s mind so the thoughts, character and behavior.”

His presentation was really interesting. He used a simple whiteboard and used examples to put forth his thoughts in a simple and lucid manner. Let me try and summarize.

His basic submission was that just as an ECG is a map of the heart, handwriting is a map of the mind. And he focused on the signature. A signature says everything or at least a lot about a person. I’m not sure I completely agree, mainly because most people especially in today’s world create their signature as kids. And I’m assuming that while the person grows, the signature needs to stay, because it’s just too complicated to change in the zillion places who have recorded it and then use it to compare if you are the same person.

The signature has 3 primary aspects it showcases. These are dependent on the clarity, angle and size. The clarity shows a persons clarity, honesty and transparency. So, if you have a legible signature, congratulations. You are clear, hopefully honest and possible transparent.

The angle shows whether you are moving forward, have reached your peak and are steady or have started your downward journey. By angle, he meant the direction of the letters. So signatures that are leaning upwards, are relatively the best amongst the options. And slanting downwards could show early signs of a depressive condition.

The size of your signature reflects the size of your thought process and ambition. So I guess a large signature is better than a small one. Some examples given by Vinit were the 3 typical Indian icons. Mahatma Gandhi, Amitabh Bachhan and Sachin Tendulkar. He also mentioned that typically politicians have extremely difficult to read signatures.

It was interesting to see that most people in the audience were actually signing on the notepad in front of them. And the gentleman next to me started on creating his new signature, Clear, Slanting Up and Big. Until Vinit’s final words probably shattered his dreams of changing everything instantaneously. Change has to be dictated by the mind, not by the head.

And Mr. Bansode mentioned he’s also a life coach. Using Graphology, he’ll help you achieve your goals. Had he said this at the beginning of his presentation, I’d have scoffed. At the end of it, I would like to believe that, maybe, just maybe, it could be helpful. You can visit Vinit’s website at:
http://www.freewebs.com/vinit_b/

Kindle – The Future of Books ?

E-books and e-book readers have been around for a few years now. And whilst there has been a lot of hype around them, they have always remained exactly that. Hype. The primary issues with e-book readers have been 3. The first was the ease of usage. And the 2nd the availability of the books. And the most important, the costs.

A couple of months ago, during a trip to the US, I noticed that e-book readers were in fashion. Whether it was the airport, or in the metro or at coffee shops, a significant number of people seemed to be reading e-books. And I concluded that e-book readers must now really be good.

A quick search showed that Amazon’s latest Kindle was being well received and had decent reviews. I had checked out the original version and it kind of sucked. Too big, too thick. And too expensive. But this time I was pleasantly surprised. Amazon seemed to have taken the exact cribs I had and recreated the Kindle, just for me. And possibly the million others who had the exact same cribs. What’s more the $139 price tag, made it affordable. And so I got a Kindle. As a present for Freia. Who loved reading books.

It’s really very nice. The navigation is straight forward. And its very intuitive. Read a book. And the next time you open that book, it opens on the page where you left. The last few books you are currently reading show up on the home page, and you click and are ready to start reading. The lettering is B&W and crisp. Beautiful print, that is as readable as any physical book. No reflection, no glare. And of course, you can even change the font size.

My younger daughter Reia is not a great book fan. Until I found a cool feature that might make her like, if not love books. A book reader. Yes, it has a feature where the Kindle will read the book for you. In a male or female voice of choice. And the voice quality is awesome. Not at all a typical synthetic machine voice. I’m pretty curious to find out how they’ve managed it.

The cost of books is still a little steep. ($2). But the nice part is that there are enough free books available. And their collection is pretty good. Which I suspect will grow bigger and better. The only real difference I found between real books and the Kindle is that you can’t share books at the same time. But then, hopefully prices will drop even further and each of us can have our own.

Dr. Manmohan Singh - Innocent ?

There has been a lot of major controversies that have come to light in the last few months. The Trimurthi of Scandals has been the Commonwealth Games, 2G Spectrum Scam and the appointment of the CVC (Chief Vigilance Commissioner).

In all the 3 cases, there seems to be no doubt that actions that were not legal have been taken. And this has been accepted by the Government, albeit unwillingly or with a push and a little help from an active judiciary. In the case of the Commonwealth Games, 1000’s of crores have been allegedly misspent or looted.

In the case of the 2G Spectrum Scam, an estimate by the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General ) of the losses is pegged at a whopping 1.76 lakh crores. That’s Rs. 176,000 crores or Rs. 1,760,000,000,000. That’s 1760 billion or 1.76 trillion rupees. A bind boggling number.

And finally in the appointment of the CVC, the Government went ahead and appointed Mr. Thomas, in spite of having pending corruption charges. This was in spite of an objection by the Leader of the Opposition, who was part of the Selection Committee. Interestingly there were 2 other candidates who were also recommended by the Government and were acceptable to the Leader of the Opposition.

The Government is headed by the Prime Minister. In all the 3 cases, the PM in addition to being the head of the Government was directly involved in a more direct manner. He was part of the Committee overseeing the CWG, had written to the telecom minister in the 2G case to exercise caution and so was aware of what was happening and chaired the Committee appointing the CVC.

He has acknowledged in Parliament that a mistake has been made. However in all the 3 cases, he has managed to pass the buck. To people lower down. I’m completely confused. An independent director is responsible for action taken by the Board, even when he or she is not directly involved in the running of the company. They are liable for civil and criminal prosecution. The Managing Director is accountable not only to the shareholders but also to the judiciary. In most cases they are prosecuted and action taken, even when the MD was in no way involved directly with the illegal action or event.

One would assume that the position of the Prime Minister of the country is far more important than that of a mere Director or Managing Director of a company. The stakes are higher and the implications impact not just the entire country, but also the future, both economically and socially. Yet no such standards seem to exist in politics.

Every single media, both print and television continue to talk about the integrity and honesty of our beloved Prime Minister. With due respect to our Prime Minister I beg to differ. In my opinion, YOU are responsible and accountable and the fact that you may not have directly benefitted from the scams does not make you innocent. You are not only as guilty as the direct perpetrators of these crimes, but even more so. We the people trusted YOU, and YOU let us down.

If you are half of what people claim you to be, this is your opportunity to prove it. Prosecute and recover all the losses incurred by the exchequer. Show us you mean business. And the money would be more than useful.

Miracle of Health

I have often heard people say “Health is Wealth”. Whilst I did not really disagree, it’s something to which I did not give any thought. Until last week. Ivy, my wife was very unwell and everything changed. It goes without saying that she was the most affected.

For the 17 years that we have been married, I don’t recollect her ever missing work, even when she was unwell. And Freia was having her Board exams. Fortunately since she was reasonably well prepared, and did not need Ivy’s help in her studies she was okay.

Ivy was having some kind of a fever that would be extremely high and then reduce, but would leave her completely drained. She was very weak and had no strength to even get up. Her appetite was non existent. She could not read nor was able to watch TV. Which meant that she was either sleeping or completely bored. And being an active person, who did not know how to do nothing, she did not know what to do with herself.

Her not being well meant that all of us missed her. Whilst we all did what we always did, go to school or work, eat good food, watch TV, it just didn’t seem to be the same. There seems to be a definite loss that does not make Life Fun, when a loved one is not an active part of the activity.

Ivy was not well for just 2 weeks. But it seemed like 2 months to us. And probably 2 years for her. After a week, she started recovering. And life was becoming normal. We all knew that Ivy was now fully well was when she screamed at us, “Why are you’ll watching TV instead of studying ?. Can you imagine we missed that and now we knew that “All is well.”

This was a small insignificant illness, where there was no real difficulty. Yet it played a role in our life. Imagine the pain that people go through when illness of a much more serious variety and of a significantly, sometimes life long illnesses strike people.

We only realize the importance of something, when we no longer have it. We never value our health and are often careless with it. We value money are extremely careful with it. We plan our financials very, very, carefully. I think we got it wrong. We should plan our health even more carefully. And treasure it. And do whatever it takes, to keep it fully fit.

In my book, “Health is Wealth” is probably an understatement.