Rapid keyboard strokes, voice-controlled documentation and the tip-taps of mobile SMSes have overtaken the beauty of handwriting in today’s world. In the age where even shorthand was considered too slow, where handwritten letters were taken over by emails, birthday cards replaced by e-Cards…the death of handwriting sneaks up to us in the form of forgotten penmanship, exhibitions and an occasional handwritten letter by an ex-lover.

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Ancient World exhibition at The Arts House (just off Asian Civilisations Museum) recently opened their month-long exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls, together with original scrolls (of translations) and first-ever printed book dating back to 5000 years ago.

Imagine back-breaking work done by monks when they translated ancient Hebrew to Latin; imagine the perfected skills of reproducing character after character that look identical; imagine the art of imprinting in a straight line across hundreds of pages…and finally imagine the triumphant finish when these are hand-sewn together to form scrolls you see above.

The V did not intend to plunge in depth into a review of the above-mentioned exhibition; she meant to address the “death of handwriting” which sprung to mind when she wandered through the exhibits instead. One fondly recalls balking at having to sit down to penmanship lessons back in primary schools, when the English coursebook explored the cursive style of writing.

Glancing at chicken scratch imprinted on lecture notes, test papers and even meeting notes now, what happened to the beautiful flow of words that seemed to melt from one page to the other – have they been replaced by easy-to-read fonts that have standardized across the world?

The Celtic style of lettering commonly found in Bibles (it was a visual feast of them at the exhibition) have now dwindled to lost art. Today, it has been replicated into true-type fonts which one can dress up his/her essays with, thanks to the help of downloadable fonts and Microsoft Word. Attempts to produce this via hand requires the skill of a trained hand, once again a trait that the world today no longer requires.

Would the memory of we girls, dotting our handwritten letters with colourful pen inks and heart-shaped “i”s, have brought a smile to you, my dear reader’s face? Would the childish glee of finally being able to write with a pen instead of a pencil reminded you of how “grown up” it felt like to hold a blue pen in your hand?

Soon, we enter a society of word processors, online exams and digital-dominated communication; our handwriting times confined to post-its scrawls, note-taking and if one still bothers, the chicken-scratched birthday card for our loved ones. And the old-fashioned V bemoans the death of handwriting, with her chicken scrawl as a futile attempt for redemption.