The Hindu Business Line : Different strokes

It’s one of those skills that’s bound to attract a raised eyebrow, an indulgent smile or be dismissed outright. Tell people you’re a graphologist and they may agree to let you analyse their handwriting for fun, but would they listen to you if you suggested their handwriting slant more to the right for their life to improve?

Chandraprabha V. Pupala, a young Mumbai-based entrepreneur who set up her graphology services firm last year, says the first reaction from clients current and prospective is one of disbelief. As someone who wanted to establish herself and be taken seriously, she had to accept that her career would initially be seen as a quirky bit of entertainment.

She had to analyse the handwriting of guests at parties, do a stint in Café Coffee Day where she would walk up to customers, young and old, and offer to study their hand for a fee of Rs 50. “It was a very enriching experience. The initial reaction is still disbelief and I have to give clients an FIR — a first information report — to convince them it can be scientific and accurate,” she says.

Among the first breaks that Chandraprabha got was an HR convention in Delhi in 2006. By then, she was working as a freelance graphologist with some corporates. She would meet HR presidents of various companies and offer to do a free analysis then and there. Eventually, she got heard. She managed to convince executives from IBM and Ispat, and today many firms use her services when they recruit employees. The applicants’ behavioural patterns and motivating factors are assessed and his/her traits matched with the qualities needed for the job.

Finding character

Rajiv Sethi, Managing Director, Gemini Equipment & Rentals, used Chandraprabha’s skill to hire senior-level people on his team. In fact, it was after she analysed his personality that he approached her with this job. “All her findings are elaborate and very accurate. The benefit is that we can see through the weaknesses of people and assign tasks based on the nature of their strengths.”

Her fees range from Rs 3,000 to Rs 25,000 depending on whether it’s personal coaching or a corporate programme. Signature Designing is one of the services she offers, describing it as a “very concrete and result-oriented programme”, structured on the basis of principles of graphotherapy (improving some part of your personality through change in handwriting strokes and signature). Her corporate services also include a ‘Peace With Pace’ module (to deal with stress) and a certification programme for HR professionals in handwriting analysis.

Self-counselling

Chandraprabha, who has been working as a graphologist since 2004, says she applied the science to her own life first. A people person, she dreamt of becoming a psychiatrist but when her plans to study medicine didn’t fructify, she got over the disappointment by analysing herself through graphotherapy.

“I was entirely self-counselled. I analysed myself and kept practising the handwriting strokes. Even as a child, I would observe people and discuss their personalities. Then I chanced upon books on graphology, psychology, and self-improvement and ended up with a certificate in the discipline from International Graphology Association of the US, apart from a graduate degree in management.” She aspires to have her own training centre.

At 24, she advises people who are often more than twice her age. Does her youth prove an impediment? Do people think she’s too young to have experienced life and laugh her off? “Yes, I am young, but you have to learn from people, have to observe and implement. Even small experiences can teach you a lot,” she says.

Pradeep Pandey, President (HR), Ispat, says he has benefited both personally and professionally using Chandraprabha’s expertise. “I don’t think it’s stupid/insensible to get advice from someone much younger, I can take feedback from anybody,” he says, adding that she “acts on the ego content also”.

“Modifying my signature has had a positive effect. I was not very assertive and I worked on that. I also worked on my tendency to procrastinate and made improvements. The course also helped with clarity — when you arrive at what you really want, and you think positive, then things fall into place,” Pandey says. Dheeraj Gupta, who owns the Jumbo King Wadapav chain, had his company’s logo redesigned by Chandraprabha, who also coached him on a personal level. “I had to unlearn a lot of things, let go of certain limiting beliefs and was able to see things from a very fresh perspective,” he says.

Kinds of strokes

So how exactly does handwriting influence character and change? “There are at least 50 ways in which a letter, say ‘t’, can be written. We usually pick up only two, three or four ways. No stroke is positive or negative. When we want a shift in attitude, we advise adopting a stroke that is suitable to your needs, and the client has to practise those strokes for 45 days, for 2-3 pages. We make practice books and reading material,” she says. “Neuropathways can be figured out through handwriting and altered through consistent practice of prescribed handwriting strokes.”

Chandraprabha says she can work with any language though she prefers the Roman script, as the science of graphology was developed in that language. From the graphologist’s perspective, written script is made up of more than twenty indices, such as degree of slant, size, rhythm and spacing between letters, words and lines. All these denote different yet interrelated aspects of personalities.

She and her team have even developed a product specifically for these recessionary times, called Quest. This will deal with stress management and include signature design.

Ask her how viable or lucrative graphology is as a career, and she says those questions are yet to be answered. “The market is still niche, really small. It is still a question as to how many individuals and organisations see this as a feedback process for making crucial decisions. When I looked at the whole thing as a freelancer, five years ago, it looked very difficult, but today, we have grown into a team of nine people and have clientele like IBM and Ispat.”

No magic cure

Around 95 per cent of her clients accept her assessment, says Chandraprabha, but she has no control over their reactions, which depend on their sensitivity to the issue. As the question of accuracy and science constantly crops up, how is one to decide whether they’ve changed for the better after a stint with her?

“While there are exercises to gauge the degree of the problem, the only way we can check is to have people assess themselves,” says Chandraprabha, who’s at pains to explain that graphology is no magic cure for problems. “For mental illness, for instance, we recommend them to a psychiatrist or a psychologist. Graphology is like a gym activity where the goal is to improve health and fitness and not mend broken bones.”

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