Saima Afreen By Express News Service HYDERABAD : The golden fountain pen held in Kavita Sampada’s fingers are somewhat stained with blue ink as she dips the nib in the inkpot kept nearby and crafts globules, squares, slants and oblong large dots on a sheet of paper. The continuation is spontaneous. The style is calligraphy. The basic model. The box of pens around her have several nibs -- each one is different in thickness and slant. The lady continues drawing the curvaceous letters till they form a pattern. She’s practising it at Lamakaan. The youngsters in the premises chomping food and indulging in talks do not bother her much. She nods and shares, “I have been learning calligraphy for quite some time. I have not taken it up for any artistic or academic purpose. I attend workshops and classes so that I can create handwritten greeting cards for my dear ones. There’s no joy in sending an e-card. It’s devoid of the personal touch.” Kavita isn’t alone in this new-found penchant for this ancient form of hand writing which is sort of making its way back among the denizens. Kavita is being coached by Monika Lokhanday, a 32-year-old woman who also works as a tech-support executive in a top IT organisation. She tells her 31-year-old disciple not to lift the nib from the paper so as to maintain the right balance of pressure on the paper for the smooth curvature of the shapes she’s drafting. She adds, “One needs to be really patient to learn this craft. It always helps if your know the Arabic alphabet.” She began learning the alphabet and took it as her second language. But does it mean that one needs to have good handwriting to indulge into calligraphy? “Not necessary. Anyone can learn this,” Monika says. Another calligraphy enthusiast Ramila Kamil is self-taught. The 22-year-old B. Pharma student shares, “The strokes and the dots of the pen always fascinated me. Even though I use my Apple laptop for work, I prefer hand-written notes, cards and letters. To make my letters more decorative I am learning the craft from tutorial videos.” But there are enthusiasts who don’t like self-learning or casual workshops. They prefer going to traditional classes. Ruhsan Malik, a 25-year-old research scholar goes to Old City to learn from a seasoned calligrapher, Mohd Lateef to pursue his passion of brush painting and combining it with calligraphy designs.

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