KOCHI:To say that his handwriting is flawless will not be hyperbolic, in fact, that is an understatement. A KSEB employee since 2001, K G Mohanan Nair creates magic with every stroke of his pen and is a rare genius when it comes to handwriting. Be it cursive writing or calligraphy, from filling random forms to filing important documents, everything becomes piéces de résistance when Mohanan wields his pen. This distinctive talent, however, did not come easily to him.
A left-hander by birth, Mohanan joined school at the age of five and was the odd-one-out in a class full of ‘normal’ right-handed students. In this regard, he was mocked and scolded for his bad handwriting, so much so, that he dropped out of school and spent a year at home practicing to write with the right hand. Thanks to his supportive father, by the time he joined school the next year, he had the best handwriting to flaunt and he soon became popular among classmates and teachers. In fact, in the years ahead, it was his writing skills that paved way for new opportunities.
A post-graduate in Maths and English, he started his career as a bench clerk in Palakkad Munsif Court. Presently, in KSEB, he is the superintendent to the Company Secretary and it came as no surprise when he was entrusted with the work of filing handwritten letters and minutes of important boards meetings.
Despite having no formal training in the field of lettering, Mohanan is the recipient of numerous handwriting awards, both regional and international. “Participating in handwriting competitions is quite a nerve-racking ordeal because they check even the minutest detail.
They measure the length and breadth of every letter, the distance between letters and even the time taken to complete an intricate work. So every stroke matters,” exclaims Mohanan who came second, out of four lakh entrants, in the World Handwriting Contest 2013, also known as Handwriting for Humanities. Unsurprisingly, Mohanan has an impressive collection of over 2,000 pens from across the world (not to mention his collection of books, inks and other writing instruments), of prices ranging from R2 to R18,000. In fact, he has spent close to R17 lakh in buying pens and writing instruments.A native of Kummil in Kollam, he is a resident of Thiruvananthapuram.