Eleven-year-old Soumyadip, a student of Class V of a city school, was not doing well in school. His teachers advised his parents to take him to a psycho-analyst.

Soumyadip’s father was at a loss. He had never imagined a child could be in need of psychological aid. However, Soumyadip was taken to a psychologist at Rajabazar Science College. While the son was being counselled, a friend suggested that the father consult a graphologist, too.

Mohan Bose, director of the city-based Institute of Graphologists, detected that Soumyadip’s handwriting was in the category of cursive: he stretched the last letter. Besides, the letters were slanted to the right.

Cursive writing, graphologists explain, reflects lack of confidence. And the slant indicates that the child is craving for affection.

“Cursive writing should be detected at an early stage,” says Malini Bhagat, headmistress, Mahadevi Birla Higher Secondary School.

“Every day, for about half-an-hour, we worked on Soumyadip to change his writing style. And with the change, came a perceived shift in behaviour. He even improved in studies,” the father said.

Graphology as an empirical science is fast gaining popularity in the country, said Mohan Bose. Besides the city institute, there’s one in Pune that teaches the subject. “It could be used by teachers to understand students, by parents to bring up their children properly, and by police to identify criminals,” Bose added.

Multinational companies, too, are consulting graphology before recruiting people.

The institute organised its first annual meet on Monday.

Homoeopath S.K. Chandra, who studied graphology at the institute, implements the technique quite often.

“Once, a 35-year-old woman came for treatment of migraine she had been suffering from for 10 years. I asked her to write about her ailment. While reading it, I realised that she was under stress,” Dr Chandra said.

He soon found out that the woman had been molested when she was eight. Forced to keep the fact from her husband, she came under acute stress, which resulted in the migraine. Dr Chandra could finally cure her.

The science of graphology is widely accepted in the West, said headmistress Bhagat. “But it’s gaining recognition here in a rather slow manner.”