A peek into Oscar Pistorius' personality via his handwriting

The subject of this handwriting analysis- Oscar Pistorius has been in news recently for all wrong reasons (allegedly killing his Girlfriend). To clarify upfront, the purpose of this article is not to dissect the current situation that he is in but this is a general personality analysis about the man that Oscar Pistorius is. With media always looking to cash in on the vulnerable situations of celebrities to gain the eye balls or Website hits, it often has tendency to put in so much negativity into the already complex situations. This is what i see happening with Oscar's situation now. My attempt here is to maintain the balance in providing a perspective and that can only be done if we first understand the various facets of his personality better.

This article is the first of the two part series and i would scratch the personality surface more deeply in the next article to provide a perspective on the current situation i.e. Did Oscar really pull the trigger intentionally on his girl friend ? So the answer to this question will be the focus of next article, lets enjoy the basics of what made Oscar so huge figure in the World of athletics.

So Who is Oscar Pistorius?

- Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius is a South African sprint runner.

- Although both of Pistorius' legs were amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old, he competes in events for single below knee amputees and for able-bodied athletes.
- At the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, Pistorius became the first amputee to win an able-bodied world track medal.
- At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Pistorius became the first double leg amputee to participate in the Olympics when he entered the men's 400 metres and 4 × 400 metres relay races.

- Oscar was a reluctant runner earlier in his life. He was preparing to be a serious Rugby player when an serious Injury in one of the game "forced" him into running as a part of the Rehabilitation program.

The Handwriting sample:

The Source of his handwriting:

The handwriting sample being analyzed here was much in new last month primarily doing rounds across the news sites where some handwriting analysts claimed to have found some reasoning behind Oscar's behavior. 

This actually is a  thank you note penned by Oscar Pistorius was uploaded onto a fan's blog sometime back. (Stated source: http://insidemybraintoday.tumblr.com) Since this handwriting sample made so much news and was so visible, i would assume it be a real one. I usually do not trust the samples available on Internet unless backed by some serious data and information related to it being real.

The handwriting Analysis:

The handwriting and signature sample as present in this sample can give a lot more personality information than what is shared below. But in interest of time and size of analysis, i will restrict myself to the major personality areas revealed here.

Low Self esteem:

One of the aspects of his personality that surprised me the most was Low Self esteem. It in quite evident in his handwriting sample. The reason it surprised me was because High Self esteem has been one of the constant personality traits among the high achievers, whose handwriting i have analyzed so far.

In simpler words, Self-esteem is the total value one gives to self. It is one of the most important ingredients’ of success in one’s professional and personal lives. Self-esteem is a soft skill that has a maximum bearing on other Soft skills a person possesses. 

Oscar being such an high achiever and his having Low Self esteem is indeed interesting for me to assess further. Some characteristics of people with Low self esteem-

- Such people are harder on themselves than they really need to be.

- Such people fears failure and fears change that could bring failure.

- Most of the times they think about self, they think of imperfections and constantly question the self-worth.

- They tend to be in bad situations for too long.

After having gone through his biography, there are several aspects that come to my mind regarding his Low self esteem. After having born with deformed feet, his parents pursued his case with doctors worldwide and eventually settled on a decision that his legs have to amputated. Their chosen doctor advised them to go with this decision even before he learned to walk i.e. if he never experienced the role of feet, it would be easy for him to adjust to the artificial legs. As a result, he was amputated when he was not even an year old. So, Oscar had to go through questioning of his state various times in his life. Though he had a very good support system, the constant reminders that he lacked something from the strangers or people lesser known to him could have contributed to him having low self esteem.

Persistence:

In the handwriting sample that i studied, there was one instance where i could notice Persistence in Oscar's handwriting. If at all anything, one thing that is cornerstone of Oscar's life it is Persistence. Almost born in less than normal circumstances and to achieve what he has would require Persistence more than any trait. That Never-Give-up attitude is reflected at the various instances in his life.

His parents instilled the belief in him to Never give up. It is quite evident of his stories of childhood when he almost always played the sports with the able bodied kids. 

Even when he was an adult and competing in the able bodied athletics championships, he had to face a lot of difficulties to get used to the running stance for example. He had difficulties in perfecting the running stance before the stance of the run because of his prosthesis. He was actually not able to feel  the blocks. He overcame this with great deal of practice. This is another example of Persistence that he showed.

Also the instances where IAAF almost disqualified from participating in the able bodied events considering the results of some tests done that proved that, his prosthesis gave him unfair advantage he (with the help of his support system) went through the painful process of going through series of tests and contested the ruling and even won. All this could not have been possible had he lacked Persistence. 

Fierce ability to focus:

Oscar has a great ability to focus on an activity at hand. He can have the ability to eliminate all outside noises, thoughts, interference, and ability to concentrate fully on one subject. When he concentrates, he could become oblivious to everything around you.

Oscar had been into sports all his early life. Its only around the year 2004 or so that he got into running (mostly by accident). To focus on just one Sport and curbing his tendency to do cycling, Wrestling, Rugby and others and become as good as he eventually became needed just sole focus on purpose that he had in mind. In his case, the ability to focus has been extraordinary. Becoming a world class athlete requires great deal of discipline and i believe the discipline is hard to come by if one does not have the right kind of focus. 

His biography states the below about his mindset about his training, which again is a strong reflection of Single minded devotion to his chosen craft-

"The minute i wake up in the morning, I start thinking about my training, about my preparation, about concentrating on being quicker. Everything I do, in my day and in my life, is centered on training and running hard."

Dominant:

The person who is Dominant likes to be in control and likes the feeling. He likes to take charge of the situation. He makes a very interesting mention in his biography on how he likes to exercise the dominance-

"I am a kind of athlete who prefers running from behind. In short, i prefer chasing to leading and so i try to avoid the eighth lane where you are out in front of everyone else. I like the first three lanes, since that way i always have someone in front of me to chase."

Positive Orientation:

I dont think he could have achieved what he has on the track and field without being a Positive thinker to almost a fault. This aspect is very evident in his handwriting as well as signature.  He says in his biography-

"People often ask me what it is like to have artificial limbs but i am unable to answer that question. My prostheses are my legs, I have never known others and so I invert their question and ask them to explain to me how it feels to have legs. One should try to celebrate, or atleast enjoy, what one cannot change".

This reflects his positive thinking even in a situation where most people would have chosen to given up or even succumbed to fate.

Emotional intensity, Objectiveness:

He has very deep and enduring feelings. Any emotional situation or feeling will stay with him for a long time. He may forgive, but will find it hard to forget. Such writers feel situations intensely.

He is objective and given to evaluating facts before taking decisions. At best, he is quite non-judgmental.

His biography at quite a few instances states how his mother's untimely demise left an indelible mark on him and his personality. By his brother's narration, the passing away of his mother brought in more focus to his life and that incident made him more inwardly focused towards the goals. He went through almost a quiet transition during this phase of his life and let all the energy out on field. He could accomplish such phase primarily with his high emotional intensity.

Stay tuned for the second part of this analysis!

Image Source:

http://resources2.news.com.au/images/2013/02/18/1226580/133438-130218-pistorius.jpg

Aakash Chopra, Rahul Dravid and the curious sameness in their Handwriting Analyses

Last week has been quite eventful for me, not only because i was taking care of my little kid all by myself with his wonderful mother away on work duties but also because i still managed to find some time to analyze the signature of the man i so adore- Rahul Dravid. The story of how i got the access to his signature is there in the last blog. I got to post the analysis on a Sports website where i have recently started writing. This analysis did go somewhat viral in the website with more than 2000 reads, 50+ FB Likes, 40+ Tweets in less than a day.

Another interesting thing that happened was that Test Cricketer Aakash Chopra graciously tweeted the URL of this analysis to his followers and it invoked some interesting conversations which I followed closely. Below is the series of tweets for one such conversation between me,Aakash and one of his followers-

Aakash Chopra ‏@cricketaakash
Here's something for Rahul Dravid fans--What does Dravid's signature tell us about him? http://www.sportskeeda.com/2013/02/11/what-does-rahul-dravids-signature-say-about-his-personality/#.URjFYX4OpGQ.twitter …

Dilip Patel ‏@dilippatel_dba
@cricketaakash What about yours ? ;-) I guess, Must not be very different.

Aakash Chopra ‏@cricketaakash
@dilippatel_dba Had posted mine too :) And yes, it wasn't too different :)

Anuj Magazine ‏@anujmagazine
@cricketaakash @dilippatel_dba You will find anaalyses different when there is a large handwriting sample available. Its a true science.

Aakash Chopra ‏@cricketaakash
@anujmagazine @dilippatel_dba It wasn't meant to demean your observations...I hope you understood that!!!

Anuj Magazine ‏@anujmagazine
@cricketaakash @dilippatel_dba was jst making myself clear. The science is often misunderstood. Am open to any feedback.Thanks for response

Anuj Magazine ‏@anujmagazine
@cricketaakash @dilippatel_dba moreover I am not surprised at your and Dravid's same observations. Aren't both you similar in style of play?

Anuj Magazine ‏@anujmagazine
@cricketaakash @dilippatel_dba probably extent of said traits will represent a real diff btwn you & him.That's where large sample will help

 To me this was indeed an interesting and educational conversation. Interesting because what Aakash mentioned was somewhat true I.e. some traits between his analysis and Dravid's were really similar. Educational because this entire conversation made me think and search for reasons, which I eventually did and sharing my thinking here.

To help the explanation, let me put some high level lists as below-

1. No. Of personality traits revealed in Aakash's handwritten sample: 10

2. No. Of personality traits revealed in Rahul's signature sample: 5

3. Traits similar between Aakash and Rahul: Ability to focus, Perfectionism, Optimism , Remain calm in emergency situations, Not impulsive

4. List of additional traits in Aakash's analysis: Self Reliance, Leadership, Cumulative thinking pattern, Frank and Honest, Pride and Dignity

Armed with this information, lets dissect the situation further-

At the fundamental level, there was a difference in the nature of samples, in Aakash's case it was Handwriting + Signature whereas in Rahul's case it was only signature. When we talk about personality analysis via handwriting, the more the content of the sample, the better. As is evident in this case, Aakash's sample had handwriting as well as Signature (which should explain why i was able to see more traits in Aakash's analysis).

When i started learning Handwriting analysis, i was given the impression that this science helps identify around 100 personality traits. As i practiced and became more experienced, i realized that the different handwriting strokes do reveal around 100 traits but if we really start looking at each trait in combination with other we really have scores of traits that could get revealed. To get a sense of what i am meaning here consider the case of a person being highly emotionally responsive and that person having a trait called as temper in his personality. Combining these 2 aspects, we come to know that such a person will really explode with temper even with slightest provocation. If one really masters the art of combining the traits and making meaningful observations, we really are talking about a powerful science. 

With this background in mind, i would like to mention that in any handwriting sample one of the first and basic things that get analyzed are- the Slant, the Pressure and the Size of the handwriting. So even in a handwriting sample, which is seemingly illegible the experience analyst can really make a lot of sense by just observing these 3 aspects. If i look at Aakash's and Rahul's final handwriting analysis, the traits which are marked as similar actually pertain to 2 of these 3 aspects of handwriting i.e. the Slant and size (I am ruling pressure out because one can always argue that it is hard to measure the same for the digital sample) And i am talking about the similar traits such as Ability to focus, Calmness and non-impulsiveness. Other 2 similar traits i.e. Perfectionism and Optimism can known by looking at just the basic observations in the handwriting. 

So, it does it really surprise me that they had these traits in common because they appeared in just the initial observation of their respective samples. Moreover, different people do have similar traits.

One more important consideration here is the volume of sample. In both the cases, the volume of sample was less. More so in the case of Rahul where i just had a digital signature. The volume of sample actually helps to confirm the various aspects of analysis and one of which is the extent of observed traits e.g. as I noted earlier, both of these sportsmen have "Ability to focus" and "Perfectionism" as one of the similar traits but i cannot ascertain the extent of these 2 (or any other for that matter) traits without having a good volume of sample. To explain further, greater the number of words written in a sample, more the accuracy of the analysis in terms of exactness and extent. Knowing both of them, Aakash's ability to focus (while on crease) can be considered great but if i have to measure Rahul's ability to focus after getting influenced by what he has achieved on the field over the years, I would have to call Rahul's ability to focus as Legendary. I hope Aakash will agree with me here too.

The point I was trying to make it, i can comment better on the extent of the trait after really analysing a large volume of the sample.

Do i sound like making sense here ? Do leave your comments even if i don’t. Would love to hear from you.

Image Source:

http://www.timescontent.com/photos/preview/84884/Akash-Chopra-Rahul-Dravid.jpg

What does Rahul Dravid's signature say about his personality ?

One of my analysis is going to be featured in the book on my idol- Rahul Dravid along with some other stuff that i have written on him. I am presenting here some parts of the analysis that i did for this purpose. Read on-

For those of you who are wondering about the rationality of the title of this piece, Yes handwriting does reveal information about one's personality traits. Infact, it’s a science with a name that is Graphology.  Graphology is a scientific method of identifying, evaluating, and understanding a person’s personality via the strokes and patterns revealed by a person’s handwriting. But I must say that discussing about Graphology is a topic for some other day because the true subject of this article is a great man who made scores of people his fans slowly but steadily much the same way as he was known to bat. There are a very few sportsmen in this world who truly epitomize the role human qualities play in overall success as best as Rahul Dravid has done in his entire career. Grit, Hard work, Determination, Persistence, Never give up- These are just few of many words or phrases that one would normally associate Rahul Dravid with.

About the Signature sample:

Being a qualified Handwriting analyst myself, I was also on a lookout for a real handwriting sample of Rahul Dravid. I did find a lot on the internet but none with an assurance of being a real one. I recently got in a touch with the group of dedicated Rahul fans who are working to write a book on the great man. One of the panelists shared with me the letter that Rahul Dravid himself signed to give his acceptance to go ahead with the book project. Once I had that sample at hand, the Graphologist in me could not stop to get on with the analysis immediately.

Rahul Dravid's Signature analysis:

If I have to decipher Rahul's signature in a few words, I would say- one can easily see how prominently he has written "R" and the last letter "d" and in between the strokes are not really clearly visible with the exception of the letter "a". The portions of signature that are not clearly written are usually called as Illegible. Illegibility in some characters in the signature is not something unusual especially when we are talking about the celebrities who ought to sign the autographs every now and then. And with that frequency and hurriedness in writing Signatures, it’s not always possible to have legibility maintained throughout the signature. Illegible characters in the signature represent another dimension as well, which is that the person does not want to reveal his thoughts to the public. In case of Rahul, I think the illegibility is because of the former reason and that is the routine of signing many autographs taking its toll over the characters in the signature. But with still a lot of portion of his signature legible, i could go ahead and analyze and note the 5 important aspects of his personality that got revealed. 

Signature sample is resized to maintain the readability

Healthy ego, Pride:

In an handwriting sample, the ego can be seen by the size of Capital letters and Pride by the length of the stem of the letter "t" or "d".

Contrary to what is often believed, Ego is not necessarily a bad thing. Infact, it is in a way necessary for one's survival. In other words, for humans to exist and flourish- it is necessary to have sense of self and i.e. one's Ego.
However an inflated ego is a bad thing, even detrimental to yourself and relationships one may have.

In case of Rahul's signature sample, it’s more a healthy side of ego. It means that he is not an insecure type of person. During his playing days, it was quite evident from the way he handled the situations he was not given enough credit for. There were many innings where he played his best and scored heavily only to find out that the other player had a better day than him. The way he handled such situations without creating much fuss has been one of his legendary characteristics. He always took pride in what he achieved and focused on doing the best for the team.

Ability to focus:

Rahul's signature reveals some clear signs of legendary ability to focus on anything he is involved in doing. This is evident from the small size and formation of the non-capital letters in his signature. Small size of characters is an indication of ability of a person to concentrate.

The Oxford dictionary definition of the word “concentration” is “the act or power of focusing one’s attention”.

One of the best definition of the word "concentration" comes from Geet Sethi (World record holder in Billiards) when he says concentration is simply remaining in the present. The longer you can remain in the present, the greater your span of concentration. This definition quite beautifully sums up what concentration is all about.

This perhaps is considered as Rahul’s greatest quality as a Cricketer. And this directly comes from the fact that he played maximum number of balls by a player (31000+) and also has spent maximum minutes (43000+) at the crease in the history of test Cricket. The enormity of his feat can be judged from the fact that the next player in this list has played 30+ more test matches than Rahul and is still considerably behind in these lists. 

Add to this another fact that  Rahul Dravid saw 453 wickets fall while batting at the other side of the crease in a Test Career- the most by a batsman in a Test Career. This record is also a testimonial to the fact that he remained focused, unfazed even when wickets around him kept falling.

Fazal Khaleel, one of Rahul's old friend from Kindergarten and played with him in Ranji Trophy said about his ability to focus (in Rahul Dravid’s biography)-

Rahul was amazingly focused. He set goals for himself, spoke about it and went about achieving it with determination that i have never seen. His commitment and involvement was always total, even in the young days. He could not understand how others could be anything but totally committed.

Rahul's father Sharad had this to say (in Rahul’s biography) and this reflects his legendary focus right from his early days.

"...We encouraged him to play cricket but on the condition that his studies would never suffer. Blessed as he was with the ability to compartmentalize tasks, Rahul, like his mother, reveled in multitasking. His school friends speak in awe of his ability to study in a crowded bus each morning. There would be only standing room in the bus. Rahul would cling on to the vertical bar in the bus and read his school books unmindful of the din around him. He would get off the bus and straight away head for nets. In the evening, he would repeat this studying performance in the bus."

Optimism:

Optimism is handwriting is revealed by the beaseline of the writing moving upwards. Upward movement of the is very evident in Rahul's signature.

Optiimistic people have the ability to think best even in adversary. They have an ability to view the glass as half-full rather than half-empty.

That Optimism was an integral part of Rahul's character was demonstrated a lot of times in his career but one of the cases that stand out is him choosing to keep wickets even though he was already an established player. Many former players criticized the move thinking that it might impact his performance with the bat, might increase the chances to injure him. Rahul being a quintessential team man, focused on  the team's needs and chose to commit himself to an area completely unknown to him (he had never kept wickets in competitive Cricket before donning the gloves for India). He built the skills and succeeded. It impacted his batting well.

All this he could achieve because of the strength of his positive character, with the help of optimism that was at the core of his personality.

Perfectionism:

Perfection in the handwriting is revealed to an extent by the straightness of the baseline of the handwriting.

Not only the way he perfectly crafts his innings but perfection follows in everything else that he does prior to going to the innings as well. 

Being a perfectionist, he has a lot of structure. He tends to spend a lot of time putting everything in place and review work trying to make it more precise. He has excessive need for control in certain areas.

Everyone is aware of Rahul's perfection streak on the field but his wife Vijeta provides some interesting references to perfectionism in everything he does in an article she wrote for cricinfo-

 When I travelled with him for the first time, in Australia in 2003-04, I began to notice how he would prepare for games - the importance of routines, and his obsession with shadow practice at odd hours of day or night. I found that weird. Once, I actually thought he was sleepwalking! 

If I packed only two sets of informal clothes, he would rotate them through an entire tour if he had to and not think about it. He doesn't care for gadgets, and barely registers brands - of watches, cologne or cars. But if the weight of his bat was off by a gram, he would notice it in an instant and get the problem fixed.

Judgmental, not impulsive:

Emotional responsiveness of a human being is an critical part of his personality and can be known by looking at the slant of the handwriting. In case of Rahul, his handwriting slant is almost vertical and it means that-

Rahul is more ruled by her head not the heart. He is a cool, collected person who may not necessarily be so openly expressive emotionally. Some people may see him as unemotional. He is objective and given to evaluating facts before taking decisions. He is never quite impulsive. He uses his judgment to make decisions without any/much of influence of emotions.

This aspects of Rahul's personality is best reflective from this quote by Michael Slater after an incident in 2001, Mumbai Test-

"Sledging Rahul Dravid was one the mistakes of my life. He did not lose his cool even when i was hurling abuses at
him. I could not stomach the fact that he was single handedly demolishing the best team in the world. When the rage wore out on me, i realized that i was an animal and he was a gentlemen. He won my heart instantly"
- Michael Slater

One may think after reading through the analysis that I have just highlighted the positive things. I think I could do more if I had handwriting sample as well but one of the things that I have learned is to be non-judgmental about the personality traits of an individual. The reason is that the same trait if viewed through a different lens can be perceived as negative by some. Moreover, Rahul Dravid’s life and career is the one to be celebrated so I will leave negatives for some other occasion. Kudos Rahul Dravid!

Image Source:
http://indiannerve.com/this-day-in-history-december-16/