The last frontiers of handwriting recognition are considered to have started in the last decade of the second millennium. The paper summarizes (a) the nature of the problem of handwriting recognition, (b) the state of the art of handwriting recognition at the turn of the new millennium, and (c) the results of CENPARMI researchers in automatic recognition of handwritten digits, touching numerals, cursive scripts, and dates formed by a mixture of the former 3 categories. Wherever possible, comparable results have been tabulated according to techniques used, databases, and performance. Aspects related to human generation and perception of handwriting are discussed. The extraction and usage of human knowledge, and their incorporation into handwriting recognition systems are presented. Challenges, aims, trends, efforts and possible rewards, and suggestions for future investigations are also included.