If you’re a right-hander (and you’re in luck – that’s a clear majority!), you probably won’t understand this. But the sad truth is, we left-handers live in a world that is designed for the right hand – from buttons to zips, doors to scissors.
Yes, yours truly has lived the life of social ostracism that all left-handers are destined to live. She has survived with enough battle scars to tell the story.
There was that time I appeared for my pre-Board exams. The exam was being conducted in a big room with chairs for all prospective examinees. The chairs were the kind which had a flap so that you could balance your notebook on it and make notes. And guess which side the flap was on? Lo and behold! Why the right, of course!
If that were the end of it!
I soon grew up and proceeded to higher secondary, embracing all things ‘grown-up’-y that came with it. Unfortunately, further tools of right-handed bias were waiting for me. The microscope! The devil of a creature had always the fine focus on the right, and for years I struggled, silently, trying to align myself with the ‘right’ side of the world. I failed miserably.
If you’re thinking – ahh, puny battles, these – wait for it; there’s more. Bias didn’t come merely from the inanimate ordering of the world (read: microscopes and chairs), they also came from living, breathing creatures, such as my relatives. A large bevy of fussy aunts descended upon my mother, telling her, “She’s eating with her left hand! That’s dirty na, baba? You have to correct that – make sure she eats with her right.”
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the world has always disfavoured us left hand walas and I’ve never had occasion to think otherwise.
You’ll argue that the world has largely improved – and you’re right. Many of the stigmas attached to lefties have disappeared. We’re no longer associated with the notion of the devil being left-handed (thank god for that one). But we still continue to live in a largely right-aligned world.
Can you sustain an elbow war at the dinner table, without struggling for space? Adjust the time in your watch deftly with your one free hand (the right one, of course)? Learn to play the guitar? Congratulations! You’re a rightie! These, and many other troubles, continue to plague the daily life of a left-hander.
So, on this International Left Handers’ Day, let me raise a toast to myself (I will use my left, thank you very much) and all the lefties, in celebration of our right to be left handed.
PS: Looking for reasons to feel special? Google Amitabh Bachchan, Barack Obama, Alexander The Great, Phil Collins, Bill Gates ... Yes! All proud lefties!
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