Lessons taught by my left hand

 

This coffee mug was a thoughtful gift from my boss, years back. A mug exclusively meant for a lefty. If you hold it in your right hand, the coffee would ooze out of a small hole on it and would ruin your clothes. I still have this mug at my workstation. Lefty gifts are really rare and so are lefties; statistics say that they make 7-10% of world population.

As a kid while writing with left hand, many prejudiced minds used to stare at me as if I was doing a sin. They asked "Didn't your parents correct you?!" And I kept asking all of them back, "Why?" I never got a sensible answer till now. All I got were some silly responses like "left is bad". Really?

At school, I have had tough times sitting in between right handers. Our hands used to collide with each other. I learned how to fit myself into a crowd which went in a totally different direction. Those were my first lessons on coexistence.

The ones seated beside me took the same lesson from another perspective.They figured out how to give room to an odd hand.

We kept learning together. My left hand then taught us ways to resolve conflicts since space issues used to arise every now and then. It taught us to be considerate towards each other and treat each other's choice with due respect. It improved our skills in problem solving. Later, in college, all the writing pads were on the right side of the chair.But I could always find practical work-arounds in such situations. My left hand has been a good teacher all the while and still continues to be so.

By the way, even now, I would curiously watch a lefty working with his/her left hand. That is a rare scene for me for every other person around me is a right hander! Don't force your kids to change hand. It might turn out to be disastrous. Let them use whichever hand that they are fine with.

Again. Really proud to be a left hander! Happy International Left Handers Day!