Southpaw, sinistral, gauche, awkward, clumsy are all synonyms for left-handed. Really? Do left-handed people display all of these characteristics? The world thinks so, the same world where just 10-12 % are leftys or left-handed people. And so August 13 – World Lefty’s Day is celebrated by a very very small portion of the world. Initially put together by left-handed people in UK in the early 1990s, this day has come to mark celebrations across small communities of Lefthanders’ Club’ across the world. India too has its local Lefty Club based in Pune which was started by one Bipin Chowgule in 1992. According to Chowgule, this club’s main drive is to sensitise people towards leftys since parents and teachers do not take to them very easily. Efforts like this club are essential especially in a country like India where it is propitious for all religious rituals be carried out by the right hand. In school, often leftys are hit on the knuckles by teachers who either force them to write with the right hand or hold the book straight while writing. And lefty’s stand out when they keep their arms hanging gawkily over the edge of the desk instead of resting on the armrest because the desk is always designed for the righty. And that posture, for the class teacher only means that the lefty is copying from his neighbour!
Later in life too, indictments continue. Some college professors admit that the oddest students in class tend to be lefties. They think differently, tend to be clumsy and come up with bizarre ideas. And clumsy they will be – after all house doors, fridge doors, oven, washing machine, dishwasher knobs, scissors, ironing boards, hockey sticks, guitars are all made with rightys in mind. Though, these days guitars, scissors and hockey sticks are being manufactured for left-handed people but at a steep price. Scientifically, one can blame it on the wiring in the brain. The left hand is guided by the right side of the brain, which is linked to orientation and intuition. Hence lefties are more likely than their right-handed counterparts to excel in the creative field including music, painting and sports. The likelihood that many successful people are lefty’s can be judged by the fact that five of the last seven U.S. presidents have been left-handed, including Barrack Obama. Then there is Leonardo De Vinci, Bill Gates, Abraham Lincoln, Whoopi Goldberg, Napolean Bonaparte, Neil Armstrong, Aristotle, Albert Einstein, John McEnroe, Pele Charlie Chaplin, Oprah Winfrey, Paul McCartney, Keanu Reeves, Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Amitabh Bachchan, all leftys. Even Sachin Tendulkar is a lefty though he bats with the right hand. Steve Jobs was ambidextrous people say, though he was often spotted writing and eating with the left hand.So however pro-right handed the world may be, the lefty’s actually make the best use of it.