International Left-Handers Day: Going left in a world made for right-handers

New Delhi: Getting it right if you’re born a left-hander… it’s just tough in a world armed, attuned and aligned to the other side.

School desks are modelled for those right-handed as are scissors, spiral notepads, can openers and incredibly even ladles and sauce pans which have spouts on the left. And, of course, the buttons on a computer mouse have to be reconfigured. The very many everyday details right-handed people take so much for granted.

Add to it all, stigma and prejudice. In fact, the word sinister comes from a Latin word meaning “on the left side”. “The association of ‘left’ with ‘evil’ is likely because of the dominance of right-handed people within a population,” says the Merriam Webster dictionary.

As the world celebrates left-handers on International Left-Handers Day on Wednesday, Ayushmaan Pandey remembers his growing up years when his mother would rebuke him for eating with his left hand and being mocked at school for losing in arm wrestling with his right hand.

“It would feel that there was something wrong with me that other students were using their correct hand and I was using the wrong hand,” the Dublin-based mediaperson, now 33, told PTI.

For more than 30 years of his life, Pandey considered himself “incompetent” for not being able to use the scissors to the best of its or his ability. It was only after going to Ireland that he came across what would be an anomaly in the world order - left-handed scissors.

It was a new world for Pandey as he discovered a whole range of stuff made for left-handed people - almost everything that had made him feel inadequate growing up when people around him shot him glances of disapproval.

There are millions like him, confident now perhaps but beset with confusion and the feeling of being different while they were growing up.

Nearly 10 per cent of the world population is left-handed, about 800 million people, estimates a meta-analysis by Greek scientist Marietta Papadatou-Pastou from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, published in the journal Psychological Bulletin.

Many continue living the trials, societal and otherwise, that range from struggling to write on a regular school desk to being punished for eating with the left hand. Mundane tasks, be it having a meal or giving money to someone, can take a tinge of the 'sinister' when done with the left hand.

The left-handers club is shared by the likes of Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Paul McCartney, Jimi Hendrix, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ratan Tata, Rajinikanth, Amitabh Bachchan, and Sachin Tendulkar. Nonetheless, lefties have been the cause of social discomfort since centuries - from being considered to be in cahoots with the devil to being seemingly unclean people.

Kritika Sharma* believes she developed social anxiety and had difficulty in learning because her father, a school teacher, would take strict measures to “correct” her writing hand.

“He would hit me on my knuckles if I wrote with my left hand. I eventually managed to write with my right hand but I could hardly focus on what I was writing. I used to be constantly scared that I might get hit again for poor handwriting,” the 28-year-old home chef said.

The “correctional” behaviour of parents or authority figures like teachers can leave a lasting and often disruptive impact on children, said senior family therapist Maitri Chand.

“Telling a child to use their right hand, when their left is dominant, can be very confusing as it goes against their brain. Even when it is done softly, it can have a lasting impact. The child can grow to be more sensitive. The child thinks and believes that there is something wrong with them,” Chand told PTI.

She added that the child may experience both fatigue in activities like writing and drawing and their handwriting may not develop as well because of this.

Encouraging children to use their non-dominant hand can impact self-esteem, lead them to a feeling of inadequacy as well as resentment towards people around them.

“These things can be carried by them, with them, into adulthood as well. Their resentment for other people. They may not be able to develop a healthy relationship with an authority figure. This pressure to conform can also increase the anxiety,” Chand said.

On the other hand, not restricting a child’s natural inclination to use the left hand can be beneficial for their growth.

Riddhi*, a Delhi government school teacher, has observed in her 10 years at work that children in kindergarten or other early classes experiment with both hands before settling with the one they are more comfortable with.

“I have seen children using left and right hands interchangeably with equal ease. But there are teachers or parents who forbid them to use their left and instantly the child starts struggling with both the hands,” she said.

Giving the example of a famous Indian golfer without naming him, Chand said he was encouraged to use his dominant hand but since there were no left-handed golf kits available in India, he ended up excelling his game with the right hand.

“They (the golfer) were encouraged to use their dominant hand. It can help a person be ambidextrous and it may not have a very devastating impact on a person,” she said.

A more famous story along these lines is of cricket ace Sachin Tendulkar.

Tendulkar, who became a smashbuckling right-handed batsman of global renown, is naturally left-handed. It was the circumstance of practicing with a right-handed cricket kit at home that trained him to play with his non-dominant side, what followed is forever preserved in the pages of history.

Tanyaa Raturi, a film educator, prides herself in being a true ambidextrous person.

“Nobody ever told me to correct this. I started writing with my right hand because I felt the odd one out. Now I can write with both hands at the same time,” Raturi said.

Nilesh Bhagat, a Delhi-based journalist, admits never being forced to use his right hand. Now he feels special around his “common” right-handed colleagues.

The best way to let children flourish is to leave them on their own, said Riddhi.

“If you don’t interfere with their natural process, we have seen an increase in their confidence and overall performance. I think that’s the most important thing, to let children on their own,” she said.

(*Names changed to protect identity. August 13 is observed as International Left-Handers Day).