Gauche, Sinister, Ciotóg, Southpaw

We finished an exhausting meeting and the person opposite to me says, “It is amazing how you do it.”

“What, the endless meetings, but you did all the talking!”

“No, I mean, all the writing”

“Yeah, like you are going to remember all this…”

“No, writing with the left hand”

Ah, now we were speaking on a topic! Is it really that amazing? Well, may be it is…for it appears only about 12% of the population can exhibit the dexterity! Or the gaucherie, actually!

Persistence by an interested person and good topic (in my opinion) - he carefully noted the position of the paper…for it was laid almost horizontal - at an angle of more like 10 degrees with the edge of the table contrary to the conventional 90 degrees, with the head of the paper on extreme right. The pen was moving furiously in what many perceive as an unnatural movement. Even I am so used to seeing people write with the right hand that when I see someone write with the wrong hand, it seems unnatural to me…. But isn’t the whole world opposite to a few of us? I have been chastised in childhood for the position of the note book, but the teachers never realized that unlike others if I were to keep it vertically on the desk, I would not see what I write! They would compliment the handwriting though, for other brethren of this community were not so lucky in this respect. Here is an article that shows various ways and positions of writing used by the southpaws. And I follow this style:

Only that in my case the page makes more acute angle than shown in the picture.

There are many things yours truly cannot do:

1. Use mouse with the left hand – to start with…
2. Use the num pad on regular keyboards
3. Use the screwdriver – I inadvertently tighten the screw if the intention is to loosen it, anticlockwise seems so natural.
4. The water tap – again the same problem as the screwdriver. But in the fancy new taps where rotation is not the motion to control the flow, I still tend to do the opposite.
5. Lock or unlock swiftly, for the key first moves in the opposite direction…
6. Use the nail cutter. This amazes me too. But for some unknown reason, I have to rely on a pair of old-grandfather-scissors to cut my nails. So, when I travel, the scissors travel with me. (If you say, eew to that…try using the scissors with the left hand and find for yourself!)
7. Use the spoon with the right hand.

Only one thing I was trained to do with right hand is eating in Indian style. My grandmother insisted that I practice and eat with my right hand. This does not work in a stand-up style eating so common at weddings and parties; I automatically switch to the left hand. Otherwise, there was no pressure to convert!

I once hurt a bank employee with the sharp end of the pin used to hold the check and the payee-slip together, for I put it in with the left hand and she tried to remove it with the right hand, making her fingertips vulnerable to the sharp-end of the pin. I still use my left hand and also the pin, but it is inserted holding the papers upside down, making it right-side-up!

I often get chastised at religious functions, for I make the offering with the left hand or extend my left hand to accept prasad, which is a big no-no. But I persist nevertheless. At my sister’s wedding, the priest was logical enough to let me ‘do’ things with the left hand, the photographer was not. When we entered into the new home, my mother requested that I put the right foot inside first – the request was granted immediately ;-), but the following ritual was all left-handed. Over time, I have almost turned into a maverick-left-handed rebel. But to be fair the society has also become more tolerable of this minority community. And I still cannot tighten the screw (pun intended)….

Not only is the hand usage asymmetrical, there is a preference to using even one eye and ear dominantly! Now I only need to find out which eye and ear use dominantly.

Do animals show hand-preference? Some primates do, according to this article . Some animals also show preference based on the prey. In some cases, some species of snakes have evolved teeth that makes it easier to break open snails that have clockwise shells. But according to the famous psychoanalyst Steven Pinker, most do not. For, Pinker believes that human brain is more complex than primates’ brain is. Because of the evolved skills such as complex logical and abstract problem solving, language etc., our brain needs special rewiring, distributing tasks of logical processing to some areas and in return showing favor to handedness to make motor controls simpler. But I guess, why so many right-handed and so few left handed is not a simple question to answer.

Now the title words: all mean left handedness in negative sense with exception of southpaw. Etymology of southpaw is interesting. In the baseball game, the striker stands facing east to avoid the afternoon or evening sun, so a pitcher throwing the ball with his left-hand faces south.
Jibe: No right-handed people were hurt in writing this post.