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Journalism of Courage
Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Pablo Picasso, Napoleon, Charlie Chaplin, Fidel Castro, Paul McCartney, Goran Ivanisevic, Sanath Jayasuriya. Closer home, there are Prince of Kolkata Saurav Ganguly, Vinod Kambli, the prince who was never king, and the most famous of them all, Amitabh Bachchan. Still not guessed what8217;s common between them? All of them are part of the approximately 10 per cent of the world8217;s left-handed population.
Did you ever think that to the millions of left-handers across the globe, it must seem that life8217;s a story scripted by a right-hander. Everything 8211; be it a handshake or the side the mouse is placed in a computer 8211; seems to have been done with a right-hander in mind. Why these 8216;leftist leanings8217; ideas suddenly? Well, according to those kind souls who organised the Left-Hander8217;s Day last month, we need to celebrate occasionally 8216;the creative superiority of lefties8217; and also attempt to create some awareness of their difficulties.
No wonder then that a particularly bitter lefty friend complained: 8216;So you do the right thing, make the right choice and have your heart in the right place, so what if it8217;s actually on the left side. Meanwhile, we poor people are left out, left behind or have things leftover!8217;
The fact remains that left-handers fascinate. From the way they tie their laces to the way they write, lefties are an evolutionary puzzle. Add to that the fact that a person8217;s left-handed ability differs, to the extent that some lefties are ambidextrous 8211; they can use their left as well as right hand with the same ease. No wonder they fascinate.
For a long time now, they are regarded as more creative 8211; be it as sportspersons or artists. Being really creative needs an intimate collaboration between both the brain hemispheres and research has shown that, as compared to right-handers, their left-handed counterparts have a larger corpora collosa 8211; the nerve fibres that connect the two hemispheres 8211; which may facilitate communication 8211; and perhaps creativity.
But that apart, you have to hand it to them. Left, right or centre 8211; they8217;re everywhere, lighting up the cricketing arena, the football field, the silver screen or the theatrical world. So left seems the right choice.
