Ceveryday, there is at least one reminder that life is naturally organised for the right-handed person. I have had people asking me whether I was `born like that'. Initially, I found this attitude rather offensive, because the tone of the question seemed to suggest that left-handedness was a handicap. But it happened so often that I soon got used to it, puzzled as I was by the curiosity I aroused. After all, left-handed people are just the same as their right-handed counterparts. `Lefties', as we are casually called, do not come with two heads or four hands, you know.Starting from school and college, where I was for all those years, quite surprisingly, the only `lefty' in the batch, I got used to being regarded as `different'. The years rolled by, and here I am, so many years later, still left-handed and still as `different' as ever!Let's take a weekend when one is a little free to curl up with a book. Just the occasion for a plate of french-fries. Not so far - the potatoes have to be peeled and vegetable peelers have become a habit. If you have the right-handed kind, you'll have to scrape from the bottom upwards, which is inconvenient, apart from anything else. So you do just that and make best of it. More recently, peelers with double-edged blades have become available and as far as I am concerned, they are quite indispensable.You want to pour milk out of a saucepan. Would you believe that to pour the milk out from the lip of the saucepan, you have to hold it in your right hand! Too bad, that is just the way it is, better get used to it.You ripped your new shirt the other day. Well, all it will take is a few stitches on the machine. That shouldn't be a problem. Unless you're left-handed, that is. Try sitting on the other side of the machine. That doesn't help much because the wheel will not spin according to your convenience.Recently, I realised that there just might be something called a left-handed coffee mug. When there is a pattern on the mug which can only be seen when the object is in the right hand, that would make it the right-handed mug. When the pattern is all around the object, you could say that it was left-handed, since it would be visible if you held it in your left hand.Oops, I almost forgot. The ironing board. The iron is placed on the right, so you have to iron with your right hand. Suppose you stand on the other side. Unfortunately, the plug point wouldn't shift to suit your convenience. So put up with it, unless you can find some way to plug in the iron to suit you.There's more. I recently discovered that even the mouse, which makes the computer so convenient, is always placed on the right. So if you're sitting next to someone who is right-handed, there is a good chance of knocking elbows! Try to see the funny side, I say to myself.But there's another side that it not so funny. The `left-handed compliment' for one, is unfairly named, especially since it indicates insincerity. Left-handed children are often forced to write with their right hands, bringing about a host of problems which could have serious consequences. Incidentally, that was another problem in college. The expanded arm of the chair, that served as a working surface, was of course on the right!Left-handed people make difficult adults they say. We have Jack the Ripper and the Boston Strangler as examples! Fancy having something in common with them!On the other hand, people in high places have often been lefties. George Bush and Bill Clinton for starters. Marilyn Monroe, Dick Van Dyke, Danny Kaye, Charlie Chaplin. the list goes on and on. Even Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, was left-handed.So cheer up, it's not too bad. Remember, you'll always be noticed, no matter what. You might say, the ambidextrous person is in the enviable position of being able to have the best of both worlds. But for the lefty, what's left is right, and what's right is wrong - if you know what I mean!
