I found it fascinating that my mom was left-handed. I would watch in awe as she scribbled with her ‘other’ hand while she could eat with her right. She would regale me with tales of how her mom — my grandmother — would constantly urge her to use her right hand while eating when she realised that my mom instinctively did everything with her left.

“Good deeds are always done with the right hand, beta,” my grandmother would cajole.

“My brother is a leftie,” says Nisreen. “I remember how his teacher would beat him on his knuckles when he would write with his left hand — the result? His writing is atrocious!”

Huma, mother of two, says that her in-laws still have a word or two to say when she uses her left land to cook. “I’m glad none of my kids are lefties! It leaves one open to being commented on. People treat you like a freak show or something,” she adds.

‘Handedness’ is a term used to refer to the hand (left or right) that performs faster or more precisely on manual tests, or the hand that one prefers to use. Then there are rare cases of ambidexterity — being equally adept in the use of both left and right hands. But you will find only one naturally ambidextrous person in a hundred.

Some experts like Chris McManus of University College London in his book Right-hand, left-hand, goes on to suggest that left-handed people as a group have historically produced an above-average quota of high achievers. He explains that left-handers’ brains are structured differently and the genes that determine left-handedness also govern development of the language centres of the brain, spatial relations and emotions in more diverse and potentially creative ways.

Others scoff at this notion saying that studies in the UK, US and Australia have revealed that left-handed people differ from right-handers by only one IQ point, which is not really remarkable.

However, a research conducted at St. Lawrence University, New York, revealed that there were more left-handed people with IQs over 140 than right-handed people. Geniuses like Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo Da Vinci and Bill Gates being lefties give weight to this statistic.

Jumana Murtaza, a psychologist, explains that the left hemisphere of the brain controls the right side of a human body, while the right hemisphere controls the left part. “In about 80-90 per cent of individuals the left part of the brain is dominant — making them favour their right hand.”

Paul Broca, a French neurosurgeon, was the one to suggest that a person’s handedness was opposite from the specialised hemisphere. For over 150 years, many researchers have been trying to figure out this correlation between handedness and brain lateralisation and the debate continues till date.

Research reveals that a person who is ‘left-brained’ (right-handed) is often said to be more logical, analytical and objective. The left-brain is often described as being better at language, logic, critical thinking, numbers and reasoning, while a person who is ‘right-brained’ (left-handed) is said to be more intuitive, thoughtful and subjective. He/she is better at recognising faces, expressing and reading emotions, music, colour, images, intuition and creativity.

Murtaza explains that being right or left-handed is a natural phenomenon which can be observed by birth. “Many parents fail to notice that their child is favouring the left hand until the baby is old enough to start eating. That’s when they start prodding the child to use his right hand instead.”

“Being a leftie is not a disorder even though one theory even suggests that it is associated with trauma at birth,” explains Jumana. “In our culture, using the right hand is connected with goodness, thus, I get cases where parents urge their children to use their right hand. However, rebuking a child in public for using his left hand and causing him embarrassment is not good for a child’s self esteem.”

She suggests that if a parent feels strongly that the child should use his/her right hand in certain tasks, the child should be convinced with logic and understanding. Also, it is unfair and undue pressure to expect a left-handed child to do everything with his right hand. “You should prioritise what you prefer him to do — like eating — then that might be easier for the child to comprehend and achieve.” Jumana shares that many parents say that because they trained their child to use his right hand right from the beginning, the child was able to favour his right hand.

Right-handed people might take for granted home and office layouts designed for right-handers’ ease. Simple elements like doors, cookers, sinks, computer mice, keyboards and desks that are efficient for right-handers to work at, make lefties look clumsy and awkward.

Maliha, a 20-something leftie, says, “It can be something as trivial as crossing other people’s paths, hugging, passing the salt, receiving change, putting children’s socks and shoes on, giving directions with your hands, opening locks, organising papers and files — all of which are intrinsically different for a leftie.”

If you’re left-handed, or a southpaw, then you are 10pc of the world’s population. This is a statistic which has interestingly remained constant for the last 30,000 years. Although just one in 10 humans is a lefty, you and me seem to know quite a few lefties in our family and social circles. They even have August 13 dedicated to them as Left Hander’s Day. Now, who would have thought?