By Naveed Fayyaz

Warning: This piece of writing is not about 90 per cent of those reading this, but it should be read by all so that we all can better understand the remaining 10 per cent of the world’s population — the lefties.

THOSE of us who favour and use our right hand to do most things, we really don’t give much thought to the fact that we are ‘righties’; but the small lefty minority has to make a great effort to fit into a world that is suited for the right-handed.

The righties must be surprised reading this, but all the lefties must be nodding in agreement — yes they have a hard time using common everyday products that are suitable for right-handed users but very awkward or downright impossible for a lefty to use.
For instance, using a scissor, can opener, computer mouse, camera and writing on a notebook is so effortless for a right-handed person but the lefty is forced to either use their right hand, which they just cannot use with much ease or power, or they make an awkward effort with their left hand to do something ‘right’.

Luckily, the lefties today are better off than those in the past because there are now not just products made to suit their ‘leftiness’, but it is also considered pretty okay to be a lefty. Historically, left-handedness was considered something negative and children who wrote with their left hands or eat with it, as in our part of the world, would be forced, sometimes even beaten, to use their right hand instead. But this wasn’t the right way to go about the lefty issue — lefties are just following their natural inclination and forcing them to do otherwise only causes them discomfort, pain and even emotional stress.

For instance, King George VI, father of the current Queen of England, Elizabeth II, was a lefty but he was forced to wear a long string tied to his left wrist and whenever he used his left hand, the string would be pulled violently. This hurt his psyche so much that he developed a severe stammer.

Frankly, no one really knows why some people prefer using one hand over the other to do things. But left-handedness tends to run in families, so left-handers are born that way.

Though much research has gone into it, nothing conclusive can be said about what makes a person lefty because the mystery lies in the brain, the most mysterious of organs in the human body.

The human brain is divided into two parts, or sides, known as hemispheres. Curiously, the right hemisphere of our brain controls the movements of the left side of the body, and the left hemisphere governs the right side. So there is a theory that in lefties, the right side of the brain is more dominant and so the lefty is better in functions controlled by the right hemisphere.

These functions include creativity and language skills, which is why it is believed — note, just believed and not scientifically proven without doubt — that lefties are more creative than the regular right-handed ones. And artists such as Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Rembrandt only give more credit to this belief.

And it is not just creativity that comes naturally to lefties, leadership skills too seem to be in abundance as four of the last seven presidents of the United States — Gerald Ford, George Bush Sr., Bill Clinton and Barak Obama are in the left-handers club.

Interestingly, a high percentage of left-handed people are seen to be high-achievers with above-average intelligence and artistic skills. Some experts suggest that this is because left-handers’ brains are structured differently and this gives them a wider range of abilities. And to add credence to this is the fact that almost 20 per cent of all Mensa members are left-handed and this number becomes significant keeping in mind the fact that only about 10 per cent of the world’s population are lefties.

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Some studies also suggest that lefties can also show some learning problems such as dyslexia, stuttering and other language or learning disabilities. But there really isn’t any proof of this, probably just based on the age-old assumption that left is not right and which is why the Latin word for left is ‘sinistra’, the word from which we get the English word ‘sinister’.On the other hand, the right one you may say, there is the Latin word ‘dexter’ which means ‘on the right hand side, skilful, fortunate, favourable and proper’. But these are really old notions, as old as the language Latin which people no longer use.

Sports and lefties

BEYOND doubt, lefties have advantages in many things, particularly in many sports, as most players are left-handed and so not used to facing left-handed opponents while lefties get to play against more righties and so are used to it.

In baseball, lefties, who are also called Southpaws, are more successful against right-handed pitchers than a right-handed batter. Other sports such as boxing, tennis, cricket, football, etc., also offer a degree of advantage.

Left-handed players, also better in playing with their left leg, are sought-after in teams to play on the left side of the field. For some interesting reason, ice hockey has a good number of players that are left-handed shooters and goaltenders. However, field hockey is a tricky game to handle for a lefty because, according to its rules, the stick has to be flat on its left side, which is very convenient for a right-handed player, and the ball cannot be played with the back of the stick. So left-handers have to generally learn to play right-handed, and with practice and talent to guide them, they can do very well.

In fencing, a lefty can be at an advantage because they are used to facing a right-handed opponent while a right-hander is used to facing another right-hander and has to make extra effort to face a lefty. The same goes for boxing and this advantage for lefties is seen to be there in most one-to-one or face-to-face sports.

A research conducted on lefties also shows that they play better video games as they are better at handling large amounts of stimuli.

So the next time all you right-handers challenge someone in sports, do make sure the person is not a lefty or you may just end up losing.

Interesting, yet bizarre

• August 13 is ‘Left-Hander’s Day’

• Approximately 10 per cent of all humans are left-handed, but 50 per cent of cats left-handed or ‘left-pawed’

• Lefties make good baseball and tennis players, swimmers, boxers and fencers, almost 40 per cent of the top tennis players are lefties, e.g. Rafael Nadal

• They are more likely to pursue creative careers

• Left-handedness is in the genes, The British royal family has many lefties - Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles and Prince William.

• They draw figures facing to the right

• On a QWERTY keyboard, there are 1447 English words typed solely with the left hand, whilst only 187 are typed with the right hand.

• Lefties adjust to seeing underwater more quickly

• Lefties have better hearing and easily hear rapidly changing sounds

• Lefties are natural math wizards and process things faster than righties

• There are more left-handed men than women

• Lefties recover from strokes faster

• Only about one percent of the population is truly ambidextrous (able to use the right and left hands equally well)