I still remember my first introduction to word 'ambidextrous'. It was through the Sunday Review article on Amitabh Bachchan. I remember looking up the word in dictionary. It must have said 'ability to use both hands with equal ease' because that is what it means. Only now that my friend Terri mentioned its Latin origin, and little joke that followed it, that i was curious to dig deep.
'Dexter' in Latin means right hand and 'ambi' means both. So literally speaking ambidextrous implies both hands as right hands. And if you haven't guessed it by now the joke was on the poor left hand! It is left out, it has no identity of its own, it can be only as good as right if at all!
I guess it was only natural that right hand was considered the most skilled one because most people were right handed and also it was something highly promoted by religions and old scriptures. So it explains why till late left handed children were often forced to change to right unaware that it may cause the child to suffer from reading disabilities or stuttering.
The phrase 'left handedness' is still associated with awkwardness. Even the word 'gauche' in English which implies clumsiness (social not physical) has its origin in French word 'gauche' which means 'left hand'. Lord! so much prejudice for 'left'(no pun intended).
Unaware of the prejudices, as a child i spent quite a few days of my summer practising writing with left hand, to me it was a way to be special. Every one talked about the guy in my class and his left hand writing skills. He was special because he was the only one. But that cannot be said for American presidents though. I remember reading an article during election last year that talked about over-representation of left handed presidents since WWII. It now looks like a mandatory qualification for presidential post. Seems like Republicans and Democrats have their own share of 'left-ness'.
I guess all said and done, it takes a president to conquer discrimination!
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Kusha, I use both my hands but wouldn't call myself ambidextrous because I am not proficient in it. I use left hand to drink beverages, play tennis etc. but still for most things I use right hand.
ReplyDeleteYou know an American friend was telling us that long back in US, it was considered bad to be a left-handed person so people use to force their children to use right. I told him that it is still practiced in India. :)
Do you remember Prasanna from 1 yr senior batch? He sketched a peacock with both hands simultaneously.....So he was ambidextrous in true sense :)
ReplyDeleteSolilo,
ReplyDeleteglad to see you drop by. How cool is that.. splitting tasks,i still find people with such skills special.I think it usually reflects strong left and right brain both, which isnt the case with most of us. Do you write using left too?
And u r right about Americans buti guess Indians arent the only one who continue this. my friend is an europian and she mentioned this being rampant in huge part of Europe and Africa.
Deepa,
Very faint memory of it.. aur ek hum log ki normal kaam bhi right hand se hi nahi hota..
ghor annyay hai!
Kusha, I don't write with both and that is why I said that I am not proficient. The ambidextrous ones can do marvelous things with both hands.
ReplyDeleteSolilo,
ReplyDeleteThat is pretty strange coz tennis and writing are both skilled tasks and the fact that you use different hand for each one is rare.
Yes it is pretty fascinating to see people being gifted but applying the 'Khatte Angoor' syndrome What exactly do they can gain being ambidextrous :D.