And...

i wonder, is it an art to negate..
There are times, i play games
with your thoughts and mine
I say, i tell you things for your good
but i wonder if that is true
Do i bolster my ego by lowering yours
or do i really care for good
Do my words have motives
hidden somewhere in my thoughts
There are times you need to know
there are times i want you to know
I tell you what you did wrong
but i don't know how to make it right

They say it is an art
and i must say i am inept
And you say that is a good start...

Of Left and Southpaws...

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!