Latest news with #LeftHandersDay
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- General
- Hindustan Times
Spice of life: Without left-handed, life wouldn't be right
'Your son is writing with the wrong hand,' my son's kindergarten teacher complained. My instant reply was not to pressurise him and let him write with whichever hand he is comfortable with. Mysterious are the ways of God! Identical twins having different traits; while Vidit started writing with the right hand, Adit used the left. A left-handed compliment is an expression implying something ambiguous, with an implicit negative connotation. (File) Whether a child is left-handed or right is a complex trait. There are scientific theories to corroborate. The preference surfaces by the age of two when the child starts holding objects. It becomes evident when he is initiated into writing. In the world, right-handed is the norm and only a few are left-handed. I remember being reprimanded as a child and switching to the right hand to write. But for many chores, my left hand automatically volunteers. The world has only select beings, the ambidextrous, like Virus of '3 Idiots', who can write with élan with both hands. Polite disclaimer: The tech-savvy generation clicking with both hands on their devices or typing on social media platforms do not fall in the ambit. Many times, my lad is caught in an awkward situation. Being the elder of the twins, the onus to perform religious rituals falls on him. Our cultural pattern states the use of the right hand and serving with the left is observed as disrespectful and rude, at times inauspicious. He falters at lighting the match stick with the right hand, offering samagri in the hawan or applying tilak and shifts to his genuine hand. Over the years our Pandit ji has mellowed and overcome past prejudice. He lets him use what comes naturally to him. While we perform our religious circumambulations clockwise, our planet rotates anti-clockwise i.e. from west to east. Coincidentally Mother Earth is a lefty! The idiom in language too seems biased. A left-handed compliment is an expression implying something ambiguous, with an implicit negative connotation. Gadgets are designed predominantly for right-handers and the left-hander minority has been overlooked. He struggles with scissors and peelers. While buying a pen, he prefers the one that does not smudge because of the angle of his hand while writing. He is often at the receiving end of rebuttals and rebukes like 'lefty' and subjected to intrusive queries. He has learned to take the jibes in his stride and keep his cool when strangers gawk. Left Handers Day is celebrated on August 13 all around the globe to honour the uniqueness and peculiarities of the left-handed. This elite sub group of mankind has some prominent personalities as members, including Bill Gates, Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, and Mark Zuckerberg. On this day, let us acknowledge and appreciate their perspective. Let us try to understand the challenges faced by the left-hander, seeing it as a distinctive strength instead of an oddity. I perceive it as an opportunity to proclaim to family and friends how proud I am of my left-handed. kalrasuruchi@ The writer is professor and head of the department of English, Hindu Girls College, Jagadhri.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Looking back on left-handers and how they've thrived
Left Handers' Day is observed on August 13 across the world to honour the amazing left-handed people in a world mostly of right-handers. Veteran squash player and coach Willie Studholme learned to play with his left hand following an operation (Image: Stuart Walker) This is a day to celebrate the 10 per cent of the world's population that relies on their left hand to do most tasks. Thomas Atkinson (right), who was born without his left hand and had his left leg amputated as a small child, was selected to play for the Great Britain Amputee Football Team (Image: Newsquest) It is also an important day, as it raises awareness about the struggles of left-handed people, and encourages businesses to adapt everyday objects and make them left-handed friendly. Cornet Dale Irving, his right and left-hand men Alasdair Cavers and Andrew Elliot, and Andrew Johnstone at Whita Well (Image: Newsquest) On Friday, August 13, 1976, Lefthanders International first declared the date as a day to celebrate the minority using left hands as their dominant hands. But Left Handers' Day really only took off in 1992 in the United Kingdom organised by the Left Handers Club. The children of Townfoot with Cornet Andrew Johnstone and his right and left-hand men Andrew Jeffrey and Robert Rae in 1989 (Image: Newsquest) The day was so popular across America and Canada that the date was added to the national calendar as an unofficial holiday. Today the issues that left-handed people struggle with in their everyday life are mostly ergonomic. Keswick left-hander Richard Webster and partner John Bryson put some runs on the board at a Workington Cricket vs Cockermouth match (Image: Newsquest) These include adjusting to desks that are made only for right-handed people or objects such as scissors, measuring tapes, spiral notebooks, can openers, etc. that are very difficult for left-handers to use. Roofing Contractor Paul Heron (left) and his right hand man Mark Holliday out and about on a job (Image: Newsquest) On top of that, products that are made for left-handed people are much more expensive than those available for everyone. In short, everyday objects and commodities were not made for left-handed people. Haig Mine Visitor Centre manager Pamela Telford helps the contractors lay the foundation slab with her right hand man, restoration volunteer Andrew Ainsworth (Image: Newsquest) For many years, they were severely discriminated against and demonised. In the Middle Ages, they were accused of witchcraft, and were the subject of weird superstitions for centuries. Up until very recent years, being left-handed was associated with the devil, and children were punished in schools for using their left hand to write, and 'retrained' to use their right hand. Fay Dunnery with her right hand men at Bowness Knott as they set off on their sponsored walk around Ennerdale Lake with Francis Dunnery (Image: Newsquest) But there are positives to being a leftie. It is thought that left-handed people are more flexible and adaptable, as they are often challenged in a world that is made for right-handed people. The left hand is also controlled by the right side of the brain, the one associated with emotion and creative qualities such as music and art. Many respected and famous people are left-handed. Former American presidents Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton are part of the club.
CNA
4 days ago
- General
- CNA
International Left-Handers Day: Everyday tasks lefties have to adapt to
Fun fact: Aug 13 is International Left-Handers Day. Here's a look at some everyday tasks lefties have to find a way around, as told by CNA Lifestyle's Grace Yeoh. Illustrations: CNA/Jasper Loh Using a chair with a writing board is a nightmare for lefties. "In my experience, the solution is not to hope left-handers will turn their body slightly to the right, risking backache and arm cramps. It is to invest in proper furniture," she says. The classic pen holder at information counters always comes with an elastic chain. It's great for preventing theft, but with the pen holder almost always placed on the right-hand side, how do lefties ensure the chain doesn't get in the way? Most watch crowns are on the right side, which is convenient for adjusting when the watch is worn on the left wrist. But many lefties prefer wearing their watches on their right wrist, making it an awkward affair to toggle the watch crown. It's tough to always be the person asking for a left-handed demonstration or option when learning a new activity like playing the guitar. For lefties, the can opener is a contraption more complicated than the military's weapons system. Of course, there's also the signature pinky finger ink smudge - the infamous mark of a left-hander. Next Story
BBC News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Left-Handers Day: Amazing facts about lefties
If you're left-handed, then 13th of August is a special one for International Left-handers Day 2025!It's a time to celebrate left-handed people and to raise awareness of some of the experiences many of them face in a world designed largely with right-handed people in suggests that between ten and twelve percent of the world's population is though being left-handed might mean struggling with right-handed scissors from time-to-time, there are plenty of reasons being a lefty is pretty cool! Famous left-handers There are a number of famous stars who are Justin Bieber is left-handed, although the very first guitar he picked up was actually a right-handed one. He attempted to play the instrument backwards, although this proved to be a struggle! - Famous singer Dolly Parton also played the guitar like this!Justin's mum ended up buying him a left-handed guitar which he used to learn how to celebrities who are left-handed include sporting superstars like tennis champ Rafa Nadal and footballing legend Lionel Messi, singers like Sir Paul McCartney and Lady Gaga, and actresses like Jennifer Lawrence and presenter Oprah creator of The Simpsons - Matt Groening - is also left-handed, and that's one of the reasons why many characters in the show, like Bart, are left-handed. Left-hand leaders Though left-handers make up a small percentage of the world's population, many have had very important past US presidents have been left-handed, including Bill Clinton and Barack UK prime minister David Cameron is left-handed, same as famous wartime prime minister Winston King of the United Kingdom, Prince William is also great-grandfather George VI was naturally left-handed too, but his father George V forced him to write with his right hand. Left-handedness in culture and history Just like Prince William's great-grandfather George VI, it wasn't uncommon in the past for left-handers to be forced to use their right hand to do the UK, left-handed people were historically forced to use their right hands for tasks where they would naturally use their left hand. This still happens in some countries also led to some people becoming ambidextrous - which means they can use either their right or left hands to do things equally some parts of the world, the left hand is considered unclean to use. Traditionally in places like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal and the Middle East, it's thought of as rude behaviour to eat, pick up or hand over things with your left are also examples of language traditionally giving left-handers a bad French, "gauche" can mean "left" or "clumsy". In English the word 'left' comes from the Anglo-Saxon word 'lyft', meaning 'weak', whereas "Right" means "to be right". In Latin the word "sinister" comes from the Latin word for left. Left-handed people were once considered to be unlucky and even evil in the past. In the Middle Ages in Britain, lefties were associated with the devil in Christianity, and were often accused of the crime of witchcraft, for which one of the punishments was being burned at the stake!Thankfully, left-handers don't have to worry about that these have also found evidence that there were left-handed Neanderthals - an extinct species of early human - around 500,000 years then cave-men and women ate a diet of raw meat a lot of the time, which is pretty tough on the think Neanderthals would bite the meat and use a sharp piece of stone as a tool to cut the meat near to their the stone would slip, and from looking at the direction of the scratches on their teeth, the researchers found that around ten percent of Neanderthals seemed to have held the stone tool with their left lefties have been around for more than 500,000 years!Some studies have suggested that more people are left-handed these days than in the past, but part of the reason for that could be because it is more widely accepted and embraced now, whereas previously it was seen as a bad thing so people didn't want to admit to being left-handed. How do you become left-handed in the first place? The exact reason why people have different hand preferences is people believe that left- and right-handedness is linked to the genes we get from our parents or grandparents. However, scientists do not know which bits of DNA control it.A study by a Northern Irish psychologist named Peter Hepper looked at hundreds of scans of babies sucking their thumbs in their mother's womb before being discovered that around 90% of the babies sucked their right thumb and 12-years later, almost all of those same babies were three-quarters of the babies who sucked their left thumb, went on to became general, it's common for babies to use one hand one day and a different hand the next, but from about two-years-old toddlers start to prefer using one hand more than the other. Why is being left-handed so rare? Experts don't know exactly why more people aren't left-handed, but one suggestion is something known as 'social cooperation'.Over thousands of years, communities of people who shared tools and living spaces learnt that by using the same hand, it made it quicker and easier for most people when it came to achieving a goal or task together. That meant that over time, more people learnt to use their right-hand to complete tasks as a group. The left and right sides of the brain Did you know that our brains are cross-wired? This means that the right side of our brain, controls the left side of the body and the left side controls the right.A group of researchers from the University of Oxford studied the brains of left-handed people to see if they work differently than right-handed the study they found that the two sides of the brain were better connected in lefties and more co-ordinated, particularly in the areas that involve using McManus, from University College London, author of the book Right Hand, Left Hand says:"If you are left-handed you might find yourself with a slightly unusual way your brain is organised and suddenly that gives you skills that other people don't have."It's often claimed that left-handed people are more likely to be creative and good at art or music. However there is not enough scientific evidence to prove this so far. Are there any 'left-handed' animals? Humans are one of the few animals to show a preference between the left and right creatures, even apes, our closest cousins in the animal kingdom show a 50-50 split when it comes to which hand, foot or paw they use the left-handed animals include kangaroos, which tend to favour their left paw for things like grooming and eating. Also, studies have shown that 90% of parrots use their left foot to pick things you left-handed? Do you think it's given you any advantages or disadvantages? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
