Episode 323 : Being Lefty

I grew up being right-handed. Somewhere along the line, during my teenage years I think, I started to train my left hand to do some things. The biggest wow-factor was being able to catch the ball with my left hand or effect a run out while playing cricket with my friends... I always had this vague feeling that the greatest fielders at that time were somehow influenced by my (which were dormant to me!) telepathic powers. I could also never explain how they all also zeroed in on using yorkers to get batsmen out... something I had been doing when the 1987 World Cup was going on.

I digress.

So I trained myself to use my left hand, to balance the load. I did not want to grow up into someone whose right arm would be almost twice as large as his left. Opposite of Wasim Akram, yes.

It came to a stage where I could use my left hand almost as well as my right. There were the odd few things which were easier to do using the right hand than the left and vice versa, but I think I was better than most people around me.

Sometime in 2008, I woke up with a very stiff neck. So bad, that I could not get off the bed. I lay down, alarmed and confused. If I could not even get up, how could I summon help? A few minutes later, I rolled myself off the bed, groaning in pain.

After a visit to a nearby doctor, I began to investigate the cause. 'It must be the pillow', I declared. I had just begun to use a thinner pillow and the lack of support must have caused the stiffness. I resumed using a thicker pillow.

The stiffness again returned after some time, and I noticed that I had slept on my left side just like the previous time. So it wasn't the pillow, I thought. But then again, why should it happen only when I sleep on my left side? I couldn't figure that one out.

So I tried two pillows. I flipped the mattress. I began to use a coir mattress. Nothing worked when I turned to sleep on my left side.

One day, the stiffness turned into a stabbing pain in the upper back region. Having had enough, I went to see an orthopaedic. After a brief examination, I got myself a few X-rays.

'Your neck muscle is stiff and you have what looks like a slipped disc in the neck' he said.

Oh my!

He prescribed 5 days of physiotherapy and some medication, which helped bring down the discomfort. In the last 5 days, I discovered that while trying to be ambidextrous, I ended up training myself to use my left arm for certain things, and my right arm for the rest.

I switch on most of the lights using my left arm.

My left arm takes half the load while pushing or turning my motorcycles.

I carry my helmet using my left arm. I rest my head on my left hand.

And these are just a few.

Training my right hand to do the job of my left became more arduous than I had expected it to be.

As if I grew up being left-handed!