South Paw

I am a left hander. In a world of 93-95% right handers, I am a minority.

Times are a changing. Society is weighing in on equality, slowly but positively. Society is becoming more tolerant of differences in gender, race, nationality, sexual orientation and even handedness.

I've had my fair share of challenges growing up in a right handed world surrounded by many right handed know-it-alls. It has ranged from the basic challenges of ironing, using scissors, avoiding elbow collisions with classmates, having smudged notes to more difficult challenges like answering nosy bystanders, being forced to change handedness and even sometimes ridiculed and looked down apon.

I have to commend my mother for not changing my handedness and shielding me as much as she could from the critics. I was often picked on at family gatherings, especially by older relatives. In my culture it is almost taboo to eat with the left hand, for reasons I will not elaborate here. They were hell bent on converting me into a right hander just like the rest of them. Almost each time, I watched helplessly as I was attacked, feeling bad and doubting myself. If I could go back now, I would gladly give them all a piece of my mind, very logically too.

Over the years, I combined adapting, changing certain ways and staying true to other ways in order to get to where I am today. I am no longer bothered by critics or onlookers. A lot of it had to do with prominently being the sole left handed violinist in a large orchestra at one point in time. I've learned to work around certain difficulties like using right handed tools, and I am as good a right hander ever will be in terms of dexterity. I've changed some things like taken to batting right handed and using the computer mouse like any right hander. Sometimes, all it takes is practice and in my case, a little extra effort. I still eat, write and do other major tasks involving strength or fine-tuned skills in my left hand.

Many interesting theories to understand lefthandedness and its associations have evolved over time; health conditions, intelligence, skills sets and testosterone, to name a few. How much of it is actually true, I couldn't tell. To me, it is just statistical significance and nothing more.

And now to present the one challenge I still face as a lefty. I've been playing a right hander's violin with my left hand for many years. It initially began with baffled teachers who didn't know how to handle a stubborn kid who refused to play like a right hander. Some of them took me on hesitantly and agreed to teach as long as I could keep up and did not expect individual attention, because they could not teach by example. Often ignored at group classes, I kept up with the rest in the best way I could. All this, and the fact that there were so many different teachers and hiatuses in between my learning experience, has made it difficult to progress steadily. It would be unfair if I didn't add here that I was lucky to have two extremely patient and dedicated teachers who kept encouraging me to focus on the learning and enjoy the music. Also during my last music spell of 4 years (2 years ago, that is), I learnt of a limitation. I was not able to reach some of the commonly played higher notes on the top right of the fingerboard, while reaching across from the left side. And this has left me in a standstill, unable to progress as I would like. 2 long years later and 3600 miles away, (yesterday), I met a teacher willing to teach me with the strings reversed. I am hopeful about it, though it will be learning all over again from the basics for me.

I've tried to find answers and advice on the internet, but each time my efforts have proved futile. People too often stray away from the topic and I am easily put off by narcissists on forums.