Statistics show that I was likely to die prematurely. No, I am not suffering from a fatal disease nor am I disabled. I am left-handed. Throughout history, the left side of the body has been associated with darkness, ill-fortune and evil spirits while the right has been linked to light, luck and virtue.The left hand was considered as a devil’s hand regarded as an ill-omen. If I was born some decades back, I’d probably be accused of witchcraft.

When I was small I used to think that being a lefty was my superpower until I found out writing with pencil was my kryptonite because I couldn’t do it without smudging and smearing everything on the sleeve of my shirt and painting my hand metallic silver. My mom used to get tired of all the mess I made but all she could do was nothing but grumble.

Every time there was this art and craft class in school where I had to cut and paste things, the scissors felt wrong in my hand because of the shape and then you remember the reality that everything in the world is made for the right-handed

people. Being the only lefty in my class, during the time of seating arrangement I always ended up with a right-handed partner next to the wall and having to share a table was a nightmare with both only getting bumps. Even during dinner, no one ever wanted to sit next to me. My next enemy was a ring binder and those spiral ring notebooks causing my hand to swell because of those rings.

Sometimes the ECA teacher used to teach a technique the right-handed way, then they tell me “just reverse it!” because he couldn’t figure out how to demonstrate it left handed. Then they act like it’s easy to reverse everything I’m shown. As we all know Nepalese people are one of the most stereotypical people in the world, people used to ask me not to eat with my left hand or take things. Though it made me ashamed most of the time I now know where I stand.

Though being left-handed was sometimes more like being an alien, I could proudly say that June 22 and August 13 were officially my days; one my birthday and the other was left-handed day.

My friends used to get jealous because I could use a computer mouse and takes notes at the same time in the computer class. But who would tell them that the keyboard had the number pad on the right side or how it feels to sit in a right-handers’ desk.