Lesson Three: Use Your Right Hand

In India, there is a very big distinction between which hand you use for what. See, Indians don’t use toilet paper, they use a sprayer-thing and a personal towel to dry themselves with and their left hand. As one of my classmates has labeled it, the left hand here is the “poop hand”. Yet Indians don’t use silver wear, and instead eat all their food (each meal consists mainly of rice and different “gravies” which are actually curry type dishes with different ingredients in them) with their hand. Yes, hand. As in singular. As in only the right hand. Furthermore, the right hand is preferred over the left in almost every situation. On the bus, you hold on with your right hand if at all possible. When reaching out to receive or give something, you use your right hand. I’ve even heard that money should be paid using only the right hand, which I found particularly interesting since in America, money is considered one of the dirtiest things around. When I can remember, I try even to wave to people with my right hand because I'm afraid that they'll be offended if I use my left. It kind of sucks for the left handed people in our group because they have to learn to do all their daily tasks with their right hand. And I always feel like it's a bit awkward for them when they're using their left hand to take notes during class. There are, of course, exceptions to the right hand only rule. Like in cuisine class which requires both appendages and during art when we work with clay and all sorts of things like that. But for the most part it's important to remember that in almost every situation right is right.