Left, Right, Left

The beat command that the drill instructor called out to make sure that we march in coordination. As an individual in the squad you have to time your left foot forward, at the exact moment of hearing the sound “LEFT!”, and the right on “RIGHT” and so on. I think joined the scouts – sea scouts – when i was in my 7th grade at school. We had to assemble at school by 7am, on the only day when we got an off (our school worked on Saturday too, except for the second Saturday of each month). After doing this for quite some time, i started actually enjoying the marching drills and practising for an upcoming parade etc. I stayed with my scout squadron for a good three years.
Every Sunday, and then almost every day in Jan, during the practice sessions for the annual Republic Day (Jan 26th) Parade, i was getting used to “left-right-left” drilled into my head.

Making the turn !!

Fast forward in life. I am sitting in an Auto (autorickshaw), in Chennai, heading home. Once we reach the residential colony, there will be a few turns the driver will need to make, before i will get to my place. And i will need to instruct him to make these turns. Obviously! One was wonder why this has to be called out. Well, the interesting twist lies in how i am able to provide these turn instructions to the auto driver.

Visualise a street layout for a moment, where you have to drive straight ahead and make a turn at the T-Junction at the end of the road. I tell the auto driver, “go straight and make a left turn.” These instructions are obviously relayed in Tamizh, to allow the driver to understand them better – “straight-a poyi last le’ left-la thirumbunga.”
The driver has instructed, heads down and at the end of the T-junction veers the auto toward the left. I start to get excited now. I begin to instruct him louder, “turn to the left. turn to the left!”
The driver continues as if he’s not heard anything at all. I now put my hand out and tell him again “turn to the left, turn to the left, left! left!!”
The driver now slows down looks behind and tells me “saar left la dhaan sir poren (I am heading left as you indicated)”.
Well, it is quite obvious that he was doing the right thing. Except, my hand as I was instructing him was pointing to the right. I had been trying to tell him to make the turn in that direction. Yes!! The Right Turn!!
All along I had meant for the driver to go straight ahead and make the right turn. My brain just processed it the way I think and visualise my left and my right.

I don’t quite recall when I began to have this problem. Of mixing my left and my right. Only when it comes to making these turns. It has nothing to do, with possibly being ambidextrous; I learnt of this much later in my life. It had nothing to do with my ability to use my left hand or my right hand appropriately.
But when it came to making turns I had a big problem, indicating which direction to turn. Giving instructions to make turns; I would have to literally second guess every single left or right turn that needs to be made.
There are moments when I would doubt if I was actually saying the correct thing, for example, ‘make left turn’. And I would have to try writing with my left and my right hand to clearly understand which was left and which was right.
This craziness goes a bit further because I would start doubting my ability to write with my left or right hand. Meaning sometimes I would wonder, thinking I was actually able to scribble on my palm with my left hand, thereby leading me to wonder if that was actually my right hand. Then I have to write again with the other hand, ie right. Depending on the time available to give an instruction to an auto or a cab driver I would keep doing this between my left and right hand for quite some time before finally deciding the right turn; I mean instruct the driver to turn to the ‘correct’ side.

I don’t wear a ring on my finger. Nor do I wear a watch on my wrist. With no material indicator on my finger or wrist, it becomes extremely difficult to use one of these markers to determine my left and my right hand. The only indicator that I could reliably use was my ability to write or sign. This works many times, but every once in awhile I’m stumped. I suddenly feel I can sign perfectly well with my left hand, as I can with my right. Luckily I am yet to cause a material incident as a result of this affliction. And so till then, i go Left, Right, Left !!!