KHABBU(LEFT HANDED)

‘Do you know that left-handed people live seven years less as compared to right-handers?’ asks the eldest daughter who’s into her teens and a lefty.
‘Bullshit! Highly unlikely that prescribed sampling methods would’ve been heeded for such a shady survey,’ I reply, instinctively. Then as I look into those beseeching doe eyes, I’m immediately apprised of my tactical error – employing rational argument in a situation that requires factoid to be countered with factoid. ‘But yes,’ I change course, ‘left-handers are far more creative than right-handers. And they also enjoy an undue advantage in sports.’
There’s a short silence before she responds,‘Tears of happiness flow out from the right eye first. Tears of sadness and pain, from the left.’
Okay, so we’re pitted against some major googling here, I realise. There’s little chance of victory but one nevertheless tries to hold fort for the lefties in this right/left battle. ‘So tell me,’ I ask, ‘when we board the plane this summer-vacation, which direction would you want to turn upon entering? Right or left?’ I think I have her flummoxed with this question on ‘class’ divide, but I’m mistaken.
‘Do you know dad that when bats come out of a cave, and provided there’s no obstacle in either direction, they first turn left.’
I’m hoping her remark is a non-sequitur, and that she has no intentions to label worldly-aspirations as ‘blind’. But more importantly, I’m hoping she isn’t ticking-off the ‘family vacation.’ Not just yet.