Culture Clash Wednesday #4 Left Handed Faux Pa
This week's culture clash brings up a story I still laugh about today. Right before I went to meet my husband's family, he gave me a few warnings. He tried to explain a bit about Indian culture. He didn't get into too much detail, but he gave me some ideas on what to expect. One thing he mentioned was that I should try and avoid using my left hand as much as I can. Now, growing up being left handed was a very good thing. My mom was left handed and we used to joke about what that meant. Obviously, it meant we were extremely smart and amazing. I mean hey, they even have left handers day. Obviously, this was different in Indian culture. In India, the left hand is used for sanitation purposes. It's considered extremely rude to use your left hand for anything else in India. They eat with their right hand, shake hands with their right hand, and touch people with their right hand. When I met my husband's family, I did my best to not use my left hand. Instead they all noticed right away and thought it was funny. They even teased me about it! Since they had all lived in the US for so long, they didn't refuse to use their left hand. They didn't make a big deal about it and some of them even had left handed kids. The only thing they didn't use their left hands for was eating. That's the one thing that stuck with them. The next time I was with all of my husband's family was during our wedding week. I knew I'd be one of the only whiteys there and I wanted to make a good impression on everyone. I was going to follow all of the customs I had learned, especially avoiding using my left hand. A lot of family was there from India and I wanted to do my best. Just like the time before, people quickly realized I was left handed. I learned to pick up on a few telugu words while I was there. The first two were thella pilla. Can you guess what that means? White girl, of course. It made it really easy to know when people were talking about me. The best was when I would over hear them talking about me, while staring, and then come up to me. Then they would ask if I was left handed. I always laughed and said yes. Then they'd go right back to their group and keep talking in telugu! I don't think this culture clash will ever go away. I'm still a lefty and it will always be taboo in Indian culture. I guess this means Indians don't celebrate left hander's day...