Over lunch a few days ago a colleague observed that I hold the chopsticks using my left hand and remarked, "Oh, so you are a left-hander. No wonder so smart!"

Ahem. Such comments are nothing new to me and I know exactly how to react. So, after a short revelment in being praised, I replied in all humility that I am so not and expressed my view that left-handers being necessarily smart is just science fiction. But another colleague wasn't listening and went on to deduce that I must have a high level of creativity and literature must be my strong suit and other compliments further.

Well, it's nice that people think so highly of us and I would like to believe that left-handers are indeed brighter and more artistic et cetera and that I am not the antithesis to that stereotype. Most people, however, failed to realise that because we are different and we live in a right-handed world, we are also an inconvenienced lot.

In those pre-PowerPoint slides days when the OHP was used every so often, I was never the one writing on the transparency because anything written earlier will be effectively backspaced over as my hand moves along with the sentence. I can't draw or write with the computer mouse because the person who invented it assumed that everyone is a right-hander. I make a mediocre data-entry clerk because the numerical pad on the keyboard is designed for the right-hand fingers too. When I was in the army my rifle had to have a deflector fixed onto it otherwise the empty shells flying out from the chamber will hit my left face with full force - the corollary being that in a life-and-death situation I can't just pick up any rifle and shoot without suffering embarrassment. Scissors and sharpeners don't work normally for me too. And the list goes on.

So the next time somebody tells me how wonderful it is to be a lefty, I will show him why it is also the rawest of deals.