Saturday, March 30, 2013

Where LEFT is RIGHT and RIGHT is LEFT

No prizes on guessing the name of the place i am referring to ... Well well, its not United State of America (USA), my friend..  It's Ivory Coast - a place where i found a new paradigm of what is right and what is left.
Well this is my first trip ever outside India and is also a first international working trip for me.
For a newcomer to the outer world like me, the "LEFT" and "RIGHT" issue starts with which side you are driving on the road in CIV, but its not limited to this.. It actually means that whatever you have been doing till noe, has to undergo an inversion. You have to imagine yourself to be a mirror image of yourself and then try to recognize the world around you with the changed reference frame and then react - sounds confusing... :) Read below :-
  • It means that the knob for hot water is on the left side of the tap and cold water knob is on the right. And it also means that the flush lever on the toilet is on the right side, unline left in india.
  • It means that the knob of your door will open when you rotate it clockwise (unlike in India , where you rotate it anti-clockwise )
  • It means that while crossing the roads you should follow the rule "Look at left - right - left" and then cross (Unlike "right - left - right " rule in India)
  • It means that when you enter any public place then you should eneter by right door, use the right elevator and so on..
These are some of the most irritating items I have faced till now in daily life which forced me to reboot my memory with a mirror image of myself so that i can fit in the world..... But this is not the end of this story.... In fact this is the begining of a journey where i am syre i will see more interesting things in the time to come....