Where LEFT is RIGHT and RIGHT is LEFT

No prizes on guessing the name of the place I am referring to. Yes it’s United States of America (USA) – a place where I found a new paradigm of what is right and what is left.

For a newcomer like me, the “LEFT” and “RIGHT” issue starts with which side you are drive on the road in US, but it’s not limited to this. It actually means that whatever you have been doing till now, 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, then read below:

• It means that when you enter any public place then you should enter by the right door, use the right elevator, else you will bump into people carrying a totally confused and lost look, as if their world is turned upside down.
• 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 the knob on your door will open when you rotate it clockwise (unlike in India, where you rotate it anti-clockwise)
• 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, unlike left in India. 

These are some of the most irritating items in daily life which forced me to reboot my memory with a mirror image of myself so that I can fit into this world. But this is not the end of this story; in fact this is the beginning of a journey where I am sure I will see more interesting things in the time to come. Here are a few interesting incidences which happened in the last one and half month and I think that in the greater well being of the society it is my duty to share it with you all (though this might kick a laughter riot and I will be the sacrificial goat).

You must have posted numerous letters in your life, but has it ever happened to you that your letter was returned to your address even when the “From” and “To” addresses are correctly and legibly written. It might sound crazy, but the first letter I dropped in the letter box in USA (with perfectly correct and legible address and stamp) was returned to my address. The pic you see below is the same envelope which was returned to me by the postman after making a big circle and an arrow on its face.

Honestly try to reason out why this could have happened (please don’t Google, I am not testing your intelligence).

If you fail to get the reason then here it is – In the American world, “From” address is to be written on the top left corner while “To” is written on the bottom right corner of the envelope – so does this means that my letter was returned to me because the addresses were written on the wrong side? After all the person who returned my letter must have read the “From” address, and in the same manner he could have read the “To” address and took it for delivery.

So what’s the reason?

In US the letters are scanned by a machine which reads the address, and if the machine fails to process (as it happened in my case), the letter comes to the USPS (United States Postal Service) officials for manual handling. The person handling my letter was able to understand the “From” address but somehow failed to understand the “To” address – probably the USPS person was using his “Right” brain!!

USA is a grand nation (In literal sense of the word), and so are the things available here. People you see here are “Grand” – our “XXL (Double XL)” is “S (Small)” for them. Vegetables you will find here are “Grand” – the combined size of two average Indian potatoes is equal to one average American potato. The smallest car I saw on American roads is double the size of smallest Indian Car a.k.a. nano. The smallest cube you are offered to work in American offices are good enough to fit in 3 people in India. The American predilection to “Grand” is so much that Starbucks coffee sells its coffee in three sizes – Tall, Grande and Venti – i.e. Tall, Taller and Tallest, there is nothing called “Small”. I can go on listing the size comparison, but the bottom-line is that small things do not matter; you live grand life (even if it’s on borrowed money)

Fun apart, US is different and whatever I say its not easy to fit into this world from the day one. It takes time and with this I am also taking my time in assimilating this change within me. I hope I will be able to grow to the size to fit into this place.