Watch that wallet!
H. Kishie Singh

IN a crowded bazaar you may hear a shout, "Watch out! Pickpocket!" Automatically your hand goes to touch your wallet. Very obliging. You have just shown the pickpocket where you keep your wallet.

Tests have shown the breast pocket is the safest place to keep your wallet and other important documents. The hip pocket is much easier to pick. You are approached from behind, a mild bump and the deed is done. To get to the breast pocket, the crook has to come from the front. You can avert this by keeping alert.

There is another reason — medical — why you should not keep the wallet in your hip pocket.

No one quite knows how and why the hip pocket came into being. The early trousers in Europe had pantaloons with huge pockets in front. The Americans invented the jeans, with hip pockets.

The credit goes to Levi Strauss, a tent maker. He put two pockets in front and two on the back. A working man could thus carry a number of items on him without involving his hands, leaving them free to work with.

The hip wallet that most men carry is also an American invention though it is called billfold there. It’s a mini brief case designed to carry credit cards, driving licence, ID card, important papers and some money, of course. This mini-briefcase was pushed snug into a hip pocket. The owner was close to his possessions and felt safe.

It raised, literally, another problem. The human body is designed to sit on the buttocks in a symmetrical way i.e. weight should be divided evenly on the buttocks. The spine should be erect, shoulders pushed back, neck straight and head held up. This is the best driving position and is recommended for all passengers as well. A proper seating position is important at all times. In the office, where you spend up to eight hours a day, in your house where you sit to relax and, of course, the car. Car manufacturers have spent huge amounts of money on R&D to improve upon the seats in a car, to offer you a comfortable ride.

But along come the hip wallets and upset the balance. The chiropractors in North America were the first to notice and point out this problem. A chiropractor is a person whose job is to treat disorders of the joints, especially the spine. They came across a number of people who had the same problem. A spine that had developed a curve to the left. All were males, drove cars, sat in office chairs. All wore trousers with a hip pocket on the right and a wallet, sometime 40-45 mm thick tucked into that pocket.

They were forced to sit in an asymmetric way — with the weight getting transferred to the left buttock. The shoulders stayed correct and straight. The spine, over the years, developed a bend. All due to the wallet.

Any chiropractor will tell you that to avoid spinal arches, shoulder and neck pains, do not keep the wallet in your hip pocket while sitting. No one has come up with an alternative place so far. Actually, the only alternative is to take it out every time you get into car, and repeat the same procedure before you sit down in your office chair. In the office, you can put the wallet in the desk-drawer. In the car, the wallet will probably end up in the glove-box, where it could be forgotten. You could lose your car plus the wallet if someone stole your car.

Be alert, sit upright, it makes for better driving and less fatigue.

Happy motoring !