ssh illegal option while trying to connect to remote server

Question

trying to ssh from my macbook pro, to a remote server,

ssh ayan@ServerIPAddress

gives the following error

ssh: illegal option -- ?
usage: ssh [-46AaCfGgKkMNnqsTtVvXxYy] [-B bind_interface]
           [-b bind_address] [-c cipher_spec] [-D [bind_address:]port]
           [-E log_file] [-e escape_char] [-F configfile] [-I pkcs11]
           [-i identity_file] [-J [user@]host[:port]] [-L address]
           [-l login_name] [-m mac_spec] [-O ctl_cmd] [-o option] [-p port]
           [-Q query_option] [-R address] [-S ctl_path] [-W host:port]
           [-w local_tun[:remote_tun]] destination [command [argument ...]]

I am unable to to locate the source of this error. I deleted the whole ~/.ssh/* directory and infact any argument after ssh is throwing error. If I tried ssh [email protected] i.e. without any arguments starting with - then it asks for password, but after it doesnot connect and keeps asking for the password repetatively.