Mobius Strip

The conversation started innocuously enough at tea time.

“Diya, we need to take down the Christmas tree.” I am trying to get Diya engaged in house work. I have recently realized that this is my only salvation.

“I know. Are you glad I took down most of the ornaments already?” Diya had taken the initiative last weekend to start the process of undoing the Christmas tree all by herself. Yes, it is a process at our house. Starts after New Year’s and lasts till Easter!

“Yes. Thanks so much Shona. It will be much easier now.”

“Do you like the Star?” She said looking at the tree. (Diya had picked out a tree-topper , a red star, this season.)

“I love the Star. It’s the most beautiful Star.”

“I don’t like the Star.” Suvo interjected. And the sparring began.

“Why don’t you like the Star?” Diya challenged him.

“I don’t like the back of the Star.”

“What’s wrong with the back?” She was getting angry now. I winked at her to let her know he was goofing.

“I can’t see it.” Suvo continued provoking her.

“Well Baba, if you can see the front then you cannot see the back.” She tried to reason. But Suvo won’t budge.

“I don’t like it.” He maintained.

(Any other person would have just dropped the argument at this point but Diya – well Diya is Diya.)

“Baba, everything has to have a front and a back.” She continued.

“No, it doesn’t.” By now he had a plan of attack.

“Yes, it does.” She said irritably.

“A Mobius Strip does not have a back” - he volleyed. This promptly caught her attention. She is a sucker for any new concept.

“What is a Mobius Strip?”

“Go get a strip of paper and I will show you.”

The next 15-20 mins were spent creating Mobius Strips and conducting various experiments with them like drawing lines around them, cutting them along the circumference (if you can call it that) and showing that the resulting intertwined loops did not retain the properties of the Mobius Strips etc. Similar experiments were conducted by creating cylinders with strips to show the differences of concepts etc. Diya was thoroughly hooked and completely thrilled !!

“This is awesome!” she chirped, no longer annoyed with Suvo.

“So what did you learn Shona?” I wanted to seize the moment to stretch her thinking further.

“That Mobius Strip does not have a back!” She was quick to reply.

“That’s true but what is the moral of the story?” I pushed her to think at a higher level.

“That you can draw a line all around it and cannot pass the edge ….?” She said with a frown. She did not know where I was going. So I helped her along.

“What did you say, when Baba said he did not like the back of the Star?” I was trying to get her to think in terms of “unguarded generalization”, “exceptions to rules” etc. But had to do it in steps so she gets the idea.

“That everything has to have a back.”

“And what did you find?”

“Mobius Strip does not have a back…”

“So what does that tell you ….”

“That if you are a Mobius Strip you never have a problem scratching your back” - Suvo cut in. Scientific craving sated, he reverted to clowning. Diya ignored him, since now her attention was zeroed in on me. She sensed another discovery.

“Hmm…”

“That you generally cannot make a statement about ‘everything’. Because there might be things that don’t fit the rule.” Eyes wide, she quietly digested this.

“Nipatan-e Shiddho!” Suvo blurted in Bengali.

“Exception proves the rule!” I translated.

By now we had turned tea time into a triple whammy learning session combining Mathematics, Abstract thinking and Language into one.

“I get it …” Diya endured. I could see the little gears in her head turning full speed and another thought entered my mind.

“May be there is another ‘moral of the story’. This one is for us.” I said grinning at Suvo. His buffoonery was rubbing off on me. Diya immediately caught on to the shift in tone and looked expectantly from me to him.

“May be you are a Mobius Strip” I said turning to Diya. “We keep trying to get you to follow rules and you keep finding ways to defy them !”

“Ha Ha …” she loved that one !