Saturday 17 March, 2007

The mobius strip personality

"Nice blog. But I am surprised you write about a wall around you...you never came across as the kind of person who had one" - Sample reaction 1
"Hehehe....finally, you acknowledge the wall. I wonder if we'll discover more....or will you construct a virtual wall here too!" - Sample reaction 2

Conversations are wonderful inspriations, and I dedicate this post to all those who took the time to read and react to my previous piece :-)

I can't claim to be surprised by the completely contradictory reactions above. For a while, I have been hearing such things from people. For a while, I have been observing myself swing from being extremely bubbly, cheerful and transparent to being the very quiet and shy "mysterious woman". I have often wondered which part of the personality is a cover up act and which is the real me - but everything seems to be a mask, over a mask, over a mask, over a.....you get the point! Both aspects are as real or as unreal as the opposite and I am thoroughly confused. So here is my latest attempt at explaining myself...to whom, I still don't know!

Imagine a strip of paper that is jet black on one side and pure white on the other. Each side is distinct - it has a definite identity and is starkly different from the other. Now give it half a twist and turn it into a ring. There are still two opposite shades and the boundary between them is still well defined. Yet, the transition from one to the other is seamless. There are no shades of gray, but both extremes seem to coexist in perfect harmony.

I am like the mobius strip. Sometimes I am the complete extrovert - human contact is my oxygen and wearing my heart on my sleeve is second nature. And then, I can shut myself off for days, I can blend into the furniture and change my middle name to diplomacy! There are no in betweens - I am always on one extreme or the other. And I am comfortable being both. There is no attempt to fake a particular trait. I don't miss the part of my personality that is not with me at that moment.

A paranoid person might name it schizophrenia, a cynic may call it lack of personality - but I like to coin it the "mobius strip persona"- it just seems so much cooler!! :D

15 comments:

Amit said...

The mobius strip has a very remarkable property. If you cut it right through the center you end up having two mobius strips intertwined with each other ...

A single mobius strip personality is perhaps manageable. Let it not split into multiples. You may be comfortable with your behavior but people around you may not be able to handle it after a while if your mood swings start multiplying ...

Shantanu said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Shantanu said...

Hi,
Completely agree and relate to the first post and this one! :) :)

If there was ever a time to "jinx" anyone, this is it! (You know, someone else says the same thing and then you "jinx" that person into keeping quiet for 5 minutes or until someone else utters his/her name).

Just doing my part to inform you that I have read them! :)

Oh...and btw...the name is "möbius" right? :) :)

Ankur (THE consultant) said...

hellooo!!! i want new posts.... :)

Elwing said...

hmmm.. gotta say tht this is a very unique way of looking at this topic... never thot of it!

i'm a bit of a chameleon myself and i love this kool explanation!

Sharmili said...

i guess everyone has a mobius strip persona... in fact i believe that is the precise reason why we have an eclectic collection of friends and relationships...

mood swings is something completely different... u be one person and in a split second go to your alter ego and as amit rightly pointed it out, people wont know how to handle you...

Unknown said...

Well, one side black and the other white ... intertwined and still completely separate ... when you are on one side you really don't miss or remember the other !! .... reminds me of a medical term called "split-personality" :)

John Coleman said...

So what would the Mobius Strip personality qualify as under Meyers-Briggs?

I think it is great that you are thinking these issues through via your blog. Almost a year ago I started posting on virtue because I needed to think the issue through and I thought my friends could help if they could read my thoughts. Hopefully you will get feedback that helps you grow, and your readers will see that they are not alone in the issues they run through in their own minds.

Dhiraj said...

m really surpised to know that u can write so well also..a side completly unknown to me.... like many oder sides of urs... can relate this post to my char also..so can understand wat u r trying to say..and the complexities involved in understand tru urself...which many say is very important ( though i dont agree)... nice attempt... keep blogging

hsgrover said...

Now that you have realised it why dont you change/add a few words in About Me. The current ones I guess market only one side of your mobius strip personality.

Unknown said...

Mobius - the more intellectual side of murphy (mobius and murphy i suppose are part of the same mobius strip - boy thats a recursive loop)! This post so reminds me of cylindrical polar coordinates - seamless and yet so non-linear. Also, I love the idea of having diplomacy as a middle name. I think i'll adopt it too given that I dont even have one.

Zishaan Hayath said...

Diary. Period. You only write for yourself.

Gurmeet said...

hello there,
just somehow came across ur blog and this wonderful article...but this mobius strip personality that u are talking about probably defines the natural human activity of switching between the moods(by this, for sure I dont mean caprice)...and as for u .. as far as I know u from these writings of urs...its a bit prolonged.. is it? :)

Atticus said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Atticus said...

i love this explanation- im a mobius strip persona too! though most people on here seem to echo that thought, i think the extent of it is not the same for everyone- a few of us seem to be really extroverted at times and somewhat introverted otherwise.

im reminded of a book on introverts that harped on abt the real defn of extrovertedness being your ability to gain energy from people, and introvertedness being gaining energy from oneself- i think we mobius strips gain energy from others and then quietly retreat into our own shell to lap it up selfishly :-)