two plus one is ...

What time it will take to convince a person that two plus one is three?..Well that depends a lot on whom you are trying to convince.

I was at home because i had nothing to do n office and so was my 6 year old cousin.He was very happy because there was a "harthal"(this happens once in month in kerala.. you can think of it as a surprise public holiday).
Though he was in second standard,he could hardly read a full sentence either in malayalam or english.He can count up to 100, and he know alphabets.His mother was very much worried about his condition.So that day i thought i will give shot in "teaching" him.We are good friends...so when i convayed my intention he didnt run away..may be he thought it will be fun with me.

We started straight away with maths..
i gave him a simple addition problem.21 plus 12..he stared at the paper and did nothing.ah..he need my help ok..
we shall make problem simpler...i asked him..what is 2+1?
He thought a little then said twenty one!
I put 2+1 = on paper and said "see my fingers..this 1 then see two more..now that makes it three..see..."
His face was blank..i got it that he was far from convinced..
He got up and walked to his school bag,took his eraser and came back.
Then he erased the plus sign in between 2 and 1 and said "see its twenty one".Oh so he has got a point...
This brought the "tare zameen par" scene where young ishant gives examinantion .
I was puzzled by his counter argument for a moment..how to convince him that meaning of addition is not erasing the + sign?


Luckily he was interested in drawing .so took his color pencils and a half an hour demonstration with color pencils convinced him about basic principle of addition.