M OVE with the times - an age-old wisdom. But more than wisdom it is a compulsion. One cannot disobeytheall-powerfultime. Its Majesty, in all mercy and grace, can be quite dictatorial. So, when someone shouts “Come-on, you are living in the 21st century,” it sometimes strikes with a huge thud.You feelthe needtowaitandlookbackatthetimewhen everything was still not so ‘21st century’. When modernisation lashed at you like those cool waves of the sea at the beach – one soft tapatatimewiththesandbeneath  yourfeetmovingbutonlyslightly.Yourfeet got wet alright but you were still standing yourground.Thissurfingupanddowninto the sea is so tiresome. It is thrilling, of course, for the first few moments but later you do crave for the ground beneath. Technology seems like a huge ocean upon which you stand.But beneath your feet is no solid ground, not even the moving deck of a ship but a completely wobbly surf board. With technology, I may not be a very up-to-date person but I am up-till-date. So far, so good. I may not be exactly moving with the times but I am dragging myself quite well. The banes of the 21st century are innumerable but a cell phone is arguably the biggest of them all. Oh! how I long for that very 20th century single, big instrument, sitting pretty in one corner of the house withlot of dignity andpurpose.Very much unlike the cell phone of presettimes, lying anywhere likeanunrulykid’s shoe.Theold phone allowed respect for authority. The Lord of the house, the lady of the house, the kids, the maid…there was an order – who will answer the phone and how, the behavioural proprieties were followed. Unfortunately, the way kids jump on their parents’ phones these days, it feels as if they are launching a coup of sort. Thankfully, kids these days train their parents so well that parents do not feel ‘dethroned’. They had abdicated the moment they held the kid and the kid realised that he/she was in 21st century! Lapping on my cellphone the other day, my daughter informed me that the ‘emojis’ -- those many faces that you receive insteadoftextmessages thesedays --have completed 40 years of their existence. “What!” I exclaimed asking “How can they be around that long?” “Ma, you always remember that when it comes to technology, you are 20 years way too late,” my daughter quipped.“Yeah, you actually live with a ‘mummy,’”Iretorted pleasing her no end. She noted thepundowninthe cell phone for a suitable use later. My daughter went on to enlighten me about howtheemojis cameintobeingwith just two dots,adash and a bracket signs and why a need was felt to put in emojis for better understanding of messages. Withoutthe aid offacial expressions, messages did not convey the accuracy of sentiments. For example, people did notreallyrealisewhethera personattheotherend was being simple or sarcastic. So strongly havewegroomedourselvesinsayingthings betweenthelinesandderivingtheirmeanings accordingly, that when something comes like a simple sentence, we tend to read more into it. My daughter also corrected my misgiving that the word ‘emoji’ was a derivative of English word emotions!The word emoji has actually Japanese ancestry. She also explained how many emojis were gradually added and then went ahead to test my understanding ofthese. Ilostthe quiz. For long, the young lady has been trying to improve mylingovis-à-visdigitallanguage but all I have learnt is IDK. And now to know exactly which emoji conveys which emotion perfectly is a task, I tell you. I meanthemodern-dayemojisdoallow you to choose the correct amount of smile you wish to lend to a message. But I have personallyneverreallyknownhowmuchsmile is correct.One smiles asmuchasone feels. But the variety these emojis offer is so enormous that you can easily hide your trueemotionsbehindthem.ByGod’sGrace, your not-so-truthful true smiles get presented as pretty perfect smiles. Behind the facade of emojis you can hide so much of you, something that a face-to-face encounter may fail to hide. With emojis around, the world seems so amiable. In contrast, the emotions of the true world always seem so pent-up, so easily ruffled. Here,I admittechnology is wonderful and though sometime you wish a tete-e-tete, sending emojis come across as a safer option. Thelittleladycontinues tointroduceme to the world at large. The world of emojis has greatly enhanced and is continuously expanding to incorporate the variety of all oftheworld.The skincolours are available notjustinwhite,butyellowanddarkbrown. There are emojis of same sex couples and many food items that are not strictly western have found symbols. Symbolic, aren’t they?Though emojis as yet do not include the image for pani-puri to convince me thatthey can be the language ofthe world, their ‘vocabulary’ is ever-increasing. It would hardly come as a surprise to people, not at all as uninitiated as me, that there are already dictionaries available to learn emojis, there is an emojipedia and theworldevencelebratesWorldEmojiDay. And we are just 22 years into 21st century! Iadmiretheeasetechnologyhasbrought into my life. It’s just that the speed with which it hits is hard to adjust to. Call me a slow learner or a person who loves to glide ratherthan run, I take time to acquaint, to adjust, to assimilate and to adapt. I know I ought to move with the times but time also should give me a little time to let me catch my breath and sometimes even wait for me so that I glide by. So, ifIam to write to the Omnipotent Time, which emojis should I use? A sweet smileof course, thebig red heart but how should I convey that I need it to take a bit easy and that I am being dragged? There must be an emoji. Let me ask the young lady. ■