:-P ???

I see that these days smileys are being used a lot. U have smileys on all social networking sites, on ur fone and on all instant messengers .. for those who don’t know abt smileys (well, if u don’t know abt smileys, then how the hell did u come across this blog??); they are just used to convey the mood of the conversation. For example:

I slept with your girlfriend .. :) means yeah, I slept with your girlfriend and she was quite good.

I slept with your girlfriend .. ;-) means .. I am just kidding .. I didn’t sleep with your gf.

I slept with your girlfriend .. L means .. I feel guilty abt sleeping with her .. (and of course, abt betraying you)

I slept with your girlfriend .. :-D means .. I slept with your girlfriend and it was pbly best thing in the world cuz I can’t wipe the grin off my face.

I slept with your girlfriend .. :-* means .. I slept with your girlfriend and now I want to sleep with you too..

I slept with your girlfriend .. :-o means .. Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! Guess who slept with your girlfriend ??

I slept with your girlfriend :-X means I slept with her and it’s the worst thing that could happen to me (even worse than betraying you)

I slept with you girlfriend .. 8-) means we did it on a hot, sunny afternoon.

I slept with your girlfriend .. :-$ .. means she did stuff that I have seen only in movies ..

I slept with your girlfriend ..

<`/3 .. means she said that I sucked (no double meaning intended here)

I slept with your girlfriend .. <3 means .. u can say goodbye to her .. she is with me now (u useless fellow!)

So .. u get the drift .. now I have always been a cyber-freak .. no .. not freak .. err .. cyber-normal guy .. for as long as I can remember .. I have been to internet cafes and paid 50 bucks an hour and I have sat in the cafes for hours. So you can say that by internet aging standards .. I am quite old.. :( .. (see how I used the smiley? .. subtle .. huh ?? ;) .. Whoa! Again .. :-D .. ok this could go on for a while) .. enough abt me. What I wanted to say was, off late there is this new smiley that everyone is using which is à :P. Now .. in all my experience I have never come across this smiley. I have never noticed it on yahoo messenger (yes, this was the most popular thing before Facebook arrived) and I must have chatted with over a 1000 different people my entire life (I have been that jobless and needless to say .. I still am).. and no one has ever used it to me. Ok .. for others who are as dense as I am “:P” is a person sticking out his tongue .. or the American equivalent of “Kaaaaa thu .. ” ..

What is intriguing is that people these days are using it casually in every other sentence. So .. technically (or rather not?) .. if this was taken literally i.e people spitting; half of internet would be drenched in saliva. I was able to figure out the smileys mentioned above (see? .. I gave examples n stuff, I would get full marks for that answer.. ha! ha!) .. but I am still not able to figure out the meaning of :P ..

these were the various instances in which ppl told me that smiley ..

lemme know!!!! :P

i dint get an iphone :P

just like that only! :-P

lol!!! Good Joke.. :-P

I am comin to ur house tomo :P .. etc ..

Mind you .. these are actually taken from my chats (thank facebook for that ..) and I still cannot figure out its meaning .. or its context. I have thought long and hard about it and I cannot think of any social situation where a normal person (in this case, me) would be required to stick out his tongue. May be you the general public (Am I being too optimistic here ?) who read my blog could help me out .. :P .. or did I just use it rightly now ??