The Keyboard And Typing

When you tap on any place where words can be written, a keyboard slides up from the bottom of the screen. This keyboard is the smallest typewriter in the world. It is also the most patient teacher. It will wait for you to find the letter, no matter how long it takes. The first time you use it, your finger will hit the wrong key three times out of five. By the end of one week, you will be hitting the right key four times out of five. By the end of one month, your thumbs will move on their own, the way your hand finds the light switch in your bedroom in the dark.

The English keyboard does not start with A B C. It starts with Q W E R T Y. This order was chosen long ago for old typewriters and the world has kept it. Do not try to fight it. Look at the layout once and remember that the most used letters, like E, R, T, A, S, are on the top and middle rows. Your right thumb mostly touches letters on the right half. Your left thumb mostly touches letters on the left half. The thumbs share the work, like two brothers carrying one sack of atta.

Adding the Urdu keyboard the first time. Open Settings. Search for Languages, or Keyboard. Tap Add Keyboard. Find Urdu in the list and tick it. From that moment, the globe icon appears on every keyboard you ever open, in WhatsApp, in Gmail, in the search bar of YouTube. You can write a poem half in English, half in Urdu, and the keyboard will not complain. The phone is comfortable with both. Pakistanis are too. The keyboard simply matches the country.

Spacebar, backspace, enter. Three keys you must know. The spacebar is the long flat key at the bottom. Press it once between words. Press it twice and many phones will put a full stop, a habit they learned from typewriters. Backspace is the arrow with a small cross, on the right. Each tap erases one letter. Press and hold to erase a whole word at one go, useful when you mistype an entire street name. Enter, also called return, sends the message in WhatsApp or jumps to a new line in a notebook app.

Speed grows by typing real things, not by drills. Today, type a message to one cousin in English. Tomorrow, type the same message in Urdu. By the end of the week, type a small list, your school timetable or the seven items your mother wants from Imtiaz, in either language. The keyboard rewards practice the way a tabla rewards practice. The first day is awkward. The thirtieth day is fluent. There is no shortcut, only repetition with the right hand position.