In this talk, we discuss the existing limitations of upstream MLIR for representing generic programming languages and propose solutions to address some of these issues. As part of our proposed solutions, we will discuss the potential modularization of the LLVM dialect. We also present the status of the recently upstreamed ptr dialect as a first step in the modularization of LLVM and the lessons learned from this ongoing upstreaming process. Finally, we discuss the road ahead for making MLIR more attractive for compiler developers for programming languages, like finally standardizing the C/C++ calling convention on MLIR.