Adil Najam
Today – June 11, 2011 – All Things Pakistan turns five years old!
Today, sitting in Lahore, Pakistan, I write in the realization that it is now time to move on.
This is not a ‘Good Bye’ post – it is, in fact, a ‘Thank You’ post. Nor do I want this to be a ‘looking back’ post – I would much rather that it be a ‘looking forward’ post.
For me personally, it is time to move back to Pakistan. For ATP, the blog, it is time to turn off the lights.
Five years ago we set out with the mild ambition to have a conversation with a few friends on all things Pakistan – from the profound to the trivial. What followed was a more intense, more engaged, more elaborate, and more fulfilling conversation than we could have ever imagined. Well above 10 million visits later, it is now time to move on.
But we promise that we have no intention to tune out. We know that this conversation will continue. This was never our conversation, it was yours. We intend to keep listening in. We hope you will let us do so in all the myriad forms and formats that have now become available for this exploration of our Pakistaniat – our Pakistaniness – to thrive. We have chronicled our own story and evolution in our posts (the ATP Credo, the Tangay Walla post, 1st anniversary post, 2nd anniversary post, 3rd anniversary post, who reads Pakistaniat post, 4th anniversary post) and now is not the time to repeat those arguments or even to look back.
I can say with some pride and great joy that we have had some small part in the construction of an important conversation. It has not always been an easy conversation. Our national predicaments have made it an often sad and occasionally angry conversation. But it remains a vibrant – and vital – conversation. We hope that in these five years ATP has contributed some to this conversation, and has contributed to it positively.
So, today, I write in gratitude. Thank you for your companionship. Thank you for your patience. Thank your for dropping by. Thank you for making this your own. Today, we are happy in the knowledge that the conversations we had wanted to seed are thriving. Technology has provided an array of new formats – from facebook to twitter and beyond. There is a mushrooming of blogs and formats, and we hope that in some small way we have contributed to them. We know we have thrived and found sustenance (and ideas) in this new and bold world of Pakistan’s Blogistan. We thank our blogging colleagues, our many many writers, and our even more many readers for the excitement they have added to our lives.
I realize that the timing of this will lead many of conclude that it has something to do with my own move. While the two are not unrelated, they are actually less related than you might think. It was, in fact, back in November 2010, that Owais Mughal and I had decided that we would do this on this date and in this manner. Owais had already moved to Singapore and my own professional commitments had begun to mount. We did not wish to end with a whimper nor just fade out abruptly. Five years seemed like a good innings to both of us. Let me take this moment to thank Owais for his support and companionship. More than anyone else he has made ATP possible and allowed it to last this long. Without him, it would have faded long ago. And without him it would have been not just a lonelier but also a much less interesting journey. Thank you, Owais, my friend. Thank you for everything! (As an aside, I should add that Owais and I had never met until fairly recently and for years ran this together without even having met – such is the magic in Blogistan).
Do I have regrets – yes, but too few too mention. I wish we had written fewer obituaries. I wish we had not had to talk about national angst and tragedies as much as we had to. I wish we more time to write all the posts that remain unwritten in our personal lists – more pleasant things than those that were floating in the daily headlines. Yes, I do also wish that some of our readers had been a little more kind to us and to each other in their comments – but, I also realize that we live in unkind times and the viciousness of our environs can sometimes seep into our own language and thoughts. More than anything else, I wish the unkindness of our times will become less, allowing us to be a little more considerate to each other than we sometimes seem to be.
Good byes, they say, should never be long. But this is not a good bye. So, until we meet again, dear friends, take care; khiyal rakhna.
Contrary to what others have said, I don’t think that there is a need to shut down this blog. Do newspapers stop publishing if an editor leaves the job? No, they continue. There is a set policy and editing guidelines that are followed, irrespective of the editorial staff.
And to be fair, ATP did not have a high standard of editing in the real sense. Some writers did not have a full command over grammar and composition but the posts were still published. And that was good. Because this blog is for Pakistanis and all writers were able to get their point across even if there were some grammatical mistakes. And it is disgusting to only allow the so-called highly educated grammar school types to write on this.
So, ATP should continue with a new editing team. Adil and Owais can still act as patrons. I don’t think it would be difficult to spare an hour a week for ATP.
In our country where political parties are run like personal fiefdoms, it would be a breath of fresh air if the current ATP team act as the “elders” and hand over the blog to a new team.
Happy Birthday ATP. Wish u all the success.
It’s unnerving to see the increase in violence in the country, daily we have a new issue far greater in intensity than the previous one. Let’s have a post on ways to control & curb it by asking ATP readers to suggest some practical ways of doing it.
There is a dire need of hour that we take care of our nation. It is important that we built our good relations with the allies of war against terrorism and en cash this option to defeat militancy from our soil.
I am a relatively recent visitor of this blog (1 year). Its good to hear about your coming to Pakistan but sad to see this blog go, but I truly understand. Some times ago when I shifted to Pakistan as well, I faced the same predicament between site and professional commitments. A post every 2 weeks or even a post a month seemed possible so I continued. But boy I was in for a surprise. My average post was 1 post every 6 months :-) So good and wise decision has been made for ATP. But lastly, just a request. Do either of the following:
1. Keep the site online for as long as possible as an archive. Leave a message saying it will not be updated, but keep it live. Many people searching for something can still find things here that way.
2. Allow a downloadable option of your content.
3. Better than 2, publish a book of your posts. Give preference to all the best articles (both negative and positive aspects)
You guys have really created an institution here. JUst reading the comments show what a great impact you have had, and this from a nation that is more used to back biting and finding fault with everything than ever showing appreciation. I have always loved the topics, the pictures, the diversity and the perspectives that your posts have, but really the biggest thing I have always valued is the civility and decency of this manner. How much effort you put in being civil yourself and keeping others civil.