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.
@Asad
I understand the problem that you might be facing. Some people just can’t think positively. They see evil in everything. A shrink is what they need to get over this syndrome.
ATP was not a personal blog of Adil or Owais FYI. It was an open platform. Otherwise, it would not have developed an immense following. And it was mostly Owais who created interest in people with his amazing, fact-filled blogs on Pakistan and its inhabitants. And there were dozens of other writers on this blog who garnered much readers’ attention.
Mr. Adil and Mr. Owais, if you like to shut down this venture. Do it. But at least give a thought to what the majority of ATP readers are saying. And if you do decide to hand it over to other guys, give it to those with an immaculate reputation and standing so as to shut the mouths of those who are from the ‘fitna’ crowd and are quick to hurl accusations at others.
Dear Messrs Najam, Mughal and all the contributors to ATP. Thank you all for the the last five years: you have given us much food for thought, and interesting insights on a wide range of ideas and issues that impact us in today’s world. Godspeed and Good Luck!
Dr.Adil and Owais,
Thank you very much for what you’ve been doing for the the last 5 yrs. ATP has been part of my daily routine for the last few yrs and now I will miss that.
Dear Adil Najam: It was one of the most insightful blogs that you ran for 5 years. I hope you come back soon after you settle i Pakistan with some equally good or better blog. It was a true Pakistani blog with fresh ideas and at time it touched some areas which have not been explored a lot in our traditional discussion blogs.
Pakistan will be entering decisive phase in 2012 ( with next elections getting close) so I will like to see you back with blogs and share your thoughts with us.
I read this post and wanted to make a quick comment in the passing. Almost did that but then stopped myself with the question would that be it. A quick comment for the end of a blog that became such a significant part of my life? A blog that on some days would be the highlight of my day for five years. A blog that brought out so many shades of Pakistaniat. And occasionally even brought out unknown Indian perspectives on Pakistan as well in such an unintentional way. Sridhar, a true ambassador of India, stayed with us through thick and thin and I enjoyed his comments. I would come here and read just a couple of quoted lines from Ahmed2 “hum to samjhe they key ik zakhm hey bhar jaaye gaa – kia khabar thi key rag-e-jaan mein uttar jaaye gaa..” and go back smiling. MQ, Mast Qalandar, what can I say about you except for what you very recently quoted from the great Mian Mohammad Bakhsh “baagh bahaaran’n tey gulzaraan bin yaara’n kis kaari!” A kid who through the course of this blog went through his grad school and started making very sensible comments. Yes it was you Eidee Man. It was interesting on some days to read watan-e-aziz’ manic comments, his obsession with Iqbal’s supremacy over Faiz and his ruthless criticism of Adil. On those days I wondered if anything was worth it to carry on this blog. Fine Pakistanis like Samdani, Ayesha, Furrakh who stayed here all along albeit often without commenting. And then those who came with a bang, left with a whimper and never came back.
I still remember how Owais in the early days started a blog with Vital Signs’ great song ye shaam and wrote about the charm of drinking tea. These years would not have been possible without Owais Mughal. I had hoped that one day I will get a call from him that he is passing through my town and wants to stop by my place. I will still keep that hope alive.
Adil, anything I write and everything that has been written about you here is a cliché. But then of course clichés are a truth of life. “tu sub daa saanjha ranjhnaa tu jaawein kedhey raah – tera aashaq kull jahan aey terey aashaq ikk na do.”
Yes I feel terrible. The feeling is that of when you see off someone at the airport or a rail station knowing that this will be a long while until you meet again – if ever. But I think this is the right decision. For your own sake specifically. God’s blessings in all you do.