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.
I have been following Adil Najam’s spectacular career since he was a student at UET, then going on to do a very nice series of shows on PTV and then a really metoric career as an academic in USA. I myself went to study in teh US a few years after him and I was amazed at how anyone who knew him had such good words to describe him. I ran into an MIT professor at a conference a few years ago who on learning I was a Paksitani asked if I knew Adil Najam, when I said I did by name, he went on a amazing speech of praise which included one mention that Adil was probably the most smartest student ever to have been in his class. This was over a dinner conversation at a conference and I must say I felt like being 10 feet tall with pride as a Pakistani to know of just how this fellow Pakistani was being praised by someone who had no reason to do so. A few years ago I ran into someone else, another American, (now a professor herself) who said she had been a student of Adil Najam in a class on environment and she went on same way and mentioned how he was the most loved and respected professor of all, even though he was also a tough one. And now I read the outpouring of priase for him here. IT feels so good. Anyone who sees his resume and lists of accomplishments would be in awe of him, but what I find most special is how much he is loved by those around him for just being a good human being. I think that is more important than all the awards and books and everything.
Dear ATP, I have been so sad for the last weeks and keep coming back here to see if you change your deision. Yesterday I saw on TV news the news about Adil Najam becoming VC of LUMS. Wow. I did not know he was such a big international scholar with so many academic awards. When I heard the details of his achievements on the news I smiled because I always thought he was just a blogger but a really good one. Now I realize this is a international intellectual with great achievements and he was sharing his thoughts with us every day. Makes me even more proud of him but I also understand the decision to close ATP now.
Thank you and best wishes. Feel proud to be a Pakistani when I see other Pakistanis liek you doong so much in their life and so much for Pakistan.
I am already missing ATP so much that it hurts. I took your advice and tried to look for other blogs, but really there is nothing like this. This was unique and you have created something great. But, frankly, I do understand your decision and I think it is the right one. I think with this decision itself (to leave at the top and with so much good wishes) is not something that too many Pakistanis ever do and so you are setting a new trend right there.
Even more than that you have inspired so many by your decision to return. I wish you well but I should warn you that there will be many cynics in Pakistan who will try to pull you down. We can sometimes be nasty to each other and instead of honoing our heros you will find that people will try to bring you down. That is what small people do, they cannot rise themselves to they attack anyone who achieves anything because that validates for them their own lack of achievement. Please ignore such people because we really need more Pakistanis like you. Thank you for your Pakistaniat, Dr. Najam.
Dear Dr. Adil Najam.
You are a national inspiration.
There are countless people who you have left deep impressions on with your humility, courage and wisdom. I have had the occasion of hearing you give a keynote speech to an audience of nearly 300 and you were the most inspiring speaker. You came across as someone who is genuinely concerned and immensely knowledgable about Pakistan and that is reflected in this site but even more in your decision to return to Pakistan.
Sir, Congratulations on your appointment as the VC LUMS