It was beautiful.
Having come in from PTH, I was used to writing long notes, and some of my posts spanned three or four pages, AND THEY WERE READ! Accurately, meticulously, intelligently read. What I got in terms of response was awesome; there were other Pakistani fora that were slightly ahead in terms of individual intellectual power, but this offered a range and a breadth of opinion that just blew away the few of us who were participating from India.
There was no lack of patriotic zeal, but there was always an innate courtesy, that has become associated in my mind with the properly educated Pakistani, who, even under pressure, manages to clothe his thoughts in elegant form. I have no idea where they went; only a handful are left. Many have changed names, and done that so often that it is difficult to spot them as the same people.
Then came the deluge. That was probably 2012 onwards, maybe a year earlier, and the Internet Hindu was born and came charging in. PDF never recovered; even though there came a phase of harsher supervision, and Pakistani reaction to the muck that was floating around, and even though many middle-of-the-road Indian members left, the other side of this dismal development has stayed on. Instead of the khaki chaddi, the green chaddi holds sway, and without much rebuke or disciplining.
Life goes on.
).
