Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who recently acquired the social media platform “Twitter”, expressed his wish to make Twitter a public town square where opinions and ideas are freely expressed, within the bounds of the law. Many proponents of free speech were delighted, while those who favoured a more regulated expression on the platform were dismayed.
Like Twitter, “The Missing Link” advocates free speech and free expression excluding hate speech and offensive language. It facilitates sharing unique experiences, interesting perspectives and unconventional ideas garnered through the diverse experiences and paths travelled after our time at Karunya.
Unlike Twitter, “The Missing Link” is as Seth Godin describes in his book “Tribes”, a particular group of people – alumni from Karunya as early as the 1990s and as recent as 2021 – sharing a portion of their lives with one another and the world at large.
July is the month we fondly celebrate the birthday of our late Founder, Dr. DGS Dinakaran who invested a great deal of energy and resources to found Karunya, in accordance with divine instructions he received in a vision. Many, even close friends at that time, felt that he should have founded a theological seminary instead. I distinctly remember conversing with one of those early doubters after more than a decade and my reply to him was that I, and many Karunyans around the world, were proof that the vision was indeed genuine. After all, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Browsing through previous issues of The Missing Link gave me glimpses of current events and activities in Karunya and also made me feel nostalgic. My mind travelled back in time to the days when I got up to attend class, stood in line to use the bathroom and had a meal together with friends at the cafeteria, all the while worrying about how I fared in the recent exam.
You’ll find in this edition a plethora of popular interests in the “Vox Populi” section and nuggets of wisdom from our alumni in domains spanning entrepreneurship, business, technology and finance. Be inspired by articles on health and fitness. Try the recipes and read the opinion columns. Be moved and reminded of the fragility of human life as we celebrate the lives of Karunyans who have passed on. Enjoy the unique artwork, some humour and even be informed by the advertisements. In short, every issue is a unique “Missing-Link experience” you can ill-afford to miss.
Don’t forget to like and share with friends and on social media the articles that impacted you most and give feedback. My hope is also that you would express yourself to enrich others by contributing an article in the upcoming issues of “The Missing Link”.
Starting with the 2022 April issue every batch shall receive a turn at managing the Missing Link magazine for a year, a total of four issues. Currently, it is the second batch’s turn. Look out for your turn, come get linked.