Alternative Perspective is 4-Year Old

I guess in this ever-shifting world - and a somewhat not-so-routine personal life - to sustain an effort for 4 years, does call for taking a note...

I just realised that today (Sept 23rd) happens to be the 4th anniversary of the Alternative Perspective... And so, please allow me to reminiscence a bit...

Though, Alternative Perspective is now a blog, but it had actually started as a weekly (and sometime fortnightly) "Newsletter" in Sept 2002; each issue came with 5-6 items, and posted to the Alternative Perspective yahoogroup...
The past issues of the Newsletter are archived here

However, 2 years and 50 issues later (the 50th issue came on its 2nd anniversary - Sept 23rd, 2004), I started finding that 'creating' an issue of the Newsletter was becoming a drag. Besides taking time, it was also not allowing me to synthesize my own understanding of issues. In the last few issues of the AltP Newsletter I tried to do that by making them 'theme-based', but it was not very satisfying....

...After all, the raisen daitre of Alternative Perspective was my attempt (and need) to understand and make sense of social/political/economic issues. Even before starting the AltP Newsletter, I had started keying some articles (as an attempt to 'sense-making' of a turbulent chaotic world) on my website, e.g.,

...how it all began

Anatomy of Collateral Damage

Why You Can't Buy Mauritanian Camel Cheese in Europe
etc.

Meanwhile blogs were becoming common, and I had already created this blog in March 2003. So, the Newsletter merged with the blog, and AlternativePerspective became a blog (it is still connected to the yahoogroup, and each posting gets posted to its 400-odd members.

Personally, this 4-year old venture has been quite a learning and growing-up experience for me, and it has remained one central and unifying personal platform (or graffitti board;0).

The fact that there is also a readership has made it worthwhile and made this into something more than just solipsistic musings. So thanks to you all, who read these scribblings, visit the blog, leave comments, get connected, share insights and stories...

In the meanwhile, life has moved on, and my interests have also widened... The latest love-affair is with Social Entrepreneurship (and therefore, a new course & a new parallel blog;)...