Sojourn to MIT

A couple of months ago, I had popped the idea of a new blog to focus exclusively on real estate. The response had been mixed, some of you felt that it would just dilute my writing efforts. A point well taken, and that idea had been consigned to the cold storage for some time. However, the time has now come to dust it off and also to reveal the original inspiration behind.

Many of my friends and many of you will wonder whether I have not had my fill of classrooms yet, but I am off to do yet another degree. Atleast, that's the plan, if the powers-that-be at assorted banks and the US Consulate smile on me.

The institution of choice is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Boston, the school is the Center for Real Estate and the program is the 11 month long Master of Science in Real Estate Development.

The plan is to get an in-depth understanding of the real estate industry in a more mature industry setting, the US real estate industry being the biggest and most developed in the world. MIT's CRE, since its inception 25 years ago, sort of wrote the book on management education in the real estate industry. Next would be working for two or three years in the US, partly to experience how a more established industry works, especially in terms of crucial areas like fund raising and strategy planning, and partly to take care of that huge hole in my pocket drilled by the costs of the program. The eventual plan is to come back to India and set my a real estate development venture (the long-awaited shift from employee to employer), based out of my favorite city, of course!

The first reaction of many fans and blog readers was whether this means a temporary or permanent demise for Trivandrum Rising. Not a chance! Obviously, the frequency of posts could decline and the percentage of on-the-ground content would also come down, but this blog will continue to talk about Trivandrum's development, even when few others do. Together we will continue to chronicle and discuss the pros and cons, what happened and what didn't and share our aspirations for our wonderful city!

49 days and counting!