A Good Bye note to my former employer

This was published in the newsletter at my previous project. IT is finally over for me, and I move forward to something a bit more taxing on the brains and a little less on the nerves.


There is a little thorn stuck in my heart as I am writing this. Later when I am done, it goes as an email and then into the document you are reading this from. In this slightly dizzying journey, are words that are traveling from one form to another. I hope the journey is worthwhile, if by the end of it, you feel something pricking on your heart.

Three years ago, in the sprawling banquet hall of Gold Finch Hotel, I started my journey of a career. A career in the IT industry with one of the big players in the market. At that time, Accenture was a little known name outside of the IT circle. I had to convince my parents and their friends that I am taking the right choice when I had two more offers from well known indigenous IT companies. Right now, three years down that line, when i tell people that I am working with Accenture, I see that glint of awareness in people's eyes. People over 50 who works as Chartered Accountants and Hospital nurses in remote corners of Kerala know that there is a pretty big company that goes by the name Accenture; and I am proud to be associated with that name.

The journey from a recluse college goer to an IT professional is something that scares you at first. Then when you join the company you think it is going to be like college; except that you get money at the end of every month. Not a bad prospect. But incomprehensibly, there is this change that happens inside us. Till the end of our college, we are with people who we like. Studying is a personal task. You don't really need the help of anyone else to achieve good marks in examinations. But that changes when you are working. You realise that the work you do is a small but significant part of a large enterprise. Here you learn how a team of people from diverse backgrounds and ethnicity gel together to achieve things that you are incapable of doing yourself. Here, you learn true team spirit.

"Where there are people, there is politics," said a disenchanted friend of mine once. Close to 7 months into the project, I told my friend that his theory wasn't always true. ACG as a project is the best thing to happen in my time with Accenture. I found people who are passionate about work and passionate about people. I have heard people saying ACG is a great project to work in. I brace myself as I go into the same cliche; ACG, without doubt, is an absolute dream of a project with people who you actually love to work with.

I have gone around telling people that I will like anything which has a soul in it. Even the worst movies, if it was made with a genuine soul, a genuine non-monetory intent, will appeal to me. Likewise I try to find a soul in every person I meet; one single identifiable entity that encompasses who they are. If they are true to themselves, their intent is good. Outside they might not be the most capable in their work, but inside you can see their will burning bright. ACG is filled with people with will and courage to get the work done in the best way possible.

It was this bright beacon from a person I look up to a lot, that started this newsletter. From an idea that might have been just instantaneous, this newsletter began taking a physical form. The contributions and discussions and execution of every month of the newsletter was something I cherished a lot. To be honest, it is here that I actually gained the confidence in writing. Here, within this frame of THIS pdf, are words. Words that are put together after countless hours of thoughts and rework. Words that convey a message, words that has an intent, a soul. If you don't read it, you are missing something. Heck, forget this newsletter, every word that you see anywhere, from shampoo bottles to encyclopedias, conveys a message. It has an intent. It is trying to get an idea into your head. A wise man once said, a word read is a penny earned.

Having been part of the newsletter team from its conception, it is with trembling fingers that I write these last few words. After this, my words are not going to find a place in this newsletter. Am I the one who is forsaking it, or is it the reverse? Either way, the apparent end is an uneasy one. The end of all journeys is the beginning of another one. Likewise, when my journey with this newsletter, with ACG and with Accenture ends, I am embarking on something new. I will be a happy person, if through this journey with Accenture, I have left some footprints behind that others can follow.

The thorn in my heart is off now, but a slightly irritating pain remains. A wound that will never really heal completely. We tend to forget it as we move along in life. But touch that spot sometime, and it will bring back the same nagging pain. A pain so subtle, you enjoy it. The pain of the happy times I have spent here, in your company, that is slowly going out of my grasp.