My tenure on the project is coming to an end and I am so nostalgic. Richard came to say bye today. I felt so good to see him. And then Calin’s email – almost made my eyes moist. I am such a sucker for dramatic bye byes. This is my eighth roll off in six year of consulting. I like my projects, short and sweet and crisp.

I jump in the middle of projects, make my space; make some friends, deliver quality work, have a good time and then I move on. No offense, but I don’t think it is consulting if you are on the same project for over two years. It is convenient, but it is not consulting. And depending on your phase in life, convenience trumps career.

All projects are special, but this one was unique in a challenging way. It definitely had a good mix of interesting personality types and I played many roles dealing with them. I was exposed to varied management styles, a diverse set of male egos and a plethora of attitude from people with no substance. But I also found a lot of warmth, a lot of desi flavor and a lot of people who had confidence in my abilities. I made some good friends, may be some foes too. I delivered a bunch of projects and all of them in high quality and integrity. In a nutshell this project was an ensemble of everything good, bad and ugly.

Personally and emotionally, this project was a challenge. I had just returned from India, and right when I needed the warmth of a home to make me feel normal, I was thrown into a fancy hotel room full of silence and loneliness. I had no reason to go back to the room, but to sleep. And sleep meant nightmares and vivid dreams of losing my father over and over again. I stopped working out because of the long hours and the stress was at times unbearable. Health went downhill and social interactions were at an all time low. Cooking, photography and writing took a back seat. It was all quite rough until very recently, when the schedule started to open up and I came back to life.

This project will always be special since it was my first at Deloitte. I will always look back at these seven months as days of struggle, jubilations and lots of learning. In consulting the most precious thing you learn – is how to deal with people. And I learnt a lot of that on GDSP !

By the way – did I tell you I am writing chapters of a book these days? Lofty dreams, but at the least, the book has a name.