#BuildingonBelief | my journey

Dec 12th is one of the most celebrated days in India, particularly South India as it is the birthday of Superstar Rajinikanth, that day in 2002 is special for me as that marks my plunge into the corporate world taking baby steps with TATA Consultancy Services in Chennai.

It has been almost two decades since I started this journey of 'building on belief' powered by TCS, that I can

- Code | After my engineering entrance examination, the idea for choosing mechanical engineering stemmed from two themes - I wanted to be able to see how things worked and I didn't want a desk job glued to a computer. A couple of months into TCS' accelerated initial learning program and mainframe training, I was in awe of what the green screens were capable of doing and technology at large. It opened a fresh outlook on embracing technology and learning coding.

- Lead Teams | The initial days in a retail account provided me the exposure to work in teams and when an opportunity to lead a new team in an emerging technology stack came into being, my supervisors believed more in my ability to lead teams and guided me all along the way. It was a privilege and honor to lead a new team in the business intelligence area, the learning was immense.?

- Be Successful in a Foreign Land | An urgent coffee meeting called up by my manager in the USA, led to me taking up an assignment in a beautiful country known as Uruguay with a week's lead time. Being my first time in a non-English speaking country and with no understanding of Spanish, I did struggle initially to find a foothold, again it was the belief of the leadership in Uruguay which extended the stay from 6 months to almost 2 years with quite a learning in leading and setting up operations from scratch for an account.

- Move to a role where my Purpose & Passion meets my Profession | It is not easy for a lateral move from a business facing role to a Corporate Social Responsibility Role, again the process of unlearning was easily said than done, as usually we get wired to how we operate in an ecosystem. It was again the belief of my supervisors and colleagues that we could set up to create purpose-led partnerships through Business with Purpose with our like-minded customers.?I would like to thank all purpose-driven leaders who have helped us chisel the Business with Purpose movement forward.

Looking back, I strongly feel it was not me but TCS as an organization to be complimented for "building on the belief" that all of the associates across the globe are pivotal to the success of the organization, customers, and communities we serve!

These reciprocal building blocks of belief helped me to be purpose-driven in my current role to create equity and access by empowering people and communities across the areas of Adult Literacy, Education, Skilling, Youth Employment, and Rural Entrepreneurship by enabling the #TCSEmpowers Digital platform. If you are purpose-driven and have the heart to contribute with your skills we can connect to see how we can partner towards making generational improvements in communities where there is a need.

I am grateful to TCS, my mentors, my team, and my supervisors for having provided me the opportunity and for the belief in me all these years. It is always energizing to play a small part in a large purpose-driven organization like TCS.

Wishing you all a "Healthy and Purpose Driven" 2022.