Well, I tried lot not to answer this but having spent over 3 years of my professional life in Accenture, this question deserves an answer.

1. To start with, When i joined way back in 2009, I was thrilled at the idea of starting my career at multinational firm like Accenture that has enormous global footprint. It's much later i realized an average employee working in Accenture, DCN for Tech (that's how they call the technology wing) gets zilch from the so called global footprint in terms of global exposure. I 'll later explain why.

2. Accenture, the name that it has made in global business in largely because of the Consulting work they do. Honestly, if one were to assess Accenture purely on the technical stuff they do here in India, they would rated very lowly. In Consulting, they handpick people and the work force is in few hundreds. Go to a technology office, you 'll see 10,000 people working in a single 8 storeyed building. Accenture, technology in India employs roughly 70,000 people. The number is phenomenal but one can't expect exclusivity when you are one among 70,000. Most of engineering graduates in India are hired for this division. I have seen Accenture employees eating paan masala and spitting on stairs, chewing tobacco (Khaini) during work hours in office, smelling foul to name a few. You 'll surely not see this in consulting work force.

3. Accenture as a firm is headquartered in Ireland (It was in Bermuda when i joined) but largely believed to be an American firm as it's parent company, Arthur Anderson was American. However, Accenture in India is NOTHING like any American or for that matter any firm where respect of individual is regarded supreme. Managers here, run this apparently American firm in quintessential Indian manner. They don't request you to do work, they order it. They don't care if you have a personal life, if you are in best of health and emotional well being or not - all they are concerned about is deliverable. Accenture looses very good people because of their managers. Unfortunately, a big chunk of freshers joining in India are wiling to do anything to be in good books of managers. All it takes for a fresher to work overnight is Pizza from Domino's. Sadly, We sell ourselves quite cheaply.

4. HR policies exist just to show up to magazines like forbes etc. that 'We are compliant to benchmark laid out by school of morality for welfare of employees'.
   a. I have seen a manager harassing a female colleague incessantly for weeks, on pretext of asking for tea/lunch etc. She complained to HR. He could and should have been thrown out of Company. Instead he was just asked to work from different office. This is just tip of it.
   b. I have seen a Team Lead resign from Accenture citing another offer and withdraw when HR assures of hiring his wife as a TL.
   c. I have seen an employee requesting his manager roll off from his project so that he can join another project (in a bandwidth of 2 months) which was willing to send him to UK. This employee had his father suffering from Cancer which was in a quite awful stage at that time. His finances were in a mess. UK project was a silver lining for him. Meanwhile he 'd cleared technical interview for that project & they 'd asked for final release date from current project. He asked his manager for release, he refused. He cited his father's health and need for money. The esteemed Accenture manager replied ' Many people die in Africa daily, world doesn't stop. Nothing 'll stop in your case too'. He quit soon after that.

Accenture managers constantly disregard the core values - Respect for Individual is non existent. At times i wondered if it is disrespect for individual.
It's a company whose manager's have scant regard for someone's personal life. Disagree with them and they will treat you like dirt. The scale of atrocity i should say numbs moral outrage.

1. As far as things like GPTW, outings to resort and activities like rangoli, singing/dacing competition , lunch/dinner at Taj etc seem appropriate when peace of mind exists. When there is little regard for your concern from organization for whom one stays awake all night for night shifts, production issues etc, it all seems plain nonsense.

2. In terms of work, it's purely project dependent. The project for which i got to work expected me to work on development from day1. I learnt a lot at Accenture, technically. While many projects take freshers and make them do regular copy paste kind of work in ms excel.

I can practically go on writing a 3 page essay about culture & people at Accenture. I repeat, Accenture is a wonderful firm only if you work for it, outside India. In India, it's right similar to any other Indian firm. Looking back, I define my term in Accenture as 'Overstay'. I met few wonderful people there,made few friends for life but professionally,Accenture was cold. It's not a place where i would like to go back - Thanks to the people with whom i worked.
Not to dishearten a fresher who is about to start his professional life, weigh all the options you have in your hand before joining Accenture. It would be sad if one of you would be writing similar stuff 3 years later.