Of days when there wasn’t much ado about job letters
Government job appointments are a news these days. Chief ministers, ministers and even the Prime Minister have presented appointment letters to candidates on specially organised events. It must be a great occasion for the incumbents to receive their employment invites directly from the hands of their superiors and more so to the government to highlight their public achievements.
But back in the second half of the last century, it was a no-fuss affair and the recruitments were done in a routine manner with no one becoming any wiser about them. Soon after my school, my father applied for me a job in the high court of the state. I came to know of it when I was asked to go with him to Chandigarh to take the written test. I sat for the test along with some 400 other aspirants.
After due course of time the result came out and I was selected for the job. The selection letter came by ordinary mail but had an interesting rider. Since I was not 17 yet (that was the minimum age for jobs in those days), they wrote that when I entered into the 18th year, they would send a joining letter. We had no reason to disbelieve people then, least of all the promise that the state makes. As expected, I received a new appointment letter, again by ordinary mail, just three days into my 18th year; and by the end of the week, I was seated into an office chair in the state high court without any news to anyone.
This is how appointments were made in the government, without any news coverage in those days. In the subsequent years, I shifted jobs and state departments in search of better employment opportunities and on most occasions even my family members didn’t come to know of my relocation.
The most astonishing appointment letter that I received in later years was the one from a Christian college which was known in those days for its American teachers, and where I had applied for the job of a lecturer. A few days after the interview, my family received a long telegram. Telegrams in those days were sent mainly when there was either a life-threatening emergency or urgency of action. My mother received the envelope with nervous hands and passed it on to me. When I opened it, I found a page-long telegram of my appointment letter with long notes about the terms and conditions of the job. Until then, even I had not imagined that appointment letters could be sent via a telegram as they were expensive and people generally were frugal in their spending.
How times have changed. With print, visual and social media occupying a central role in people’s lives and information becoming a market commodity, everything must pass through these channels to get recognition.
I RECEIVED A NEW APPOINTMENT LETTER, AGAIN BY ORDINARY MAIL, JUST THREE DAYS INTO MY 18TH YEAR; AND BY THE END OF THE WEEK, I WAS SEATED INTO AN OFFICE CHAIR IN THE STATE HIGH COURT WITHOUT ANY NEWS TO ANYONE