Here are two letters I have come across again and again through various forwarded emails. I thought I might as well save them here. They are definitely worth reading!
The Ultimate Rejection Letter
Herbert A. Millington
Chair – Search Committee
412A Clarkson Hall, Whitson University
College Hill, MA 34109
Dear Professor Millington,
Thank you for your letter of March 16. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me an assistant professor position in your department.
This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of candidates, it is impossible for me to accept all refusals.
Despite Whitson’s outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at this time. Therefore, I will assume the position of assistant professor in your department this August. I look forward to seeing you then.
Best of luck in rejecting future applicants.
Sincerely,
Chris L. Jensen
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Okhil Chandra Sen wrote this letter to the Sahibganj divisional railway office in 1909. It is on display at the Railway Museum in New Delhi. It was also reproduced under the caption “Travellers’ Tales” in the Far Eastern Economic Review. You can check up from WIKIPEDIA too.
“I arrive by passenger train in Ahmedpur station and my belly is too much swelling with jackfruit. I therefore went to a toilet. Just I was doing that nuisance that guard makes a whistle blow for the train to go off and I am running with ‘lotah’ in one hand and ‘dhoti’ in the next when I fall over and expose all my shocking to men and women on plateform. I am leaved by the train at Ahmedpur station.
This is too much bad, if passenger go to make dung that dam guard cannot wait train for five minutes for him. I therefore pray your honour to make big fine on that guard for public sake. Otherwise I am making big reports in the papers.
Yours faithful servant,
OKHIL CH. SEN”
Any guesses why this letter was of historic value?
It apparently led to the introduction of toilets on trains.
In the first 55 years of operation of the Indian Railways, there were no toilets in trains. On July 2, 1909, an aggrieved Babu Okhil Chandra Sen lodged a complaint to the then Transportation Superintendent, Sahibganj. After this, the railway authorities had no other option but to introduce toilets in all lower class carriages in trains running more than 50 miles at that time. Okhil wrote this letter in his anguish. Though the letter certainly lacked the basic English grammar but it really became an important document in the history of Indian railway.
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