22-year-old Vidhya wants to be the first person in her family to have a government job. The physics graduate grew up watching her family doing odd jobs to make a living and, early on, she decided that she would get a stable government job and support her parents and four siblings.
Vidhya came painfully close to achieving that dream only to have her efforts thwarted by a delayed letter delivery.
On March 12, the Ooty Collector’s office dispatched a letter to Vidhya asking her to come for an in-person interview for a job at the survey department, at 10.30 am on March 16. For some reason, the letter was sent as a normal post, and not as a speed post. However it did reach the Mettupalayam Head Post Office on March 14.
But it was only at 1.40pm on March 16 – hours after her interview appointment – that Vidhya received the letter. This despite the fact that she lives barely a few kilometres away from the post office.
A dejected Vidhya is in tears.
“What can I do? It’s all over. What more is there to talk about? I have to apply again, no other go,” she says.
“It was for one vacancy. I was confident, this was my childhood dream. My interest is in survey and field work. I was working at the municipal office to gain more survey experience. I thought once I enter the department, I can write and pass more departmental exams and come up in life. I want to become a government surveyor,” she says.
When Vidhya approached the postal department, they asked her submit a written complaint on which they would take appropriate action. Despite multiple attempts, TNM could not reach the postal department.
Vidhya’s father Somasundaram sells utensils from his two wheeler and supported her education up to the undergraduate level. She has a bachelors in physics and hopes to write the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission exam soon.
An unrelenting Vidhya says, “I quit my job and I am going to prepare for TNPSC. I will ensure that I get a government job.”