MIn 1842, Delhi College (now ‘Zakir Husain College’), was looking for Persian teachers and Ghalib’s name was recommended to the British Secretary, Mr. Thomason, by one of his friends who knew well how badly the poet needed funds. Ghalib was asked to meet Thomason. He arrived at the College gate in a palanquin and asked to be announced to the Sahib. He waited for the Sahib to come out and receive him at the College gate, which the latter did not, saying that Ghalib had come as a candidate for an employment interview and not as a guest. Ghalib left saying that he had thought that an academic appointment in the British Government would be a “reason for additional honour, not something in which I would lose my existing honour too”. Ghalib indicates at this incident in one of his Ghazals :
bandagi mein bhi vo azaadah-o-khudbii’n hain ki hum / ultey phir aae, dar-e-kaaba gar vaa na hua
thi khabar garm ki Ghalib ke udeinge purzey / dekhne hum bhi gaye thay, pa tamaasha na hua
Even in servitude I am so independent and self-regarding that / I turned and came back if the door of the Holy Kaaba did not open
( From Saif Mahmood s blog besabab)
https://besabab.wordpress.com/dilli-jo-ek-sheher-tha/ghalib/