An Unfinished Story
Every human being in this world is a tale left halfway. As an individual seems to be near his destination, he is suddenly taken away. Our final destination is the Hereafter, not this world.
Mr P.N. Pathak joined the Hindustan Times staff as an ordinary worker in 1958 and, owing to his devotion and dedication to work, finally succeeded in securing the high post of Deputy Superintendent of its composing department. His early death due to heart failure at the age of fifty on December 27, 1984, brought his career to an untimely end. On this sad occasion, the note in the newspaper said, quite simply, “He rose to the present position by sheer hard work.” (Hindustan Times, December 28, 1984)
After completing his education in Allahabad, Mr Pathak worked with the Times of India and Indian Express; then, he joined the staff of the Hindustan Times, where he found the atmosphere conducive to dedicated work. It involved a long and laborious struggle of 25 years to reach this high post, but death cut his career short before he had time to enjoy the fruits of his labour.
Man’s fate does, indeed, seem tragic and ironic. He works hard in this world to achieve some goal, but he has hardly been able to have reaped the fruits of his labours when he is removed from the scene.
How distressing is this end of life? However, no one stops to give it a thought. Instead, everyone sets himself to repeating the same story as his predecessor. Moreover, how many of these stories reach a happy conclusion? There is no human being whose life story ever quite reaches completion. However, no one seems to be concerned about discovering the reason. No one appears keen enough to find the path that will lead him to complete his story successfully.
Every human being in this world is a tale left halfway. As one seems to be near one’s destination, one is suddenly taken away. It is as if life were without a destination. Stranger still is the negligence of man towards the gravest of realities.
However, this is only a temporal way of looking at things. We have these feelings because we think of our final destination as being in this world, not the Hereafter. It is only when, with the help of God, we change this attitude that we understand that completion, fulfilment, and happiness belong to the next life and not to this.
