Break in History

Break in History Among the rules of government service in some countries there is one—that if a government employee doesn’t take approved leave and is absent from office, the government has the right to treat his case as one of ‘break in service’. ‘Break in service’ means that the employee will lose his seniority. In terms of employees’ rights, he may even go back to where he was on the very first day that he joined his job. He may lose the chances of promotion that his previous period of service might have entitled him to. A ‘break in service’ is a break in an employee’s employment status. This same thing actually applies, on a much bigger scale, to every single individual—in what can be called a person’s ‘break in history’. With death, every person will experience his own personal ‘break in history’. His entire personal history, which he has so carefully spent his life trying to build, will, when death strikes him, suddenly be wiped off. And then, he will be rendered ‘history-less’, as it were. In this world, every person stands on the foundation of the personal history that he has built for himself. Over the years, he avails of many different opportunities that come his way, through which he makes his life. Money and properties, family and friends, power and fame—such things gather around him, and with these he constructs a history for himself. It is through his history that his character and individuality are built. Through it he knows himself and others know him. This is the case with all of us. Every person is constantly