Prisoners of Birth

I have read the book, ‘Prisoner of Birth’ by the accomplished novelist Jeffrey Archer. The story is about how a person called Danny Cartwright, is wrongly accused of killing his best friend. Sentenced to jail for 20 years, he flees from the jail and impersonates his in-mate Nick Moncrieff who was to be released soon, but got killed in the jail before his release. After fleeing from the jail he takes revenge from the real perpetrator of the crime, Spencer Craig for killing his best friend and ruining his and his fiancée’s life. It’s a really good book.


Well this was the only relevance to the tittle of what I am going to write now.


A lot of times we all have heard people saying I make my own destiny. And that the lines in the palm of my hands don’t really determine what am I going to be or what am I going to do in life. We all like to believe that we have full control over what our life is going to be, say ‘pacchis saal baad’ (DJiet’s pun intended here). we like to say that its not the when, where of our birth that matters, its what we do after being born. I used to believe that too. But somehow, sometimes I get the feeling that all the things mentioned above are not wholly true. And that to some extents we are all “prisoners of birth”.


Let us try to look at certain instances which shall prove my point:


My birth decides what am I going to be. If I was born in USA I would be American, India  Indian and so on and so forth. Then some further bifurcation, if I was born in a Marathi family I would be called a Maharashtrian, since I am born in a Gujrati family I am called a Gujrati. The bifurcation continues. Thus By birth itself I get an identity (an Indian, a Gujrati , and the likes) over which I have no control. “prisoners of birth”.


The birth is marked by the timing also. Timing as in the second, minute, hour, date, month, year. All these taken together to prepare something called my ‘kundli’ which is supposedly going to determine what kind of life I am going to have and what kind of person am I going to be, and even at times (and funnily so) decide which person should marry me according to the placement and orientation of the moon, sun and some other celestial bodies when I was born, but thankfully now this illusion is being challenged by some brave souls, God give them courage and make them successful. “prisoners of birth”.


The first close association that we are born with is the family in which we are born. It’s said that there is some proved correlation between our physical, emotional, psychological attritutes and that of our parents. So, the above said attributes are inherited to us from our parents. The kind of conditioning that I get will depend on the personalities that are around me, be it my parents, my siblings, my aunts, my uncles, or my neighbours for that matter. The kind of friends that I will make in life, the beliefs that I will have in life, and many such important things, all these are decided on my birth. “prisoners of birth”


The values that we get from our family are also dependent. If I was born in a rural area, I would be more sensitive towards the people around me, but if I belong to urban area the scope of sensitivity will be limited. “prisoners of birth”.


In India the education that I get will also be varying. If I was born in rural area where education is not considered very important, then I would not be able to read, let alone write this, and thus allowing me lesser opportunities. But since I was born at a certain place I had the privilege to get good education. Also one more factor determines the educational institute that I go to, if I was born in a reserved category then my chances of going to the biggies like IIM’s and IIT’s would increase many fold. Again determined on my birth. “prisoners of birth”.


These are some of the many ways by which we are the “prisoners of birth” and not the so called i-will-determine-my-future types.

Zindagi Rocks!!!!

Van - Vaas

Subbu (SCMHRD director) was very kind on us to give us three days break for diwali, though not too kind, cause he had sandwiched this break between (7 before the diwali and 6 after) our first semester exams. Had gone to Mumbai for two days, had a good time. It was good to return home and meet mom and dad, didi, friends and special friend.

It was also a good opportunity for me to meet all the infoscions who were leaving for mysore training on the 18th, the same day that I was leaving for Pune. Hardik, jignesh and saarim se mila. Acccha laga. Ab pata nahi who kab ayenge,mein kab aunga aur hum kab milenge. Looking at them I remembered my day when I had left for Pune on the 1st june around 4 and a half months ago.

I and jigi had a good last talk on the rajendra nagar flyover. We were discussing how life is, how we leave all that we were, and that we had for the last 20 odd years behind. All in the search of success. Our family, our friends, (our bike, yeah I miss her a lot), and virtually our whole zindagi.

He was asking me a question, ‘why do we have to leave all that matters to us behind like this? ’. I was giving him all the answers that I had given to myself when I had come to Pune ( like zindagi mein kuch karna hain toh sacrifices karna hi padta hain, ya kuch pane ke liye kuch khona padta hain). But I knew these are just answers. That’s all that they are and that’s all that they would ever be.

Final day in Mumbai on 18th I had gone to Ram mandir for my prayers, before I leave for Pune. I prayed there and just sat on the seats there in the temple. Right in front of the almighty, Lord Ram. In that peace and silence that prevailed in that holy place, my mind was still turbulent and searching for the question that jigi had asked me. ‘Why do we have to leave everything that matters to us behind? ‘. Still searching for an answer. And then all of a sudden I realised the answer was right in front of me…

Lord Ram, the almighty. The great lord that He is, He decides lives, Apne tarazu mein tolke sabko khushi baatne wale bhagwan. Sabki hatho ki lakiren banakar unko zindagi dene wale bhagwan, who bhi toh gaye the apna sab kuch chod van-vaas.

He loved his dad, king Dashrath, He loved His praja a lot. But still he had to go for a van-vaas for 14 years, away from the luxuries of a kings life. He left all that he loved behind (the only good point is he could take his soul mate sita (I can’t) and brother Laxman along).

The turbulence just settled down. The silence and the peace of the holy temple just reached my rather turbulent mind and now I had peace. I thought the Great Lord himself had to leave everything behind than ‘who am I’, just a mere mortal.
That way of looking at the ‘question’ gave me an answer to his rather difficult question. So finally now I am at peace and hope this helps jigi answer his question and gives him the same peace that I have got when he reads this piece.


Zindagi rocks !!!!