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!!!!