Fortitude or Fate?

I always believed that a man can achieve whatever he wants with hard work and perseverance. These days, I am having second thoughts. One can't really undermine the importance of working hard and being persistent in following a dream but it is becoming clearer to me by the day that part of one's destiny is formed the day one is born, or may be even before that. And there is absolutely nothing one can do about it. So very sad but somehow so true:(. How?

To start with - a child born in a family that finds it hard to make both ends meet has a substantially lower chance of survival in the first few years of his life. If that hurdle of survival is overcome, there is a high probability of him suffering from ailments which could easily be avoided if proper hygiene is maintained and enough nutrition is available. With childhood, comes the opportunity( or the lack of) getting a good education. Imagine what is it like to have never had a chance to learn A B C in a world where graduates have to stand in line before finally landing a job.

And I am not even talking about the more serious issues of high self esteem, respect for another human being, openness of mind- which need to be sown in a mind at a very young stage or the various prejudices/complexes one can develop during the early formative years of life, in the absence of a right environment.

So I may be a pessimist here, but honestly I can't really imagine how much courage I would have had to pursue an education, to dream of being a professional independent woman, to travel around the world or to think of marrying a man of my choice if I had had to fight to be alive before I was born 'coz I had misfortune of carrying the XX set of chromosomes.

I see many of my friends getting ready for a baby; I can see the joy in their dreamy eyes; I can almost feel the sense of responsibility they feel towards their unborn children and a part of me thanks God for His mercies on these babies who are blessed to become a part of such lovely families, and a part of me shivers every time I see a pregnant teenager at Walmart or a small child begging on an Indian railway station, thinking of a life that could have been but won't be 'so' blessed. The Irony - The destiny begins before the life itself!