Nine-year-old Kabir Khan has spent his whole life in jail with his amma, a low-caste woman who was falsely accused of stealing from her employers, in Chennai, India. But one day a warden announces that he is too old to stay and places him in the custody of an uncle he has never met. The "uncle" turns out to be a liar who sells children as slaves, so Kabir flees onto the streets of Chennai. He befriends Rani, a Roma girl with no family besides her parrot Jay, and she helps him survive.
Born Behind Bars contains examples of:
- Abandoned Area: Rani lives in a tree behind an abandoned mansion. She sleeps tied to a branch so people and stray animals can't get at her, and eats fruit from the overgrown garden.
- Dedication: "To my chithi, Visalam Naranan, for always believing in the strength of my words, and to my daughter, for literally lending me a helping hand when my body was weak."
- Disappeared Dad: Kabir's appa used to visit them and put money in their jail bank account. Then he moved to Dubai, where he said his new job would allow him to hire a good lawyer to get his family out of jail. But one day he stopped writing, and no one knows why. Turns out he died in a plane crash on the way to tell his parents about his family.
- Food Slap: Kabir escapes his "uncle" at a cafe by throwing hot coffee in his face and making a break for it.
- Hiding Behind the Language Barrier: All the women in Kabir's cell speak Tamil, but he and Amma also speak Kannada and use it for private conversations, to the annoyance of some of their cellmates.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: Kabir's parents married in secret because Appa was Muslim and Amma was Hindu. Appa was planning to tell his family later, but Amma was jailed first.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Kabir was named after Kabir Das
, one of the few saints recognized by both Hindus and Muslims. - Orphanage of Love: Rani ends up in one, run by a woman who goes by Viji Aunty. Because being indoors makes her feel trapped, she's allowed to sleep in a tent in the yard with other kids like her and have her lessons under a tree. The adults are kind, and there's enough food for everyone.
- Parental Substitute: When Rani first came to Chennai, she lived with an old man whom she calls her grandfather, who taught her how to read cards and convincingly pretend to tell people's fortune. She inherited Jay when he died.
- Phony Psychic: Rani stands on a street corner, using cold reading to tell fortunes for ten rupees.Kabir: Do you have magic powers?
Rani: If I had magic powers, why would I hunt crows for breakfast? - The Runaway: Rani and her mother used to live with her uncle, but he wanted to marry her off in her early teens. She ran away with her mother's blessing.
- Searching for the Lost Relative: Kabir and Rani travel to Bengaluru, where Kabir's appa grew up, in the hopes of finding him. They don't, but they do find his grandparents.
- Sensory Overload: While he was in the hot, crowded jail, Kabir imagined the outside world as open and peaceful. When he's released, he's shocked by the noises and smells of Chennai.
- Street Performer: Kabir supplements Rani's fortune telling income by singing under a tree. He makes a lot of money because Rani tells all her clients that they'll be rewarded if they're generous to poor boys.
- Tears of Joy: Kabir and Amma cry when they're reunited before Amma is released from jail.
- Torches and Pitchforks: Rani's father was killed by a mob that blamed his magic for the lack of rain.
