Are they the same everywhere?

I have always believed that if you look at kids from anywhere in the world, rich or poor, regardless of language, culture, or anything else, that they will be exactly the same. Toddlers will have the same curiosity of the world around them, small boys will have that mischievous glint in their eyes right before they play a prank and teenagers will always be moody.
My dad gives the example of a small child being dragged by his mother at an airport. Now the mom was speaking in French (or Japanese, I can’t remember which). While my dad did not understand a word, he knew she was saying: I ASKED you if you had to go to the bathroom five minutes ago and you said no!
Things like these cross cultural boundaries…
However, I have come to realize that for certain children, their lives are changed by society so that they are not allowed to have the same childhood enjoyed by everyone across the world. My recent trip to Tamil Nadu put me face to face with two such examples.
It took three nights and two trains to get to TN and the same to get back. On the way back, a bunch of us caught a train at midnight. We got on and silently put our luggage away as the rest of the passengers were sleeping. Now our suitcases wouldn’t fit below the seats and they normally do. We tried shoving really hard but then we realized something was blocking them. As three of us peaked down, we saw a small boy (of around 7-8 years old) lying on the floor with a bundle of cloths next to him. Of course, we panicked. He had his eyes tightly closed but of course he wasn’t sleeping. He couldn’t have been after having our suitcases shoved on top of him repeatedly. We asked him if he wanted to come up or wanted anything to eat or a place to sleep but we got no reaction. While all of us had no choice but to go sleep on our berths, I know we all fell asleep wondering where he came from, where he was going and what was forcing him to travel like this. He clearly did not fit in with the theory of “kids are the same everywhere”.
In the middle of the night, I decided to get a blanket out of my bag. I climbed down and completely forgot about the little boy. As I reached down to open my bag, he also came up from under the seat. It was a split second when I know both our hearts stopped and we both gasped. After that second, without thinking I suppressed a giggle because it was actually pretty funny. I won’t forget the moment when as soon as I smiled, he almost giggled as well. That second was enough for me to know that somewhere deep inside him, there lay a naughty little boy as well. In the morning, he was gone…
On the same train came a group of kids doing acrobats (yes on a train). Of course everyone’s reactions were to cling to their purses because the nimble kids will also be nimble in other ways. After cartwheels and backflips, this little girl came up to us to ask for money. She was the sweetest little girl, with two red dots on her cheeks. Of course I refused to give her money. Instead, I offered her oranges or a packet of chocolate cream biscuits. She refused both. WHAT CHILD REFUSES CHOCOLATE? I was appalled. I talked to her for a bit, told her to eat these things with me, but no, she wanted money. It was shocking to see the level of brainwashing done to these children. She went away slowly, empty handed.
While you may think this is a depressing entry and will think, why did I write this? I take this as motivation as this is what drives me to improve the world we live in…