Children with no childhood

The other day I saw 2 street kids on a red light, a girl and a boy. The girl must have been around 4 years and the boy a year younger to her. The boy was trying to sell red roses to a couple (on a bike) who were not interested. So the boy moved to the next vehicle. The girl was following the boy and so she was next at the couple’s bike and was begging for money or anything they could give. They gave her a water bottle. She quickly called the boy and they both sat on the foot path. I thought she is a nice girl willing to share whatever little water was there in the bottle. But what happened next surprised me. She took some water in her hands and started sprinkling the roses, the boy also followed her. It made me realize how important it was for them to keep the roses fresh (so that someone can buy them). It was even more important than to quench their thirst.
I know there is nothing great about what they did. Something was not right there, something was out of picture. I was slightly taken aback by the fact that those kids were not even 5 years old yet. My mom was sitting with me in the car and she made a very interesting statement that forced me to think. She said these kids mature much faster than other kids. It made me realize 2 things one how lucky I was to mature at the normal pace. Second, how many things I have taken for granted when the kids on the other side of the car window do not even know the meaning of most of those things.
Recently I read an amazing book called Kite Runner, it is about Afghanistan. There was one line that I remembered when I was looking at those 2 kids. It was “There are a lot of Children in Afghanistan but no childhood” and I thought how much different are these 2 kids from their Afghani counterparts. Though we sing songs about Indian economy, sensex etc. I wondered when these kids will also dance to those songs
At that moment the red light turned green and the cars started honking. I have to move now…..and kids started waiting for the signal to turn red.