Half of the roughly 7,000 languages spoken on Earth will likely disappear, as communities abandon native tongues in favour of English, Mandarin, or Spanish….’
At first light the boy brought him two plastic sacks of sweets – Orbs of puffed rice glued together with toffee – In preparation for the holiday to commemorate God When street vendors could expect to make some extra rupees
I watched him struggle to keep those sacks On his tiny bicycle-wheeled trolley along with his Iron scales and weights, a stack of paper bags made from old newspapers And a small mound of unsold rice balls left over from the day before.
I watched him that bent old man in his cotton kurta Juggling the means of his survival at the start of the day.
In the evening I saw him again When I bought a bag of those sticky sweet orbs – four for a rupee –
The street was noisy, crowded It was hot The air foul with fumes and smoke
The two big plastic sacks were still on his trolley Only half of one sack had been sold
And he was still standing there Juggling his survival Fourteen hours after I first saw him That old street vendor.
For photos and stories about street vendors from many different nations, see Serious Travel Images: