Street Hawkers Abound In Delhi

"The hawkers who weave their way between the stationary cars and rickshaws never looked at the clock [indicating the amount of time left before the light changed] anyway: Their working existence is divided into 92- second cycles, and they can sense the disappearing seconds instinctively."

"In the six months he has been working this patch of dusty asphalt, [18-year-old Dhiraj Kumar] has developed a nuanced understanding of the public taste in popular literature. He knows what weary office workers want as they make their way home in the evening."

"Delhi is home to millions of migrant workers forced to flee desperate rural poverty, and Kumar quickly found his place among them, renting sleeping space on the floor of a room in a block of flats in Ganesh Nagar, eastern Delhi..."

"Booksellers are near the top of the hierarchy of street hawkers: They run their own businesses, answer to no one, have clean clothes and make respectable profits. They earn about 30 rupees on every book they sell, and hope to sell at least 10 a day. If things go well, each boy sends home about 12,000 rupees a month to their parents."