Among the street vendors in India are young children. Some perform back-bends on viaducts when traffic is stopped, others cradle infants on their hips weaving in between cars while tapping on windows and some sell small trinkets in highly populated tourist attractions - all trying to earn money. It's very hard to avoid making eye contact with young children my kids' ages, especially when I know that they should be in school.

One, as old as my eldest, was selling key chains in front of the Taj Mahal.

Another, exactly the age of my middle child, was selling postcards at a highway gas station.

And yet another child, close enough in age to my youngest, was a magician at the Water Palace.

His captivating performance (also chronicled by my sister here) seen below:

Before I left on my trip I told my kiddos that I would meet children in India that were poor and begging for pennies; but, I wasn't prepared for what I experienced. These children, featured in my post, were those that made it out on the streets after breakfast while other kids were shifting through hills of roadside garbage searching for food during school hours - trying to get to the garbage before the cattle did.