The Lingo Kid

   I first met Ravi Kumar, aka "the lingo kid" when he was just 10 years old. After taking a video of my encounter with him that went viral with over 3 million views and answering hundreds of emails about him, I decided to tell his story. It's also the story of so many other children around the world, born into poverty, who through sheer determination and ingenuity strive to lift themselves beyond the limitations that life has imposed upon them.

I was visiting my uncle and aunt in Mumbai and had decided to take a trip to the site of one of my earliest childhood memories, the hanging gardens. I had first travelled to Mumbai with my mother at the age of two weeks and was then raised there by my grandparents for the next few years, before returning to England. We had also spent many holidays in Mumbai when it was still known as "Bombay", so I had a special connection to this city, where my mother was born.

The hanging gardens are terraced gardens on the top of Malabar hill, overlooking the Arabian Sea and were built in the late nineteenth century over the top of a reservoir. The gardens contain many hedges cut into the shapes of various animals. I had vivid memories of these "sculptures" since my childhood and it was as I wandered around the gardens reminiscing about my childhood, that I was approached by a young boy who was selling peacock fans.

 As I saw him approach me out of the corner of my eye, my first instinct was to continue walking, as I had been accosted by so many street hawkers trying to sell me countless objects and souvenirs I did not want or need. I stopped momentarily since he started to give me his sales pitch in English with an amusing tag line. He referred to his wares as "walking Indian air conditioners". The thought of a handheld fan made from peacock feathers  being described as a portable air conditioner was enough for me to be impressed with the creativity of this kid. I reflected for a moment and thought it was smart, but not enough for me to buy something that I really couldn't see myself using. I carried on walking, smiling back to acknowledge him.

I saw a look of concentration on his face as if he was trying to work out a strategy with he could hook me into buying a fan and then he tried his sales pitch again, but this time in Hindi. It was particularly interesting to me that he switched into another language, that's one of the most important criteria in communicating with another person - speaking their language. Since he had already tried English without a verbal response from me, he tried Hindi. When I carried on walking, still not responding he didn't give up, he started asking me which country I was from. He said it in English, Hindi, French and Spanish. I was stunned that a street kid in India had the capability to speak these different European languages and the enterprise to do so to find the right language to communicate in. I stopped walking. I thought even though I had no intention of buying any of his fans, I felt that I should at least engage with him as he was making such an effort. I asked him what other languages he knew. He rattled off his pitch in Italian, German, Japanese, Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew. He told me he also spoke 4 other Indian dialects. At this point I was seriously impressed.

I asked him a lot of questions about how he knew these languages and how extensive his knowledge of them was. He told me he spent most of his days at the gardens talking to tourists from all over the world. He had been able to educate himself with the basics of all of these languages, enough to hold a basic conversation with them as well as learn the necessary technical words to sell his fans in all these languages. I admired his ingenuity at learning different languages that allowed him to connect to so many people, many more than if he had only known English or Hindi. I am sure that the tourists who heard this 10 year old child speaking their languages would have been just as surprised and as appreciative of his efforts as I was. This was more than enough justification for me to buy a few of his fans, even though a fan was the last thing that the comparatively cool weather in Canada, where I was returning to, warranted.

I found Ravi's personality and his spirit inspiring, particularly because he had been able to transcend the lack of opportunities of his background and poverty by creating his own through his efforts and ability to communicate with others. I asked him if I could record his repertoire of languages and put it on YouTube. He was very happy about demonstrating his linguistic abilities for all the world to see. I thanked him and wished him the best in his endeavors, suggesting he go to school with the money he earned and develop his talents. About 5 years passed before I returned again to Mumbai. This time I went again to the hanging gardens with my uncle with the intention of perhaps meeting Ravi again and interviewing him about his life. I really had no idea if he would still be there or if he had moved on. I knew it was a long shot, but decided to try it anyway.

I didn't see him at the same entrance to the gardens that I had previously, but asked around a few of the vendors who directed us to where we might find him. He was well known and well-liked by the other vendors who sold souvenirs and refreshments at the gates to the gardens. Ravi was there. I recognized him instantly as I had seen the videos so many times that I knew his face even though he was now a teenager. Ravi had added a couple more languages to his collection and could now speak some basic Mandarin too, as the influx of visitors from China had increased. We interviewed him and I posted the videos again on YouTube. I told him that we would make him famous and bring him more business which he acknowledged as he told me that due to the "internet man" (my previous YouTube video) people had come to find him after they had seen his video. We gave him some money, which I told him was towards his education which I strongly urged him to pursue. He thanked us and told me that he would like to go to school, but didn't know who else could do this job in his family. I was well aware of the catch 22 situation he was in. Since he was the primary income earner for his family due to his talents, going to school would compromise the income he gained for his family from selling fans.

The videos that I had taken of Ravi, provoked a massive reaction. I have received and continue to receive so many comments and personal messages due to these videos. The vast majority of them are extremely positive and encouraging, though there are a few offensive emails about him and also criticizing his vocabulary, grammar or accent in speaking the various languages. The people who focus on this are completely missing the point. They are focused on the technical aspects rather than seeing the big picture. A kid from an impoverished background and without a formal education in most of these languages using his communication skills and an open spirit to connect with people and break down the barriers of "us" and "them". I doubt most of the people who bought a fan from him needed a fan, they bought it because of who he is as a human being. While backpacking around India many years before, I remember meeting a boy who sold newspapers to mostly British tourists and had memorized the postal codes of the whole of the UK so that he could tell the tourists what their postal code was upon hearing their address. In a similar way to Ravi, he had found a "hook" that had increased his sales of newspapers. The fact that a child living thousands of miles away could know a detail such as this and hence make a connection was astounding to most people. Ravi had extended his ability to connect with even more people by learning the basics of so many major languages.

When I returned to Canada, I felt mixed emotions. I was happy that I had met Ravi again, and was able to interview him, but I was also disheartened that despite his talent and genius spirit that he was still selling fans at the hanging gardens. This is a common predicament for so many gifted and talented children around the world who simply don't have the means to develop their abilities through education and often find themselves doing the same routine work throughout their lives. Apart from the tragedy of a wasted ability, it also means that the cycle of poverty remains unbroken. Since our children are the future of the world we live in, it makes sense that we would invest in them, and give them the education they need to make a difference in our communities. This needs to be on a global as well as a local level, since we live in a globalized world. We are all interconnected, and this is more apparent now due to the Internet age we live in, than ever before. 

Googling "lingo kid", the name I gave to the video I published on YouTube, will bring up plenty of websites referring to his linguistic skill and how he wished he had gone to school. He is even featured on CNN travel and given as an example by a professor of Georgetown university of ingenious marketing. It's really heartening that so many people were moved by him and I hope this will translate into something bigger. A realization that the energy and optimism of youth facing difficult circumstances needs to buoyed by the goodwill and generosity of those who have the money and power to do so. I have monetized the videos I posted on YouTube, donating to children's charities such as UNICEF. I would urge anyone who is interested to visit their website.

According to UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, out of the world’s 2.2 billion children, a billion children live in poverty. This means they do not have the nutrition, resources or education to help themselves out of this predicament. Compare this to the fact that the richest 1% of the world’s population will own most of the world’s wealth by next year (based on Oxfam's report at DAVOS). It should be alarming to anyone regardless of their politics that the gap between rich and poor has widened to this extent. Alarming not just because of the inequality which is obvious, but also because of the financial and social systems that remain unchanged despite its widening. Meanwhile, the world's collective wealth has increased dramatically.

Why should we care? Children are the most vulnerable of those who live in poverty and the most deserving of assistance. No political argument can justify the suffering of children as the collateral damage of poverty. There are millions of children like Ravi all over the world, in every country, developed and developing. In the USA, the richest country in the world, UNICEF states that one in three children live in poverty. Children who cannot earn money through other means are often forced into criminal activities including drugs and prostitution. This is a deplorable fact and a good reason why it is our collective social responsibility to give these children a head start through education and charity. It makes sense after all to invest in our own future.