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“Come with me. I have a surprise for you.”
It’s shortly after midnight on a Sunday morning and I have just landed at Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru for our annual Airport Food & Beverage (FAB) Conference & Awards, to be welcomed post-immigration by Bangalore International Airport Chief Commercial Officer Kenneth Guldbjerg.
And what a surprise it turns out to be. As we head outside the wondrous ‘Terminal in a Garden’ that is Kempegowda International Airport Terminal 2, I see the bright lights, neon and otherwise, of an array of cafés and other kerbside eateries.
None are shining brighter than those in Mitti Café, one of three (soon to be four) food & beverage outlets at the airport – and an approximate 70-strong chain nationwide – dedicated to employing and empowering people with disabilities.
Mitti Café was founded by an extraordinary young woman called Alina Alam, who at just 23 set about realising her dream of showing the world the ‘Magic of Abilities’ not the limit of disabilities.
Simultaneously she set about driving, nay insisting, on greater awareness and implementation of inclusion and disability rights.
All this to be achieved through Mitti Café, a concept designed to bring dignity as well as employment to those with physical, intellectual and psychiatric challenges.
Against all odds, insuperable ones many would have said, Alina took a single, humble street kiosk and turned it into what I consider the world’s finest airport food & beverage chain.
Why the finest? Because Mitti Café serves love as well as tasty snacks and some great Chai. Because it is underpinned by a sense of mission and collective values unlike any other airport F&B operation on the planet. Because its ratio of staff smiles to customer encounters – I am even going to give such a new indicator its own acronym, STC – is surely the highest in our industry.
And because when I enter a Mitti Café I always but always am moved by the care, professionalism and warmth with which I am greeted and served.
More of Alina in a moment. But first, back to my surprise. For there to greet me at Mitti Café in the wee hours of the morning with cards, gifts, snacks and smiles wider than the state of Karnataka, were over a dozen members of the Mitti team, together with Mitti Social Initiatives Foundation Director & COO Swati Dokania.
The crew were holding up signs of welcome and a full-scale illustration of me with the Mitti team, an artpiece I will treasure forever.
They had even prepared a (delicious) cake for me, which I cut amid great joy and merriment. I chatted away with the team members, any tiredness from my fight blown away by the sheer honour and warmth of my welcome.
Having settled into my hotel and with my cards and gifts adorning my hotel room floor, I visited another Mitti Café (outside T1 arrivals) the following evening – this time unannounced.
The smiles were just as genuine, the greeting just as warm, the Chai every bit as good.
I chatted with the team for a moment of two before realising to my horror I had not brought any cash. I apologised and promised to return only to be told, “Don’t worry, it’s on us.” I promise Alina, Swati and the team, I will return with Rupees in great store in the future.
Two days later, Alina appeared on stage at FAB. Not a single person in that packed room, I am prepared to wager, was left unmoved by what they heard. I have had the privilege of hearing her speak before but never, never like this. She was simply supercharged, her movement on stage as animated as her bullet-speed, urgent, challenging oratory.
Introducing her, I said, “Alina is a personal heroine of mine and of many, a woman who in turn leads a team of heroes and heroines with immense conviction and courage, passion and humanity.”
We’ll bring you Alina’s full speech on The Moodie Davitt Report.com soon. I promise, If there’s one conference address you should pay attention to above all others this year, it’s Alina’s. At its conclusion, she was joined by members of her team. The prolonged standing ovation they received was as spontaneous and heartfelt as it was richly deserved.
The following evening at the FAB Awards, marvellously hosted by Kempegowda International Airport, I had the privilege of awarding Alina the FAB Woman of the Year Award.
Unfortunately she could not be there due to a family illness but Swati Dokania and members of the Mitti Café crew were on hand to receive the accolade.
Introducing the Award, I said, “Most of you, by now, know part of Alina’s story. But that does not mean the story should not be repeated again and again and again.
“It becomes no less enthralling in the retelling. It becomes no less significant in its content. It becomes no less inspirational in its echoing wherever I and hope you will echo it.
“Our recipient, at the age of just 23, decided she would not be a guest at the table of injustice. She was unstoppable, irresistible, in her determination, she would not be unheard nor ignored, neither would she let the rights of those she stood up for be either. She conceived the idea of a café chain that would employ those with physical, intellectual and psychiatric disabilities, bringing them dignity, economic empowerment and much more.
“Against all odds she created world’s largest chain of cafés, Mitti Café, run entirely by persons with disabilities – oh but run entirely by persons with very real and no longer untapped nor unrecognised abilities.
“And, as you know, airports, gateways to and from a nation, a showcase for a nation’s values, have become the linchpin of the Mitti Café story. And it all started here at Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru, thanks to the belief and the humanity of BIAL CEO Hari Marar and his commercial team led by Kenneth Guldbjerg & Pravat Paikray.
“Today, Mitti Café operates in more than 70 locations across India, including multiple airport locations, the Supreme Court, Rashtrapati Bhawan (the President of India’s official residence) and Rashtrapati Nilayam (the President of India’s official winter retreat). But’s it not just about outlets, it’s about the critical visibility that Alina and Mitte Café have brought to the profound challenges faced by those with disabilities in this and every other society and the latent but very real talents they possess.”
You could have heard a pin drop during my testimony to Alina, you could not have heard an elephant’s roar due to the tumultuous applause as Swati and the team came to stage.
Alina and Mitte Café serve as an inspiration to our industry. Or do they? Why has no other airport adopted such a concept (I singled out as an exception Paper Planes Café at Vancouver International Airport, which is operated and staffed by a team of different abilities from across the neurodiverse community)?
I challenged the airport and concessionaire sectors to embrace that test. Any airport willing to embrace any such concept will likely face far lower odds than those confronted and overcome by Alina. It should be done and as Alina has proven, it can be done. ✈