Mumbai: For nearly 10 years, those visiting the Mirchi and Mime restaurant in Powai – and later Chandivli and Thane – were enthralled by the speech and hearing impaired (SHI) staff who handled customer relations. The staff relied on a specially designed menu and hand gestures to take orders from and communicate with customers, and managers would step in only if there was a dire situation.
“Generally, customers wouldn’t let managers interfere as they felt a sense of pride in communicating seamlessly with our specially-abled staff,” said Raja Shekar Reddy, the founder of the restaurant chain.
On August 5, Mirchi and Mime announced the closure of all three outlets citing exorbitant hike in rent and inability to absorb the enhanced expenses. In all, the outlets employed 150 personnel, of which 80 were people with speech and hearing impairments.
“When we started, we wanted to employ at least 500 people with speech and hearing impairments. But we could only reach 80,” Reddy rued.
When the first Mirchi and Mime outlet started in the upmarket Powai in 2015, the speech and hearing impaired staff were trained to handle orders and customer relations. A specially designed menu which listed all 180 available dishes on a single page played a key role in the effort, said Reddy.
The dishes were placed in different categories such as food, beverage and dessert, each associated with specific hand gestures which were displayed on the menu. When customers wanted to place an order, they simply referred to the applicable category via designated gestures, then used their hands to indicate the number of the dish within the category.
“When customers wanted other things such as cold water, they communicated as per their understanding and the staff was smart enough to comprehend what they were saying without much problem,” said Reddy.
With time, and the opening of new outlets in Chandivali and Thane, the restaurant chain gained popularity, especially among influencers and sensitive food enthusiasts. Customers would enjoy the experience of communicating with the differently-abled staff and even understand the difficulties faced by them at times.
“The process sensitised everyone, including our regular customers and one-off visitors,” said Reddy.
Things were going fine till this year, when the five-year lease of the Powai outlet was up for renewal. The rent was hiked 35%, which was unaffordable, said Reddy.
“The Powai outlet was our oldest and most profitable. It subsidised our other outlets in Chandivli and Thane,” he said. The Thane outlet was started only five years ago and had not broken even yet, he said.
“We had no option but to shut down all three outlets when faced with the rent hike,” he said. “But we were concerned about the future of our speech and hearing impaired staff and reached out to various organisations to train and absorb them.”
Help arrived from Dr Reddy’s Foundation, which has agreed to train the specially-abled staff in various skills and help them find employment with private companies.
“We have already trained some personnel and given them beautician kits and some of them have begun offering services independently, transitioning into entrepreneurs,” said an official from the foundation, requesting anonymity.