IT IS mid-afternoon. You step into a café. The aroma of freshly brewing coffee, milk, chocolate and vanilla hits the spot even before you place your order. The combined sounds of bubbling water and its going down the drain, along with the sound a straw makes when one sips the last drops of juice from a tall glass and whispered conversations intermingled with giggles and chuckles from the customer tables, add to the ambience of the place. Of course, the young barista with the sweet smile hears nothing as she goes about her work.

Meet Tabassum Nasir, the first female deaf and mute barista of the country. Happily pouring some coffee into a broad latte cup, she then picks up a silver jug containing frothy steamed milk for texturing and presentation. Mixing the milk with circular wiggle movements of her deft hands, she drops a little onto the centre of the cup before pulling the trickle through it to make a perfect heart.

A perfect latte made with love.

Tabassum is “profound deaf”, meaning she has no voice either.

A student of the Deaf Reach School, she was recently part of a week-long Family Education Services Foundation (FESF) programme, where she got a chance to train with baristas of different coffee houses, e.g. Coffee Waghera, Del Frio, Espresso, Esquires, Floc, Kookie and Mocca.

Having got the required training and certificates, she now feels confident enough to step into the world of coffee herself.

This girl had never even tasted coffee until quite recently. She got a chance to do so during an exhibition when she visited a stall with some other students. “I got to have mocha coffee there, which I really enjoyed,” she says through a sign language interpreter.

“When I came home, I tried to make it myself but I couldn’t really replicate that taste or texture as I didn’t have an espresso machine,” she shrugs, smiling.

Tabassum was admitted to Deaf Reach School and Training Centre at the nursery level. The school was set up by Richard Geary and wife Heidi, who themselves are parents of a differently-abled child.

The school is focused on not just education but also empowering and training students in skills that will enable them to earn their living after completing their education.

“We started in the early 2000s with some 90 deaf and mute students from Baldia Town. We offered them a pick-and-drop service so that their parents had no issues sending them to school,” says Richard, adding that Tabassum was one of their first students from Baldia.

The school, which now has a number of branches across the country, has some 225 students in Karachi. Here it is about to introduce further courses at the college level. Tabassum will be one of their first senior students to enter the third year after she completes her intermediate studies.

During a tour of the institution with the school’s principal Mehrin Abrar, one notices the walls and corners decorated with beautiful paintings, decoration pieces and art models. “Fine arts come naturally to deaf and mute students as they feature visual learning. They are all basically experiential learners,” she says.

One also finds students taking interest in computer programming, handicraft, dress designing, tailoring and cooking classes.

Tabassum says that during her childhood she used to wonder about what she would do in life. “I was thinking of becoming a teacher until I had that mocha coffee. I also enjoyed watching the barista at work at that stall,” she says.

“I like to think that I am a good artist. So I wanted to try my hand at making hearts, tulips and rosetta,” she adds through her interpreter.

But her parents were worried when she spoke about her plans to be a barista. “They were concerned but since they didn’t want to restrict me, they let me train at coffee houses,” she smiles.

During training she was able to impress the baristas teaching her as she easily picked up different techniques while getting used to operating commercial espresso machines too.

Asked how she would communicate with other staffers and customers at cafes after taking up a job, Tabassum explains that she will impress and communicate with all through her eyes and actions. “I am quite expressive, haven’t you noticed? I doubt that I will have much of a problem,” she says.

Her principal laughs. “This confidence she gets from her school. And seeing her so upbeat, her parents are also fine with her working as a barista. She already has several job offers. So be prepared to find her as a full-time barista soon at a café near you.”

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2018

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