The Café With A Cause

As ICANFLYY turns one, founder-director Minu Budhia speaks to Society about the bold plunge she had taken a year back with a uniquely special café.

- Kakoli Poddar

Kolkata’s quiet neighbourhood just opposite the famous Maddox Square Park has been enlivened by a café that is turning to be the latest hotspot for the hip and happening. What is unique about the café is that it is run by youngsters with varied intellectual challenges, a first of its kind in India. The café on the ground floor of the five-storey building, ICANFLYY is a vocational & skill training institute for young people with mental health problems.

Society drops in at ICANFLYY and gets a taste of some yummy fare. Over Vietnamese Coffee, we have a chit-chat with Founder-Director Minu Budhia and her daughter Preeyam, co-founder of the cafe. Psychotherapist Minu Budhia says, “This is the first and till now the only food joint run by people with mental challenges. There are eateries run by people with physical disabilities – blind people or deaf and mute people, but nowhere is there any eatery run by people with mental challenges.”