With their eyes blindfolded, a group of people had their dinner in a dimly lit restaurant in Thimphu yesterday. The three-hour eating experience was aimed at providing the diners an opportunity to gain a better understanding of what it is like to live with visual impairment.
The idea of dining in the dark, a first of its kind in the country, came from a group of four people. The experience is, as 24-year-old Kinley Phystso, the main person behind the idea, rightly put it, “a peek into the life of somebody who is visually impaired”.
Kinley Phyntso was diagnosed with a condition called stagardts macular degeneration,a genetic eye disorder that causes progressive vision loss, when he was 11 years old. There is no cure for it as of today. “As a visually impaired person, I go through lots of challenges on a daily basis,” shared Kinley Phyntso.
“Even simple things like finding my shoes and the right pair of socks are difficult tasks for me.”
The group of about 20 people, who took up the invitation to experience a meal with their sense of sight blocked, was blindfolded as they were led into the dining room.
They were made to sit as per the table number they chose while entering the restaurant. They were then made to do ordinary tasks like eating meal and navigating their way around the table.
It turns out the experience indeed gave the participants a chance to taste what life is like for the visually impaired. “This is something that every Bhutanese should get to experience if we are to be a GNH country,” said Dasho Peljor J Dorji, who was one of the participants.
Kunga Tenzin, another participant, described the experience as noble. “It’s something entirely new,” he said. “It was fun to a large degree, but for a visually impaired, this is everyday life and this is how it is with everything. I didn’t know what I was eating. More than a dozen times, I put an empty spoon to my mouth.”
The dining in the dark initiative was also aimed at bringing a greater change in the society’s attitudes to disability. The proceeds collected from yesterday’s event will be donated to the Muenselling Institute in Khaling.
Dark dining trend
While the concept of dark dining, or blind dining, is completely new in Bhutan, the trend has become a culinary venture elsewhere with dark restaurants popping up in many countries.
The customers dine in pitch darkness in the dark restaurants. They can neither see the food they are eating nor the people they are sitting with. The blind dining experience allows people with full vision to relate to and empathise with people with lost vision.
Apart from providing an eye-opening experience for others, the dark dining trend has helped the visually impaired community in many ways. Many of the dark restaurants employ visually impaired people as its staff. These restaurants also donate certain percentage of their profits to the visually impaired community.
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