Written by Aji’s Intern Sumegha Shrestha

The goal of #AskAnAji campaign is to foster intergenerational exchange. It’s a simple concept. Young folks come up with questions that we present to the elderly of Aji’s community. The elderly provide insightful answers based on years of experience and wisdom. You can read some of our past #AskAnAji posts here.

During our recent Needles & Wool Workshop at Paropakar Orphanage Girls' Hostel, we conducted a live #AskAnAji session with Aji’s makers 68 years old Shiro Moktan, 61 years old Shakuntala Rana, and 84 years old Ram Kumari Shrestha. The interaction between the curious girls and our elderly makers was interesting and inspiring. Below are some of the questions posed by the girls and the answers provided by our wise makers.

Sarala Karki, a 1st year PCL Nursing student asked, "During your time, even 1 rupee was a big amount but these days even 100 rupees is not a huge amount. So, what is your experience or point of view about it?"

Shiro Moktan answered, "Nowadays the value of money is very high in comparison to the past times. We used to get 10 Rupees as our pocket money which was a very big amount for us at that time and if we had 50 Rupees then we felt like a millionaire! But nowadays 50 Rupees is just nothing. The value of money has decreased rapidly and we need to respect money and use it wisely. Hence, it is very important to maintain balance between income and expenditure. Even though money is very important and one of the major necessities of our life, there are more important things like happiness and health. Both these things are comparatively more important than money. We need to understand this and balance our life."

Sapana Shrestha of grade 10 asked Shiro, "Could you please tell us about our experience as a principal?"

Shiro answered, "Rather than talking about my experience as a principal, I will talk about what I teach to my students and about my thinking. I always encouraged the students to be well disciplined and honest. I believe that we need to be honest to ourselves and always be proud to be the person you are. We don't need to be like others but we need to learn to know ourselves better and be who we actually are.”

Few of the girls had a common question, "How and where did you learn knitting from?"

Shakuntala Rana answered, "I learned it from my mother and some close sisters in the neighbourhood."

Ram Kumari Shrestha answered, "One of my best friends taught it to me before I got married. I’ve continued practicing it until today."

If you have questions you’d like to ask to the elderly members of Aji’s community, you send them to us via this form or just tweet it to us @ajisproducts with #AskAnAji. As we like to say here at Aji’s, Google doesn’t have all the answers, #AskAnAji.

Photos by Nirab Tuladhar.