4 20 and 6! She has seen that many season changes and will be seeing many more. If you didn’t understand what I am talking about; “4 20 and 6” was the answer when I asked how old Aama was. It’s 4×20+6=86, for the ones who is still wondering. One of the Aama who was already 10 10 and 1, refused that she was the age she already was, 101! And she was so full of life and wonderful. Seeing the high spirit of hers was simply amazing.

Well, Our Rotaract Club of Himalayan Patan has this annual ritual of celebrating “Hamro Dashain” .It is a club project where we visit Aamas at old-age home. This year we went to Divine Service Home at Golfutar. There were fourteen lovely Aamas, beautiful souls. It is always a bliss to hear stories from them, my favourite is the one that begins with “nabbey saal ko bhuichalo jada… ma sorah barsa ko thiye, ma paanch barsa ko thiye, ma dash ko thiye…”

Being alone at old age, much worse being left alone is my nightmare but looking at them changes everything. Together they live as a family, like sisters sharing same childhood memories. It is unfortunate that they have to be without a family but hearing them with no complaints makes me happy. Hats off to the old-age homes that take care of all the Aamas and give them a new family even though I wish there were no need for a kind heart to think of setting up an old-age home.