The story of aaja cafe starts with friendship

Post earthquake, Suneeta, raji, and Gopal figured something needs to be done with the space where Aaja Cafe is. With the help of friends, we created the space, and since then, Aaja Cafe has continued to evolve.

We are eternally grateful to Bushan for taking charge of helping us out with the garden layout and giving us the courage to imagine aaja cafe as a space from the get go.

The name Aaja comes from `Aa` from Aastik and `J` from Justin. raji met Aastik when raji was 18 months old (just kidding); they are siblings.Justin and raji met in 2008 after raji moved to New York after college.

By the summer of 2009, Aastik, Justin, raji, and Matt started living together. This is when raji and Aastik`s relationship, which had started morphing into friendship, really landed into the realm of one. Since the beginning of their relationship, raji and Aastik never really gave in to the patriarchal sibling trope—it just did not fit. Suneeta and Gopal never tried to influence their relationship; they did try, due to societal pressure, but deep down, they all valued friendships, as raji would discover once they moved back to Nepal. And the discovery continues.

In 2019, Aaja was created. It was very difficult for raji to imagine who would come to Aaja Cafe because it was hard for them to go into the space at all.

It was due to the narrative practices community reflecting back the hope, pain, and joy of the loss of Aastik and Justin in their life that helped raji slowly ease into being in space. The plants and trees around the space kept company during COVID when raji, in order to not let the space become stagnant and break down, would go every other day to bake bread. Slowly by 2022, the space found a rhythm and more cheerleaders that helped raji, Suneeta, and Gopal see what the space was starting to mean for them.

Everything we do at aaja cafe is always influenced by Justin and Aastik’s queer ways of being.

And here you are today reading this. This moment has been possible because of you.

We exist because of the kindness of friendships grounded in queer praxis—always evolving, imperfect, and never concluding.

Cooking together, sharing food, slowing down, playing UNO, making art are some of the things we do here today.

Look how far we have come, now we feature:

pheri pheri thrift: collection of very much loved clothing and used/repurposed jewelry and other accessories, from us to you. Lets fashion by rejecting fast fashion! All proceeds go to UtarChadhav.

Jagriti nursery: during Covid and post (PSA:mask up though, as we are still contending with its aftermath), Gopal who is the constant gardner of aaja cafe household started to nurse peace lily babies and other succulents and plants and we have ended up with so many of them that we said lets create a nursery that is affordable. All proceeds go to UtarChadhav.

Aaja Library and Co-working space: Do you want to body double and stuff done? We get you. Come let's work together.

Bed and Breakfast room with an attached bathroom: we have a spacious room above the cafe which has been open for guests since 2019.

For everything above and if you would like to host an event at Aaja Cafe please contact us on instagram @aajacafe or email us at aajawellness@gmail.com

Please remember:

Aaja cafe is an alcohol free area. Our events are always without alcohol. We are 100% against Trans exclusionary pseudo feminism #terfs and Sex Work exclusionary pseudo feminism #serfs. We are against zionism and ultra right hindutva brahmanical patriarchy.

These are non-negotiable.

We value queer praxis, moving slow, tentativeness and doubt. What are these things?

Below is an example:

We are careful about the kind of language we use as we believe that to create a kind world we need to pause and introspect the kinds of words we use before we speak out loud. This is not meant to shut you up. This can be a fun process and we always love to work on this together. There are no wrong questions in the journey towards inclusive and hopeful answers.

We continue to work towards becoming de-colonial in our language and practices. In solidarity always with all de-colonial movements from Congo, Sudan, Palestine and beyond.

Library

Mental Health Strategies for Young Women in Digital Age

सगँ-सगै: Harm Reduction as a care practice

Utarchadhav Credits

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