Do you know what bothered me the most [in Pristina]? At the time, women here wore dimija or kule [balloon pants], they called them kule. They were like dimija, but not that loose. In Skopje at ours, nobody wore dimija. City people didn’t wear them, even those that came from the village did not wear them. That bothered me. And the girls, the girls did not wear pantaloons in that time, but also did not go out much, but they did in the neighborhood, they stayed home and always wore those kule. They really annoyed me, they bothered me very much. They would say, ‘Ama it’s warm, with these it feels nice.’
Ajten Pllana was born in 1938 in Skopje, Macedonia. She completed Shkolla Normale [Vocational School], whilst in Pristina starting her career as a teacher. At first, she worked for Emin Duraku elementary school, later at Elena Gjika. She stayed there until her retirement. Last year (2018), she published her book Tetëdhjetë vjet tregime [Eighty Years of Stories], a collection of stories drawing from her life. Currently, she lives in Pristina with her daughter and son and her nephew.