"Hari Sharanam" Laxmi Bhusal was in her late teens when she began playing Budi Amai (Grandma) in the immensely-popular farming programme on Radio Nepal with that opening line.

It was a radio persona she adopted so wholeheartedly that many listeners refused to believe that the 60-something, talkative know-it-all was so young. These were the days before cable television, so when she feigned a coughing fit in the studio, or rattled on about nitrogen and phosphates in fertiliser, or compared the relative merits of bikasay corn and local corn, the whole nation listened.

Pretty soon, Budi Amai became a household voice. Her popularity soared as farmers from all over Nepal sent letters, made phone calls or even sent prize cauliflowers to her as present. Budi Amai is far from the stereotypical senior citizen. If anything, she is Super Granny-someone who always has ready answers to queries and solutions for farmer's problems. After producing over 100 farming programmes a year, Laxmi has become something of an agricultural expert herself in real life. "After playing Budi Amai for 35 years, it is difficult to separate myself from the character," she told us at the Agriculture Information and Communication Centre where she works.

It wasn't easy for Laxmi to get to where she is now. Women were discouraged from the male-dominated area of radio production, and in a partriarchial society her family nearly disowned her. Male colleagues felt threatened. But times have changed, now Budi Amai is not just a role model for all Nepalis, but also for Laxmi's younger family members.

Laxmi has an explanation for the enormous success of Budi Amai: "It was practical, common sense information, and Nepalis have a tradition of respecting elders so when it was an old woman's wisdom, they listened."

Her other radio characters are less known but no less successful. Laxmi ran a question-answer show on radio for 18 years, and nobody guessed she doubled for both parts. Today, Laxmi still uses her Budi Amai persona to do commercials, promotional tele-dramas and even films. Two years away from retirement, she is planning a radio production training institute. Laxmi Bhusal is now going to be a real-life senior citizen, but for this remarkable woman getting old is going to be very familiar terrain indeed.