Returns to Homeland: Nepal and the Nomadic Transmigrants in Manjushree Thapa's All of Us in Our Own Lives

As an expatriate writer settled in Canada, Manjushree Thapa has been articulating the experiences of Nepali citizens living in and outside their nation. In her recent novel, All of Us in Our Own Lives (2016), Thapa represents the aspirations and the anxieties of the Nepalis returning to their homeland with a desire to contribute to the development of the nation. These returnees interact with the indigenous Nepalis and discover the trauma of living in a poverty-ridden country without any proper administrative set-up. In the novel, Gyanu and Avah return to Nepal to encounter a total mess. Gyanu wants to provide a secure life to his sister, Sapana but fails to do so. Avah seeks to expedite the process of international funding projects in Nepal but finds that major portion of the grant is consumed by the corrupt bureaucrats. The dismal situation in Nepal prohibits Gyanu and Avah to forge an affective link to their homeland, and in doing so, they adopt a nomadic transnational identity. In fact, they influence indigenous Nepalis, Sapana and Indira to configure a similar identity With no specific attachment to any particular homeland, these Nepalis become nomadic transmigrants, acquiring a rootless identity. This article seeks to examine the aspect of nomadism in Nepali transmigrant characters as represented in Thapa's novel. To critically assess this issue, Deleuze and Guattari's concept of "rhizomatic" , Pnina Werbner's idea of "complex diasporas" and Aihwa Ong's notion of 'flexible citizenship" have been used.