Diaspora Studies has always found an important position within South Asian Studies , but India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have consistently been in the limelight. It is only recently that readers and scholars have started acknowledging the contributions of writers from Nepal. In this respect, the Kathmandu born author Manjushree Thapa has been largely instrumental in attracting the attention of critical scholars, thereby creating some space for such literature with both her fictional and non-fictional writings. Nepal, nestled in the lap of the Himalayas, has her own sense of homeland and nationhood. Political and socio-cultural changes and challenges have prompted widespread migration. The writings about these diasporic people invariably provide the readers with an objective overview about the homeland, a view that is often tempered with a strong element of nostalgia. Expectedly the people of the Himalayan nation states have a perspective of life that is quite different from that of the people from the plains. Nepalese people have been known to migrate widely to the neighbouring country India, mainly prompted by economic crisis and consistent socio-political instability. Manjushree Thapa is an author who, even while she lives far away in Canada, still considers Nepal as her “home” and is in fact, deeply engaged in social work in Nepal. Her writings portray a very deep sense of concern and responsibility for her homeland. This paper would be looking at her short story collection "Tilled Earth" and a few other writings and critically comment on Thapa’s contribution to South Asian Diasporic Studies. Her writings show a unique blend of her Nepalese identity and her diasporic consciousness.

Muna Madan, a Nepali epic, tells the story of Muna and Madan, two young lovers from a poor family in a rural Nepalese village. It depicts the struggles, sacrifices, and hardships of life for those who are forced to make difficult choices in order to survive. In addition to its emotional impact, I employ the use of pathos in Muna Madan serves a larger social commentary. Pathos involves the aesthetics of emotions and excavates how audience-focused discourse is persuasive. Through the use of pathos, Devkota is able to convey a sense of empathy and understanding towards these people and to draw attention to their plights. Emotions are not just personal experiences but are shaped by social and cultural contexts, and they can reveal important insights into power dynamics and social structures. By employing the key ideas expressed by Eve Kosofsky Sedwick, bell hooks, and Sara Ahmed, I flesh out the emotional appeal of the epic and finally explore how Devkota creates an aesthetic effect, draws attention to social discourse, and advocates for change in the epic.

South Asia is a space where political borders are at odds with cross-border cultural convergences. Given this context, we see a substantial amount of cross-border traffic in literary themes, traditions and texts.

This paper examines the dynamics of these cross-border travels of texts in modern times. It will seek to analyse the politics of adaptation as texts travel across the heavily militarised borders between countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. We shall look at a selection of texts including collaborative 'intermedial' translation. How do these texts change as they travel? Is there a pattern to what kinds of texts get picked up for such adaptations? How do local and international political equations impact the dynamics of adaptation and collaboration in such cases? These are some of the questions I shall seek to investigate different kinds of texts including short stories and graphic narratives.