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THE SOUTH ASIAN CANADIAN DIASPORA...
marriage to Balu Bhat, who comes from a highly regarded family in Bangalore.
Now she can fully and happily identify with her Indian subjecthood, which
she insists on even after immigrating to Canada. Yet, she becomes a half-and¬
half again floating between cultures and countries in her death. She is one
of the 329 passengers who became the victims of the bombing of Air India
flight 182 by Sikh terrorists from Canada in1985. “Even in death, neither
country claimed her [...] as its own”®’ since neither India, nor Canada would
investigate the terrorist act for years to come.
A chance of a happy outcome resulting from racial and cultural mixing is
briefly offered, however, when Leela’s son Arjun, a South Asian immigrant,
is engaged to Fern, a white girl from Canada. After finding out about the
engagement, Leela envisions a bright future for their children in Canada
“where change and movement and hybridity were commonplace.”** In spite
of all the misfortunes, it is the younger generation in Canada that holds out
some hope for a racially tolerant world. Yet, nothing can be taken for granted
since everything is interconnected with everything else, as the novel illustrates.
This interconnectedness is expressed explicitly in terms of a Hindu/Buddhist
metaphor, namely Indra’s Net, or Indra’s Jewel Net, mentioned by Leela at the
end of Chapter 6 of the novel. The metaphor expresses the interdependence and
interpenetration of all phenomena because whatever affects one jewel in the
net, affects them all. It is Leela’s daughter Preethi who is actually reminded of
Indra’s Net first when she sees the brightly lit border between India and Pakistan
as they fly over it on their way to Canada. Ironically, while the metaphorical net
emphasizes connections, this net of lights is meant to ensure the separation of
the two countries. The irony undermines any certainties, which effect is echoed
by Leela’s thoughts on their journey: “And their movement, their migration
from one world to another, had set [Indra’s Net] in motion, causing a series of
tremors. How it would all end, she did not know.”
CONCLUSION
The linked historical events recounted in Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?
and the interconnected life stories of its characters illustrate the workings
of Indra’s Net, which may also be translated as transnational connections.
No matter whether the Hindu/Buddhist metaphor or the Western concept
of transnationalism is applied, the final outcome is always unpredictable in
Badami’s novel. In other words, this paper has investigated sustained cross¬
border relationships in the context of the transnational migration of South
57 Ibid., 397.
58 Ibid., 307.
5 Tbid., 106.
e 137 "