At one point in the story Bim finds that she cannot sleep, and takes a book, at random, from her bookcase. It is the Life of Aurangzeb—the last great Mughal (and therefore Muslim) emperor of India. When the emperor knew he was dying, he dictated a letter to a close friend in which he wrote, “Now I am going alone. I grieve for your helplessness, but what is the use? Every torment I have inflicted, every sin I have committed, every wrong I have done, I carry the consequences with me. Strange that I came with nothing into the world, and now go away with this stupendous caravan of sin!”
