Aru Shah and the End of Time

The pebble lightly touches the cauldron and stirs up the vapors inside. Next, Mini plans to bring down the fire chandelier, which should vaporize all the liquid and leave the key behind. Mini and Aru pelt rocks at the glass encasing the fire, and it begins to stream down. The cauldron explodes, but the flames encase the poison and vaporize most of it. A small portion lands inside the Shiva statue and turns its throat blue. Then, a turquoise goblet with silver liquid is left behind, and Aru drinks from it to find the third key. The girls line up the three keys, which melt together into a puddle of light and form the door to the Kingdom of Death.

Mini feels a little conflicted about entering her father’s realm. Aru is unable to open the door, but when Mini speaks to it as the daughter of death and explains the girls’ purpose, it opens for her. The girls step into a dark tunnel. Although initially scared, Aru remembers the Hindu concept of reincarnation: “[D]eath wasn’t a place where you were stuck forever. It was where you waited to be reincarnated” (179). Two giant dogs bound toward the girls, introducing themselves as Ek and Do, the Hindi words for “one” and “two,” respectively. The girls cannot pass as long as they are alive; they can either die on their own, or the dogs will kill them.

Mini asserts this is her kingdom, but the dogs still refuse to let them pass, as even gods die and are reincarnated in different bodies. However, Aru and Mini are able to distract the dogs by throwing the golden orb and conjuring the illusion of a cat for the dogs to chase. With their way clear, the girls run toward a sliver of light that appears in the distance.

The girls emerge into a line of people who are clearly dead; a sign indicates they are waiting in line at “KARMA & SINS Est. at the first hiccup of time” (186). Aru can’t understand the language being spoken around her and asks Mini if she knows Hindi. Mini also only speaks English; her mother had tried to teach her Hindi, but her father’s mother, who is Filipina, accused Mini’s mother of trying to erase Mini’s Filipina culture. Mini uses the mirror to translate, and realizes the people are actually speaking English, but backward. Mini seems disturbed by the sign, and Aru realizes Mini sees something different though she doesn’t say what it is.

When the girls finally enter the room, a kind-eyed man is waiting inside: It is Chitrigupta, the cosmic record-keeper. When he sees Mini’s mirror and learns she received it during the Claiming, he pulls up records and confirms the reincarnation has never been a girl before. He is thrilled and congratulates the girls on getting past Ek and Do.

While Chitrigupta cannot help them find the weapons, he does give them each a flat, square, ivory-colored token with a screen on it, which carries a record of their good karma. It will help them pass through some of the obstacles in the kingdom. He tells them to follow the signs toward the celestial weapons, which are kept near the Pool of Reincarnation, next to which is the Pool of the Past.

Chitrigupta also reveals that although there are Pandavas in every generation, their powers lie latent unless calamities force them to awaken. The last Claiming took place before World War II, implying that the war broke out because of the Pandavas’ failure to stop evil.

Before they go on their way, Chitrigupta gives the girls a small drink of watered-down soma, the drink of the gods, and a wisdom cookie to carry with them. Chitrigupta divines that Aru is Indra’s daughter and notes that Arjuna was the greatest warrior not because of his strength and valor, but because of his perceptiveness and relentless questioning. He also gives them a ballpoint pen—wherever they are and whatever they write on, Chitrigupta will get the message and attempt to answer.

When the girls exit the room, multiple passageways appear before them, with signboards reading “TO DARE,” “TO DISTURB,” and “TO DEIGN” (198). The first points right down a blue corridor; the second points left down a red corridor; the third points upward. Unsure which one to follow, Mini eats the wisdom cookie to help with the decision and decides “TO DEIGN” is the answer. The arrow pointing up is a trick, as they need to look down, just like what the word means. A hole opens up beneath the sign, and the girls jump in, just as the squiggle on their palms changes to the number 2.

The girls end up in what looks like a forest, but with a silk floor and illusory trees. Mini gets trapped in a puddle of what looks like water but is really quicksand, and Aru manages to pull her out in time. The place feels familiar and smells like home to Aru.

When Aru walks into what looks like a waterfall but is hard stone, Mini realizes it is the Palace of Illusions, where the Pandavas once lived. Afterward, she finds an opening in the waterfall and opens a door. The girls remember that Chitrigupta explained how forgotten things go to a separate place in the Kingdom of Death, as they do not really die.

The girls walk into what seems like an abandoned house. Mini touches a torch, and immediately all the torches flicker on, as a voice booms out, “WHO DARES DISTURB THE PEACE OF THIS HOME?” (211).

The palace declares itself to be the old seat of the Pandavas and sees the girls as unfit to be inside. Aru explains they are the daughters of Indra and Dharma Raja, but the palace does not recognize them: The Pandavas abandoned it long ago, and it doesn’t believe they would return.

Mini begs the palace to let them through as it is the only way in from the forest. The palace reminisces about the forest, from which it was built by the demon king Mayasura, in return for Yudhishtira saving his life. Mayasura created a palace with magical objects in it for each of the brothers, and Draupadi, their wife. The palace thinks its name is fitting, as despite its grand past, no one remembers it now: “Perhaps memories are the grandest illusion of all” (216).

Aru insists they are reincarnations and cannot remember their past lives, but the palace asks them to prove it themselves. Aru suddenly finds herself alone in the middle of a forest, surrounded by fireflies made of actual fire with a bow and arrow beside her. The palace tells her she must aim true to escape the illusion.

Fireflies begin burning up the forest around Aru. Unsure of where she should aim, Aru tries to shoot an arrow, but the bowstring cuts her fingers. Desperate, Aru runs through the forest to escape the swarming fireflies and jumps into a stream. As she tries to decide what to do, she realizes that she must escape her own head. Everything around her is an illusion, similar to the setting of a nightmare; the only real things are her feelings.

Aru remembers a story about Arjuna, in which he and his brothers were tasked with shooting an arrow at the eye of a wooden fish suspended from a tree, but they could only take aim by looking at its reflection in a pool of water. Arjuna was the only one who succeeded, as his sharp focus led him to see nothing but the eye in the reflection. Aru tries to channel such focus; she closes her eyes and pictures Mini, the museum, and Boo. Concentrating on the feeling of freedom, Aru accesses a place of silence deep within herself and escapes the forest.

Aru finds herself back in the palace, faced with two Minis who seem to be arguing with each other. One gets increasingly frustrated and eventually vanishes. The palace acknowledges that only Yudhishtira could have been wise enough to outwit himself, just as only Arjuna could have had the “vision and perception to escape the mind’s own fear” (226). The palace is overwhelmed; it has waited for the Pandavas to return for years. Aru and Mini apologize, reasserting that they are reincarnations who cannot remember their previous births; they have no choice but to leave again, but the palace promises to wait for them.

Before the journey onward, the palace gives them each a tiny, blue star-shaped tile as a piece of home that can offer them shelter and protection whenever they need it. The Bridge of Forgetting lies ahead, beyond which the girls will find the weapons. The palace still lies before them because it is a myth that has not been forgotten yet. It asks the girls to remember it fondly every now and then.

The girls follow a long, winding road once they exit the palace. They walk for a while until the temperature drops and the air feels tight. It begins to snow, but the flakes don’t melt; instead, they feel like pinches wherever they fall on the girls’ bodies. In the distance, they see a figure slip behind a tall tree covered in mirrors.

Aru begins to forget things, including her own name. The figure—a man of unearthly beauty, dark-skinned and silver-haired—comes closer, asking if it is such a bad thing to forget. He waves his hand, and the snow lifts off the girls; suddenly, all their memories come rushing back.

The man, around whom there are mirrors floating, introduces himself as Shukra, guardian of the bridge. Aru cannot remember a single story about him from mythology. He identifies the girls as daughters of gods and offers them a choice regarding crossing the bridge; before doing so, however, he implores them to listen to his tale. He reveals he killed the only person who could stand to look at him, his wife whom he loved.

When Shukra was born, he was so ugly, the sun went into hiding for a month. However, he grew up to be a beloved king, albeit ruling from the shadows. When the time came for him to wed, he couldn’t stay hidden anymore; however, his new bride, Irsa, simply smiled when she saw him, assuring him that love was enough to make them both beautiful. Over the years, Shukra’s appearance began to change. As he grew more handsome, Irsa, too, grew increasingly beautiful. Shukra became impatient with his own appearance, greedily wanting more beauty, and resentful of Irsa, who was already beautiful to begin with. He installed mirrors everywhere so he could constantly inspect his changing visage, and he began to shun Irsa. He changed so much that Irsa admitted that she didn’t recognize him anymore as the man she once loved; in a fit of rage, Shukra strangled her to death.

Now, Shukra lives surrounded by mirrors that remind him of his mistakes; they also prevent the snow from falling on him and stealing his memories. To cross the bridge, the girls must pay the toll and give up their memories, which will be used to complete constructing the incomplete bridge. The girls refuse and attempt to cross the bridge anyway, but snow begins to fall harder and faster, ripping out their memories to build the bridge. On an impulse, Aru throws her monsoon pendant at Shukra, shattering the mirrors and causing the snow to fall on him; this leads to his memories being stolen to build the bridge instead of the girls’. As they cross, Shukra curses Aru: In the moment in which it matters the most, she too will forget something important.