By the time they returned to the town center from the outskirts it was already past five in the evening, Arjun wanted to get back to hotel and have some rest but Lalitha was adamant about meeting her brother on the same day so they had to follow along.
Although they did not know where Balram lived, they went ahead to the bank where he worked at and enquired the guards over there for the address and a small bribe of ten rupees did the job for the guy to loosen his mouth.
When they reached the address they had gotten Balram was not at home and they had to wait for another thirty minutes for the guy.
When Balram was informed by his neighboring kids that some people were waiting for him, he was surprised and hurried back wondering if it was his sister and seeing it was her, A bright smile appeared on his face as he approached the,.
Noticing the other two on the side though, the smile was replaced by a frown but he quickly marked it and greeted them altogether inviting them into his house.
Once they were inside he offered them some snacks while signaling for Arjun to talk to him outside, Arjun was taken aback by this sudden invite but since this was what he wanted too, he followed along.
So i heard you were collecting information about me? Balram questioned Arjun with a serious look.
Well Anna, i wanted to find out what kind of person you were.
Why?
Anna, i have hired Lalitha just recently and got to know more about her past, i don't want her to have more snakes around her.
What do you mean?
You know what i mean Anna Arjun replied with a smirk on his face.
So what do you think?
You don't seem like a bad person Anna, At least we couldn't find any thing harrowing during our investigation. But your military... Arjun was just about to say something but held back.
How long has it been since you hired her?
Almost a month?
It seems she likes your family very much, especially your sister. She keeps bringing them up in almost every sentence.
Ahahaha is that so? Arjun replied not knowing what to say
Okay it's good that you people are so kind to her, but if i find out anything wrong i think you know the consequences.
Arjun nodded his head and put on a hesitant expression.
What is it kiddo?
Anna please don't mention anything about her mother to Lalitha, she still thinks she's doing fine back in her village.
Balram was taken aback but understood what Arjun was suggesting and why.
Alright kiddo i won't, but hiding the truth is not a solution.
I know anna, but she's only recently getting back to normal and i don't want her to get broken again, you know how she would react if she got to know more.
Alright kiddo i will do as you say Balram replied and returned back into the room alongside Arjun.
When they reached inside Lalitha enquired what was that about to which Balram dismissed it as some parking matter.
They spent another few hours discussing various stuff after which Bhargav and Arjun returned back to the hotel while Lalitha stayed back.
Balram too wanted to send her back but seeing how she was stubborn he could only let it go.
Arjun after returning back to the hotel asked Bhargav for the update on All in One sales and started going through the report.
What he saw left Arjun shocked for a couple of minutes unable to think of anything else. They had sold around fifteen thousand copies last week, Arjun rechecked the figures again and again to make sure what he was seeing was right and sure that he was seeing the numbers correctly he glared at Bhargav looking for an explanation.
Bhargav felt this was a reasonable expression especially with those number of sales, he too stared at his brother in the same way.
Apparently the sales people were now offering a little bit of commission to the teachers if they help them sell their books and this was even sponsored by the union.
Arjun did not know what to feel about this. This kind of methods were very prevalent in future medical industry but seeing it applied in local schools felt weird. But still considering it helped them sell way more amount of books Arjun felt he needed to keep his moral compass aside for a while.
In this point of view perhaps encouraging the union to be more courageous seemed to be the right choice. Had this been someone else it would be tough to make such ambitious moves without getting backlash from other distributors as well as schools. But since it was a union doing these stuff most of the people would probably turn a blind eye.
When he saw the check of six lakh for the past week sales Arjun felt gratified to the union for being able to adapt to conditions and grow from it.
It seems it was the perfect time to look for the other parts needed for the dairy beverage factory. Even though Vladimir was shipping most of the core machinery which were not available for purchase in the country, they still needed to find many other smaller machinery which would cost around five to seven Lakhs Arjun assumed.
He shared his thoughts with Bhargav and asked him to start looking around for any second hand machinery on sale or the manufacturer details if second hand stuff were not on sale.
There was also the issue of staffing, Arjun wanted to hire local workers for the factory but managers and sector leaders should be experienced to guide the workers properly.
They decided to go to the recruitment center to inform them about this.
Arjun who wanted to relax for a day grumbled about the extra work but since they had already thought about it, it was better to go ahead rather than wait for another time.
The next day as Arjun was waiting in the lobby for Bhargav to have their breakfast he overheard a couple of college kids discussing something which caught his interest.
We need to go to this buddy One of them exclaimed pointing the pamphlet in his hand.
What do you want to go there for? to look ogle your eyes at girls? The other countered.
Not just that buddy i heard this college is in middle of a forest, And since it's in middle of holidays not many people will be there in the campus so we will have enough time and space to roam around.
Well i am going to go there for the new upgrades in computer's field brother, i have heard many top companies and scientists from our country are going to be there the other exclaimed confirming his attendance.
Arjun whose interest was peeked went ahead and asked for the pamphlet from the young men.
The two of them who were busy in their discussion were surprised by a kid interrupting them but still handed the pamphlet giving weird stares at him.
Arjun did not mind the stares as he was receiving more of these recently and already got used to them and instead shifted his focus to the pamphlet.
The pamphlet was about a IT conference being held at IIT Chennai on may 13th and 14th. It even listed all the major IT companies that were present in current India and few notable scientists from major government associations as well as some international delegates.
Arjun was surprised that there was a conference of such level being held in the country where most people had not even heard about computers.
Seeing the two still staring at him he questioned them, Anna do you study computers?
Yes kiddo how did you know one of them exclaimed while the other pointed at the pamphlet and remarked his friend was getting more and more dumber recently.
Arjun spent some more time discussing current Indian IT sector's progress and their future plans and left seeing Bhargav had just come down to the lobby.
When Bhargav enquired what Arjun was discussing with those kids, Arjun explained about the event that was going to take place in second week of may.
Although Bhargav did not know much about computers seeing Arjun getting interested in these he felt he too needed to know more about them and considered researching more about them once they return back to the village.
Arjun meanwhile was busy in his own thoughts, Even though he wanted to focus more on heavy industries in the next couple of years before the liberalization gets implemented, exploring more on software side wouldn't hurt either especially when most of the world was still sleeping on it's immense potential.
He felt he would visit the conference and decide what to do from there. But convincing his father to accompany him might be tough thing to do.