Arjun who could not catch any sleep lay on his bed tossing and turning. His mind was filled with how to gather the rest of the money needed for the purchase of printing machines. Idealistically he wanted to purchase both the machines but that would cost him seventy five thousand rupees, meanwhile he only had twenty thousand rupees with him.
He had thought of borrowing the rest from Madan but whether he would give them still remained a question, mainly considering he was only a 10 year old kid. Even if Madan agreed Arjun knew that once his parents got the word about it they would absolutely reject it. You could not blame them after all people of this age remained very conservative when it came to debts.
The time to meetup with Vladimir quickly arrived as Arjun was busy contemplating about his choices. He woke Karan up and they both left to the lobby where Arjun made the receptionist inform Vladimir about their arrival.
Vladimir soon arrived dressed in a suit, standing next to him Arjun and Karan felt as amateurs going into a battle with a gladiator. They called up a taxi and left to Guntur, which was the chili capital of India back then. During their travel Arjun enquired Vladimir more about his business and quantity of chili powder he was looking forward to buy and whether it was a one time deal or a long term one. He had his reasons for asking these questions, although they might be intrusive they were necessary details he would need for the upcoming negotiations.
Vladimir Ivanovic was from St Petersburg, his father's company Ivonto Exports and imports mainly operated in import and export industry as it's name entailed. His purpose in visiting India this time was his father's attempt to get Vladimir more interested in their company and it's operations as he felt it was the right time to slowly start integrate him into the family business. Especially considering Vladimir's daily habits once he was done with his graduation where spent most of his day partying with his friends.
Vladimir further explained that his friends were all second generation heirs were practically born with a silver spoon. He too had never experienced hardships or participated in proper negotiations until he had arrived in India. His father warned him before coming to India that it was completely fine to be taken advantage of especially considering this was his first time here but if he went back without learning anything he might as well retire early and sell the company to enjoy his retirement. Although he felt his father was joking this warning scared him silly. Without his father's company he had no idea what to do in the future. Especially the thought of losing his second generation heir title meant losing all his face in front of his friends. This was completely unbearable for him so he was spending his entire time on how to negotiate and how to run a business properly.
He had come to India with a couple managers by his side but he found a way to sideline them once he realized he would not be able to learn anything if he dumped everything on them. So he left them in Delhi on his trip to South and only took one security personnel with him.
He was considering purchasing anywhere in between one to two hundred thousand rubles worth of chili powder. He felt reluctant to purchase more since this was their company's first time venturing into chili industry and purchasing any less would not amount to anything considering the scale of their company in eastern Europe. Even though felt two hundred thousand was too low but he could only make do as they had not much experience in this field and the profits he could make since his part of the world was still in it's economic decline phase.
Once he heard the number Arjun became absolutely relieved, even though two hundred thousand might not be much in Vladimir's eyes but two hundred thousand rubles when converted in black market was worth around four hundred thousand rupees. This was a considerable purchase which any depot manager or medium scale powder companies could not ignore. He even felt they would invite them in with a red carpet if they came to know about this information.
After consulting Vladimir on his thoughts about whether to go for chili's and process them separately or purchase chili powder directly Vladimir was insistent on purchasing the chili powder directly as it would save him considerable amount of work and time while also making shipping much more easier.
Arjun then asked their taxi driver to directly drive them to Guntur's industrial district. They had earlier planned to stop at a regional chili depot but Arjun felt this was not necessary and might even leak their presence to the industry owners who might then try to overcharge them. if they went directly perhaps they could try to bargain much more considering the inner competition within the industries. After all four hundred thousand would meet most of their monthly production and perhaps even their reserves.
Once they reached the Industrial district they took their time to survey the nearby industries before trying to approach any of them. As they were looking around Arjun noticed a board of Vasu chili grinding mill, he had quite an impression of them from his past life.
Although they were not at the scale of his past life he once read in an editorial that their founder Mr. Vasudev Rao was a man of honor. He treated his employees to the best of the industry standards and had a quite the reputation in the surrounding farmers for being one of the very few who treated them fairly while most managers tried to haggle them for bits and pieces. He still could not figure out how such a gentleman could survive in the cut throat chili powder industry, he felt something was not quite adding up. Still it was better to keep his suspicions aside and meet him before making any presumptions.
Arjun then lead Vladimir towards Vasu grinding mill. Once they had informed them about their purpose, the residing manager offered them seats while he hurried away to notify their owner about the potential big buyer. Vasu who had gone to have his lunch hurried back once he came to know about them.
As soon as he arrived he started apologizing afraid to make a bad impression. "I'm sorry Mr. Vladimir i was busy with some other matters and could not receive you properly. Tell me sir what are your requirements and by when do you need the shipment."
Vladimir who could not understand a thing could only turn towards Arjun. Arjun then started informing Vasu about their purpose of visit and wanted to take a tour around the factory before going to any discussions. Vasu who ignored this kid upon his arrival was surprised seeing a 10 year old boy being the lead negotiator, he could not understand how this foreign guy would trust such a small kid.
Although he felt it might be a scam his business ethics taught him to never look down on anyone and such being the case he took both of them on a tour of their factory.
They first visited the cleaning area where there were a couple of workers sorting out the chili pods removing stems, stones and damaged pods from the heaps of chilies lying on the floor.
Then they visited the grinding area which was filled with multiple hammer mills and pulverizers. Arjun slowly explained their purpose to Vladimir before asking Vasu to continue on, then they visited drying area followed by the packaging section.
Then he took them to the storage section and explain in detail about the different kinds of chili powder they offered. There were several types of chili powder he was currently selling, stuff like Guntur Sannam chili which was very popular during these times inside India, Teja chili which was known for it's spice, Byadgi chili which was renowned for it's bright red color then there were mixed chili powder which was left out as neither Vasu wanted to sell these as they were pretty cheap and not suitable for export and Arjun too wanted to leave them for the same reason.
One thing Arjun was satisfied was with how sanitation was maintained throughout the factory. This was pretty rare scene to be seen during these days and sanitation was very important for goods produced for exporting.
Once done with their tour Arjun, Vladimir and Vasu returned back to his office, once seated he offered them chai which they gladly accepted. Arjun realized it was his time to shine so he started engaging Vasu in normal business conversation.