Arjun slowly engaged Vasu in learning more about different kinds of chili and their prices. Sannam chili was costliest of them all with each kilo of export grade costing over thirty five rupees while Byadgi chili and Tejas chili were considerably cheaper with them costing about eighteen and twenty rupees respectively.
Arjun came to the conclusion that Byadgi chili was the best option to purchase considering it's bright red color and low heat which was perfect for their needs as they were to be exported to Eastern European markets.
It was Arjun's understanding that most customers did not really care about the type of chili, what mattered was the bright red color. Brighter the color the more interested people would be in purchasing the chili especially when they could not tolerate the heat from other chili types. This could even project the perception that perhaps the brighter ones were of better quality than the ones already available in market.
Arjun then took his time to explain to Vladimir about his available options. Once he learned of the price of eighteen rupees per kilo he was already quite satisfied. When he tried to purchase similar chili powder in Delhi he was offered price of around twenty five rupees so the price of eighteen was very satisfiable to him.
Vladimir was satisfied but Arjun was not, he then started whittling down the price saying he had already another supplier offering the deal for seventeen and half thousand rupees for a ton. Vasu unsure whether this was a bluff or not could only make up a sad face and offered each ton for seventeen thousand per ton. He explained any lower and it would not suit his margins.
Arjun was quite okay with the price but then proposed a couple extra conditions. First was that shipping had to be handled by the chili mill and the shipping had to be free and with security provided until they reached their warehouse in Delhi. Security was a necessity considering the hard times of 1989.
He also wanted an extra set of fake bills for the purchase which he reasoned would help Vladimir fake bills and help him decrease the tax he was going to pay back in his home country. Vasu was quite understanding about this and readily accepted.
Then Arjun proceed to enquire whether mixing ten or twenty percent of low quality chili powder into the Byadgi chili powder was feasible. Vasu was once again confused but then started giving weird stares to Vladimir who curtly smiled at him.
As Vasu understood this Arjun was fully intent on exploiting this foreigner, although it would not impact the quality of chili powder he felt cheating this foreigner was not a honorable thing to do. But what did that have to do with him, he was not the one scamming or being scammed after all so he readily agreed to this.
Arjun then proceeded to inform Vladimir that he would be able to purchase around twenty two tons of chili powder for two hundred thousand rubles. He further detailed this would come with free shipping and security till they reached his Delhi warehouse. Vladimir was ecstatic upon learning this information. He was very afraid about the iffy security standards of India.
He had heard of goods being looted in India from his friends back in Petersburg, now with the security being offered for free he was completely carefree and urged Arjun to get the deal done quickly.
Arjun made Vladimir sign on two different sets of papers, he explained one was for Vladimir with the original prices and other was for Vasu to denote fake prices and reduce his taxes. Vladimir gladly signed on both of them and so did Vasu, now Arjun was finally relieved.
He had made over twenty thousand rupees from this deal alone which Vasu would later transfer to Madan's bank account. He had already informed Madan about this prior to coming out with Vladimir.
Once done they carried on talking about other things for a short while and parted ways each with a huge smile on their faces. Vladimir promised Vasu that his money would be handed to him once they reached their warehouse in Delhi after paying ten percent in advance.
Vasu was going to propose this and once he came to know about this from Arjun he was happy too, he did not mind paying Arjun out of his own pocket as he would be making much more out of this deal and he started valuing his relationship with Arjun more too. He figured this kid who could negotiate on similar level to him would absolutely become someone worthy being a friend to in the future.
Arjun then proceeded with Vladimir and joined Karan who was waiting for them in their taxi. Then together they left to Vijayawada's sweet vendors. The sweet market had yet reach of it's popularity as it did in the future and the entire town of Vijayawada had only two wholesale sweet suppliers who could meet their needs.
Most of the sweets produced in this time did not yet have high shelf life, this was another problem and Arjun too did not have many solutions for this problem at hand. They could only make do as they had already discussed these issues beforehand.
They proceeded to meet with one of the two distributers Shan sweats and pickles. Masood Shan had considerable reputation in Vijayawada's sweet scene. He started introducing them to different sweets produced in their in house sweet shop.
But most of the produced sweets did not have considerable shelf life. Upon learning about the requirement of at least 4 months of shelf life he was disappointed as this narrowed down their product range by a lot. there were only four or five items which met their expectations so he proceeded to get them those samples.
Mysore Pak which was made from gram flour, sugar and ghee had relatively low high moisture and considerable shelf life. Palli Chikki was another of them it was made of peanuts and jaggery and was quite healthy for being a sweet. Bellam Laddu and Soan Papdi were also products with considerable shelf life. Arjun hinted Vladimir to taste all of them and give his opinion before going ahead with the negotiations.
Vladimir who had never tasted long lasting Indian sweets before was in love with how Chikki and Soan Papdi tasted, he mentioned they were not too sweet and suited his taste buds. Vladimir felt the other two were too sweet and was not much optimistic about their prospects. Still he felt the need to acquire few cartons of them to test the market reaction before purchasing more.
Once he got the green light Arjun proceeded to finalize the deal which had one ton shipments of both Soan Papdi and Palli Chikki. He further ordered quarter ton shipments of Laddu and Mysore Pak. They together costed around hundred thousand rupees and were promised to be delivered to Delhi with same requirements as the previous chili shipment of free delivery and security guaranteed.
They then proceeded to have a look around in the pickles section. Vladimir who had never tasted Indian pickles before was shocked by the wide range of pickle types being offered. But he was not really optimistic about their prospects as they had never been introduced to Eastern Europe's markets before and were primarily made to be eaten alongside rice, which was not really popular in his home country either. So they settled on purchase of around twenty five thousand rupees which bought him hundred kilo of mango pickles and hundred kilo of other consortium of pickles.
Vladimir was very satisfied with today's proceedings. He had never imagined that everything would be done by the time night arrived, and he was in the midst of every negotiations. He was impressed with Arjun's skills, even though he felt that he was being taken advantage of he never mentioned it as he was already very satisfied and wanted to keep this relationship for the long term.
He handed twenty thousand rubles to Arjun for his efforts. When Arjun mentioned it was too much he declined, he felt it was worth it. This one guy brought the length of his trip down from a couple months to less than a month, He was starting to miss his country already. Excited he asked about Arjun's contact details so that he could intimate Arjun about his future endeavors in India.
Arjun who suddenly remembered he did not have any phone with him could only apologize to Vladimir and instead took his number and promised to reach out to him once he set up a telephone line in his home. Vladimir although disappointed could only accept it. That night Arjun alongside Karan, Madan and Vladimir visited the high end bar where Vladimir was finally able to unleash his inner fire.
He absolutely steamrolled Madan in their drinking competition and felt it was a pity that the two kids on the side could not join him or else he would have enjoyed the night even more.
Arjun happily laid on his bed that day satisfied that made around sixty thousand rupees in a single day! this was a very good news for him, he finally had enough currency to purchase both the printing machines!!.