As he walked out of his room he could notice his father seated in his usual position reading his newspaper. Saritha who had already woken up came running to him asking for her gifts.
Arjun forcefully pushed her away and went ahead to get refreshed. Once he was done he handed his sister the chocolate goodies he had bought for her who excitedly ran away with the bag in her hand.
He then called for his father and mother to hand them their gifts too. His father who got his gift, an imported pen liked it quite a lot but his enthusiasm died when he noticed Arjun gifting his mother a saree.
Kavitha's eyes lit up when she saw the saree. It was perfect, it was her favorite color with a subtle border. Not too lavish not too simple it fitted to her liking perfectly.
What Arjun did not notice was his father shirking his head and turning away. Pratap who had already shopped quite a lot with his wife during his lifetime instantly understood how costly it must have been.
Even though he wanted to scold his son for his extravagance he could not speak up. Although he was the head of family, his remote control was in Kavitha's hand after all.
Kavitha who noticed the weird glances from Pratap came to her senses and started blaming Pratap for being so senseless. Look at her son how perceptive he was, why could his father not learn a thing or two from him.
Meanwhile Pratap who could not realize the storm in wife's heart started berating Arjun for his unnecessary spending after finally regaining his courage. As soon as he said this though the temperature in the room chilled down a degree.
Pratap not noticing this continued to ask Arjun about the prices to which Arjun could only smile and went on ahead with his stuff as it was already past seven and school started at eight.
Kavitha meanwhile shot an angry glare at her husband then proceeded to store the saree and came back to join the family for the breakfast. Arjun was finally relieved after his parents settled down. What happened later once he and his sister left to school was not really his concern. It would not hurt for a family to have some quarrels then and now. In fact it was his belief that periodic fights would strengthen their relation further. It would be an issue if the fights were regular but as long as that was not the case he would be happy for his parents.
Karan joined Arjun and Saritha who were on their way to school and informed him that his father would visit their school during their lunch break. Arjun who wanted to skip a class or two using this as an excuse could only sigh and let it go.
Venkateshwar Rao who was the head master of government high school of Manginapudi did not have many accolades to his name but was a very hard working guy as many were during those times.
He was surprised when he came to learn that the village head wanted to meet him. Usually village head stayed away from the school affairs which he was very thankful for. He had heard of many stories from his colleagues about other village heads poking their noses into the school affairs.
Madan arrived just on agreed time to the school. As he entered the school he heard the ringing lunch bell and noticed the happy students running out from their classes. It was a rare sight for him to see so many kids running around with smiles on their faces.
He was impressed by Venkateshwar Rao for his hard working personality. He had also never interfered in their village matters too, it seems this head master was quite perceptive in terms of politics. Through out the years they had come to a silent agreement that he would not interfere in the school affairs and vice versa.
Madan was very happy with the current dynamics and proceeded to catch up with Arjun and together they reached the head master's office.
Venkateshwar Rao quickly got up from his desk as soon as he heard the knock on the door and invited Madan to his office.
When Madan entered his office alongside Arjun, Venkateshwar Rao was very surprised. When he had seen a kid next to Madan he thought it was because this kid had some other reasons to visit but it seemed not to be the case.
Madan then explained the reason for his visit to the head master. Venkateshwar Rao was stunned after hearing the reason for their visit. He was not really interested in collaborating with the businessman for a book. According to him all capitalist were blood suckers and it seemed to him that one of them had set their sights on his school.
As the head master was still ruminating in his thoughts Madan motioned Arjun to explain further about their concept and needs. Arjun then proceeded to explain about their All in One where all the subject questions and answers could be accessed in one place.
Venkateshwar Rao was surprised by the kid who seemed to be on equal footing as the village head when they were conversing and started to think more about their proposed idea. This All in One seemed to be very useful for the students.
It would help the poor students considerably if the price was below a limit as currently they needed to purchase multiple guide books one for each subject which costed around ten rupees each totaling over seventy rupees for a kid.
This was a considerable expense for the regular labors who only made around three hundred rupees per month. Although their school was free these books slowly added to their expenditures.
Now if this All in One could be made popular it would help many students in their pursuit. Once he came to this point he readily agreed to Madan's proposal and agreed to hold a staff meeting along with Arjun after the school ended.
Venkateshwar Rao was even more elevated when Madan mentioned about thanking their school in the epilogue and providing an extra thousand rupees as incentive for every teacher who participated in this endeavor.
He promised Madan that he would do his at most to get this done within a week even if it meant delaying other matters. Madan then proceeded to discuss some other village politics with the head master.
These two people who had never really interacted in depth prior to this hit off immediately. Madan then bade farewell to both and left the school with a big smile on his face. Their first phase of plan was proceeding very smoothly.
Arjun too went on to have his lunch in a hurry as only fifteen minutes were remaining for the lunch break. The head master meanwhile started enquiring more about Arjun from teachers.
He came to know that there was nothing exceptional about this kid, even though he heard about the deal Arjun made with Madan about some fishing issues he put it aside as it seemed not very important.
Once the school was done Arjun proceeded with Karan to the staff room. Venkateshwar Rao had already informed his staff about this meeting so they were already present when the kids entered.
They started giving weird stares when they noticed the two kids in their staff room. The head master then informed them about the reason for the meeting and motioned for Arjun to explain about the All in One in more detail.
Arjun then walked up from his seat and took the stage. He seemed to not have any stage fear facing so many teachers and explained the purpose of All in One. He went on about how each subject and chapters were to be structured.
He mentioned the main purpose of All in One was to gather all the questions and answers from the same class in a single book. He also explained there was no need to do any in depth explanations and the book should only contain precise answer to questions, one where the teachers would award full marks to the given question if it was written as it is.
The teachers were impressed by the idea. They understood how useful this book would be to all the students, But they were not really interested in this as it would take considerable amount of time and effort.
Sensing their hesitation Arjun also offered about their incentives of thousand rupees for each teacher who participated and their names being printed in the authors section. He also warned that slackers would not receive the same benefits and only those who gave it their all would be given the proposed thousand rupees.
Once they heard about the incentives the teachers impression of the kid changed all at once. It seemed this kid knows how the world worked.
Mrs. Mamatha was the first to agree to the proposal as Arjun was her student and she felt the need to show support especially when Madan had already informed earlier that this was a venture between Arjun and her little nephew.
Once Mamatha expressed her stance others quickly followed and promised to get their part of the book done within a week as most of them had similar materials with them already, all they needed to do was streamline their personal material to suit the book.
Arjun and Karan satisfied with the teachers enthusiasm thanked them and left the staff room leaving the professionals to their own.