Arjun who woke up early the next day quickly got done with his refreshments and breakfast. Once done he returned to their room and got dressed in the same white shirt and black trousers he had previously wore on his previous trip. This was the only formal set of clothing he currently had and had to make do with it.
He promised to himself to purchase a crisp suit once he received all the money he had yet to collect from the union and distributors. By the time he was ready it was already past nine in the morning. After gathering the samples, company documents and the basket of sweets his mother had personally made for her best friend Arjun called for a taxi and arrived at the location Saheri had given to his mother. The taxi guy left after dropping him off at the street entrance. He informed him that taxies were not allowed in this street and Arjun had to go by feet from here.
When Arjun reached the bungalow mentioned in the address he could notice a couple of guards stationed at the entrance and a few more making their rounds inside. This came as a surprise to him as he had not expected a scientist to have such tight security in these times.
When the chief guard stationed at the gate noticed a kid with a bamboo basket at the front gate, he got alarmed as everything about a kid standing at the entrance of the guest house with a basket in his had screamed suspicious.
"Who are babu? it's not a place for kids to be around" the chief guard spoke in a stern voice.
Arjun promptly mentioned he was here to meet Mrs. Saheri Padmanathan.
The chief guard relaxed a bit after hearing this and handed the basket to his subordinate to inspect it.
"Name?" He sternly asked glancing at the guest list.
"Arjun"
"Full name and ID card" guard asked in a commanding voice.
"Pamaddi Rudra Arjuna Reddy" said Arjun and handed his ID card.
After confirming the name matching in the guest list he took a glance at Arjun and let him inside handing back the ID.
Arjun after collecting his belongings briskly walked inside admiring the scenery. The big lawn which could house half of his village and the mansion in the distance gave him a very royal vibe. He had not been inside such a lavish place for a long time. Even in his past life he had the chance to enter such places only a couple of times. He hastily entered through the main door.
Had Arjun taken a glance back instead, he would have noticed the chief guard still standing at the same place gazing into the void, his back drenched in sweat.
Arjun meanwhile enquired the way to Saheri's office and proceeded towards it. After knocking the door a couple of times but receiving no response he entered after waiting for a while. As he entered Arjun could see a woman aged around thirty busy in some paperwork.
She looked breathtaking, almost too stunning to be a scientist. Had someone mentioned to Arjun she was a famous movie actress he would believe it instantly. But here she was dressed in a crisp saree with untidy hair falling over her shoulders engrossed in her work. He lacked the courage to disturb her and just stood there admiring her beauty.
Saheri who was busy with her work sensing some one at the door looked up to notice a kid who stood at the entrance staring at her.
"Arjun?"
"Arjun?"
Arjun woke up from his stupor upon hearing someone calling his name out. Noticing Saheri staring at him and pointing to the chair opposite to her, He gave a shy smile and got approached the table.
"Hello Atha(More intimate way of addressing auntie in Telugu), nice to meet you" Arjun said while placing the bamboo basket beside the table.
"You carry the same look your eyes as her Arjun, full of curiosity but also endless ambition" Saheri said after taking a long look at her bestie's son.
She took a packet of Badam milk observing the packaging, questioned Arjun "Tell me more about how you made these Arjun."
As Arjun was about to reply she carried on "Did you use the UHT method to treat them before packaging?"
Well it was not me who packaged these Atha, he went on to speak more about Shiva Ram his senior from the school.
"But this can only be considered pseudo UHT processing as we did not have any industrial equipment to do the heating and packaging.
Instead of using the normal heating to 140°C, rapidly cooling the liquid and packing the liquid immediately inside the packet we had to employ other methods to do the packaging." Arjun explained after his brief introduction about Shiva Ram.
"Okay now i am getting interested, tell me more" Saheri remarked.
"Instead of normal heating we used a fully sealed pressure vessel and heated it to around 130°C, filled the packets while the liquid is near boiling point but yet to curdle and sealed them, we also had to use boiled tools and had to be very careful not to touch the inside surfaces to accomplish this." Arjun was now really thankful for by-hearting the notes Shiva Ram had handed him before coming here.
"Hmm... good way to use the pressure difference to create vacuum seal effect, Also filling the package while liquid is still hot is a very good method to keep the packaging sterile. But there should be some failures no?, also what about the other flavors?" Saheri questioned back.
"Yes Atha, right now we only have success rate of thirty percent. But this is a home made process and i am confident it'll considerably increase once we import the necessary machines.
As for the other two flavors, all of them are already popular in households, We tried applying the same process to them and unsurprisingly it worked!"
"You want me to apply permit for a package not yet ready for proper production?"
"Well... i thought to save the time when i could Atha" Arjun replied shyly.
"Okay, have you ordered the necessary machinery then?"
"Well... not yet Atha" Arjun replied looking down
"Okay do you at least have enough money for the machinery?" Saheri was already losing her cool by now.
"Well... not yet, but i will have enough by the end of next week... Probably" Arjun wanted to dig a hole to hide his face by now. He never imagined dealing with a scientist would be so difficult. Why was this woman so unlike others he started to wonder.
"Where will you get the money from? I don't think your father can support you in this with his meager income no?" Saheri enquired curiously.
Arjun went on to explain his past few weeks and how he'd be receiving five to six lakhs by the next week if the union manages to clear their dues.
She was impressed by this kid. Although she was not entirely sure about Arjun's ability to succeed in the new venture she could at least be relieved he was doing out of his own pocket.
"Okay where are the company papers?"
Arjun took the papers he had placed on top of the sweet basket and handed them to her.
After looking through them making sure the company was in the name of Pratap, A name she utterly despised she placed them aside on her table.
Taking this as his cue he handed the sweet basket his mom had given, to Saheri and mentioned, Mom asked me to give them to you Atha, she had made them personally.
"Did she seriously think i would grant you the favor in exchange for some sweets? granted i like them but don't you think it's a bit over the top to trade a food safety permit for some sweets?" Saheri asked playfully.
Arjun was speechless, when did he ever mention about trading favors he wondered.
"Let me get this straight Arjun, I don't give out favors for free. Even if you are her son i expect something in return, so tell me kid what can you do for me?" She questioned in the same playful tone.
Arjun was stumped. He understood what this devilish woman was getting at but he didn't know what he could do to convince her.
Noticing Arjun not replying and his shocked expression she continued
"Okay how about this, you don't need to do anything right now. But you owe me a favor for the future. Seeing the ambition in your eyes i am pretty sure you'll not stop with a small packaging facility, who knows perhaps this favor might do wonders for me the future."
Arjun was starting to get amazed at this woman's shamelessness, But what could he do, he was at her mercy and could only nod his head slowly at her.
"Okay Atha, i will do everything i can as long it won't harm my interests."
"Trying to be clever huh, alright i will treat this as my best friend taking advantage of me, i will take care of the permit matter." Saheri replied finally achieving what she wanted.
Arjun meanwhile was even more stupefied.
"Wait when was he being clever?"
"How did he take advantage? wasn't it her doing all those things?"
He wanted to get away from her as soon as possible.
She then changed the topic and started casually started chatting with him,
"How is she doing son? is your father treating her well?"
"You know i hate her calling me after such a long time to ask for a favor for you. Do you know this is the first time she asked for something from me. Even when your father...." Leave it, which class are you in now? why are focusing on all these things instead of focusing on your studies?
Saheri went on to ramble on for another fifteen minutes without giving him a chance to speak up. Once she was done Arjun slowly got up from his seat preparing to run away.
As he was getting up though Arjun heard a question that made his heart skip,
"Everything checks out Arjun, but where did you find out about UHT process? i don't think it's yet to be introduced in India no?" Saheri questioned with curiosity in her eyes.