Shiva ram was finally okay with taking the shares, anyway he would not receive them right now. He was grateful for the promise of sponsored studies and research and decided to give it his all in the next two years to invent something for the company that was doing so much for him and especially for this younger brother.
Arjun returned home and informed everyone about his new secretary coming to village on the next day. Kavitha and sari were fine but Pratap was jealous, his son was going to have a female secretary while he had no chance to do so.
when Arjun explained her story to the family every one was moved. Sari started crying in her chair and it took them over five minutes just to calm her down. Kavitha had to sleep with her daughter that day to make sure she doesn't get scared in the night. Arjun never thought the story could be so moving to a small child, he had seen many more crazy movie stories in the future but it did not affect him the least.
what Arjun failed to realize was kids especially younger ones try to imagine themselves in the story they are being told, to Sari imagining herself as Lalitha was a very scary experience. when Pratap explained this to Arjun he was stunned, he had made a note to try not to say scary stuff to her in the future at least until she's more older.
The next day by the time Lalitha had arrived to village in the morning bus Arjun was already at the school and Bhargav was there to receive her. Of course he had other stuff to deal with but well love had made people do wilder stuff than skipping work.
Bhargav was stunned to see Lalitha coming down from the bus. She was nothing like when they had met her, even though there was a tinge of nervousness in her eyes and the years of negligence had taken quite the toll on her face she was still stunning to look at.
No wonder the owner and son duo set their eyes on her, he imagined himself in the owner's shoes and he probably would want to marry his son off to her too.
But that son's behavior was utterly despicable and Lalitha's willingness to let go did not sit well with him. Engrossed in these thoughts Bhargav accompanied her to her new home. It was nothing exciting, just a thatched roof house next to Arjun's home.
It was recently vacated so did not need much cleaning either. Lalitha was happy with the housing, even if it was nothing noteworthy she had to live in worse places to make life do. Having a place to herself felt great especially when she did not have to pay for it.
When she learned from Bhargav that Arjun and his family stays next door she was amazed. She could never imagine staying in such a low key thatched house if she had his money.
What she did not know was Arjun did not want to either, but he had no money to shift for a better place. All of his money was going to be poured into the beverage factory in the upcoming months.
When he mentioned this to his parents they did not seem to mind it as well since they had been living here for so long a couple of months extra was nothing to them. Pratap even mentioned he would rather stay here than move away from the village for better housing as he became accustomed to living there with most of the surrounding people who were both his friends and well wishers.
Getting such neighbors in cities or towns would be quite a challenging task, perhaps an impossible one. Lalitha wanted to visit their house and help them in chores but stopped after Bhargav warned her not to do anything unnecessary until Arjun comes back from school.
How could Bhargav not understand what this woman was thinking, But sometimes learning to skip some work was nothing wrong if nothing was allotted to you in the first place. This was the major problem with these day's women, they just can't sit idle he grumbled inside.
Once she was done with her unpacking Bhargav took her around the village while trying to keep the small talk going. His efforts though did not seem to get the expected results as Lalitha was mostly oblivious to his tactics. Well somethings cannot be rushed he reasoned and accompanied her back to her house before he went on his way.
Arjun, Karan and Sari went to meet with Lalitha after the school. Saritha liked this new sister very much, she was too kind to her and let her do as she pleased. Arjun and Karan meanwhile were lamenting the fact that they were not ten years older.
Lalitha who was trying to keep Sari busy was happy yet sad. Seeing these kids reminded her of her own childhood. Especially how respectful Sari treated her meant Arjun had already informed his family about her past, This was a hard pill to swallow for her as most people who surrounded her in the past few years did not know much about her past so she could be herself.
Arjun took her to his home and introduced his parents to her and invited her to have dinner with them for the next few days until she got her house set up.
When Lalitha enquired Kavitha what they did and learned Arjun's father was a regular government clerk and Arjun had made all the money in the last few months she was surprised. She imagined him to be a second generation heir but here he was playing with his sister merrily on the road.
Perhaps children had a different sense of wealth she wondered. She had seen some rich neighborhoods in her life as a construction worker but people there never seemed to be as happy as these people who were in front of her.
The father supporting his son who was still ten years old to go ahead with his dreams, mother helping him out whenever she could and a lovely sister. Lalitha was too jealous of Arjun to even sneak a peak at him.
Ahhh how i wish my life was like this she lamented.
Arjun after sending Sari to play with some other friends came inside and questioned Lalitha about her experience in staying at the village so far. Kavitha cut him in and said if you ever need anything Lalitha come to us, don't forget you have big sister living next to you.
Lalitha who heard this was amazed by how welcoming the family was to her but it only seemed reasonable as any sane person would react the same way after they knew her story. Even though she liked the feeling it did not satisfy her, she wanted earn her place through her efforts not her past.
She enquired Arjun about her work which got him stumped. He had hired a personal assistant as it was becoming a hassle to travel regularly to the town but did not have much else going on other than the printing press.
This would be resolved once the beverage factory starts operations but until then he had to find her something else to do. He just informed her to get acclimated to the village and help out at the press if there was a need.
Lalitha was taken aback by this, she wanted to prove herself through work but if there was nothing to do how could she make herself worthy she wondered. When arjun informed her about his plans to start a factory she was finally relieved, at least there would be something to do in the future.
The next couple of days went on normally until two days later Vladimir called Arjun to inform him that the deal was successfully negotiated to five hundred thousand rubles and will transfer the machinery as soon as possible.
But instead of sending him money he wanted Arjun to secure goods for six hundred thousand rubles worth of goods. This time half the money was to be spent on chilli powder, two hundred thousand on sweets and the rest on pickles or anything Arjun thought would sell well in Russia.
Vladimir informed he would come one or two days ahead of the shipment arrival to sign the agreements.
Arjun took some time to think about this proposition, he was ready to pay around three hundred thousand for the machinery, If Vladimir wants to give him free extra money and take up all the risk why not take it? he would just try his best not to scam him again in the future Arjun decided.
Anyway sweets and pickles and other food products had a very short shelf life, it would be fine if he ordered them just one or two weeks before Vladimir's arrival.
This would also solve another huge problem Arjun had in his mind all this time.