The family then divided the Prasad Arjun had brought back from his earlier temple visit and distributed them to their neighbors and kids. This was very common to back then as every one in the village felt others were their own family and had a sense of obligation to share the religious offerings with others.
Arjun did not mention anything about the Sadhu who met him in the temple as he did not want his parents to worry any further. With how superstitious adults of this generation could be Arjun knew they would start looking for silly prayers to solve the issue which he did not believe in one bit.
The next day Arjun went to visit the head master in one of the breaks to retrieve the bangle they had taken away from his sister.
Venkateshwar Rao explained how Sari was growing slowly unruly among her class and even mentioned she was starting to start a new group and bullying other kids.
Arjun was taken aback when he learned about this matter from the head master, he could never have imagined his lovely sister to become a bully and wanted to correct it before it becomes engrained in her.
With his knowledge Arjun was sure their family would be in a position to influence a lot of people's lives and if this kid turned out to be a bully who preys on the weak it would not be good for their reputation in the long term.
But Arjun did not really know how to deal with the issue, he had never come across such thing till now and did not want to take too drastic of action and hurt his sister in some manner but still wanted her to get the message. He decided to keep the bangle with himself and only return it to her once he was satisfied with the progress.
Arjun hurriedly thanked the head master for the heads up and informed them about the upcoming success meet cum launch event and invited all the staff from the school who helped in the All in One making for the event.
Venkateshwar Rao was even more excited once he learned about this from Arjun, he imagined they would be successful but not to this extent. almost seventy thousand book sales meant at least a lakh students got to read the book their school had made.
This was an achievement few head masters in the entire country had and being one such person that too from such a remote and small village he felt proud of himself and his staff while appreciating himself to take the opportunity Arjun had given them instead of not taking it and regretting it later.
Venkateshwar Rao promised to be there with the staff who were essential in making the book possible and asked if they were going to receive shields of some kind.
It was then that Arjun remembered teachers and principals of this era cared more about the shields they could hang on their walls more than the money they made and promised that there would be shields for the people who helped the most but wanted to give out only five of them as too many would make it seem not so worth it and might set a bad precedent for the future.
On his return from the school Arjun went to Karan's home instead of his own as he wanted to check Madan out. He had already seen the morning state newspaper and knew half the donation campaign had already been completed.
Seeing Madan in his usual seat but with a jovial smile Arjun remarked
It seems someone is finally happy to smile his heart out
Madan who was lost in his own world was startled by the new voice in his room and tried retracting the expression but noticing it was Arjun who had come he hurriedly invited him to sit and asked what brought him this way
Nothing uncle just wanted to check how far we've come with the donation campaign
Madan showed him the state newspaper and their mention and put on a smug smile, he mentioned how he did not even contact the newspaper personnel but still got his name on the third page.
Arjun wanted him to keep this joy but felt the need to explain the situation further and mentioned how the union played a huge part in the operation and them getting a spot on the third page.
Madan now understood how he got the spot but did not feel much about it as he was just riding the wave like many politicians do.
Arjun then mentioned about the meet up on the weekend and personally invited Madan for the event as he felt this was important considering he still held twenty five percent of the company but had not asked for the accounts even once.
Arjun was sure by now that it was just a matter of time before Madan gets the MLA ticket especially after the recent publication of the donation campaign and wanted Madan to do the honors of awarding the teachers their shields.
Madan who learned about the event and Arjun's promise of handing out shields was happy to lend a hand too and asked about the venue details.
Learning it was going to be on a beach he was excited too as most of the meetings he went to were very boring sort of ones and here if he was bored he could at least look at the sea and enjoy himself.
Arjun bid farewell to Madan and went to Bhargav's house to inform about the shields as they did not have much time to get them done and delaying it further would only cause more stress on the main day.
Tharun promised to get the job done immediately once he received the call from his brother and enquired about the quality of the shield and the engravings.
Arjun then dictated the names and designations of the teacher's list he had got from the head master and mentioned the shield had to look expensive as they were probably going to be hanged in the homes of the teachers and handing them cheap knock offs wouldn't be fitting to their image.
On his way back home Arjun started thinking about how to deal with Sari as he did not want to inform his parents about this and cause them to do something too harsh for something this small.
Upon noticing Sari playing around the neighbor hood on his return Arjun called her and took her for a walk. Sari who noticed the angry expression on her brother's face felt something bad might be on the way and tried to skip him but Arjun forcefully dragged her away and they sat on the usual bench Arjun sits on his beach visits.
He showed her the bangle but just as Sari was about to reach it he put it back in his pocket and put on a stern expression. He explained her how bad bullying was but when Sari mentioned why had nobody cared about it when she was the one being bullied Arjun did not know how to reply.
He had wondered where this kid had gotten the habit of bullying from as none of the people in their household were such persons but now it seemed more reasonable as kids tend to learn from their surroundings and their own experiences.
Now that she finally had something to show off it seemed okay for her to flaunt her new bangle but Arjun explained how she had taken it too far.
He knew most of the words would go above her head if went too deep into philosophy and instead questioned Sari about her feelings when she was being bullied and asked her why she wanted to impose such feelings on others which left the kid speechless this time.
Arjun then took his time to slowly explain how to treat their friends and colleagues with respect and why it was important to do so. He promised to return her bangle but only after she apologizes to the people she condescendingly looked down on.
Sari did not want to do it but noticing her brother's expression she understood she had no other option which became even more apparent when Arjun warned her that he would inform their parents if she does not apologize in the next two days.
This hit the nail on the head as Sari hurriedly shook her head and promised to do so on the next day after which he let her go back to her friends while he returned back home to discuss with his parents about the matter of food supply for the event.
Arjun and Pratap wanted to hand this to a local catering from the town but Kavitha was adamant that she could do the making herself with some aid as this would not only help reduce costs but also get her more involved in the event.
After all this was her son's first success meet and if she wanted to thanks the others who helped her son grow to such a stage which left both Pratap and Arjun without a proper reply. Even though they hated to see her working more they both knew this would make her more happy than sitting on the side doing nothing and just let it be.