Arjun handed Kavitha the same copies he had shown to Madan earlier. Kavitha wanted to handle the matter of preparing the layout book and different versions of it.
Although the facts section was not yet prepared and proofreading was not yet done they could make a preliminary version of it to make things easier later on. This would also keep Kavitha busy during her idle time.
The next day there was quite a bit of commotion in the village. Arjun and Saritha who were on the way to their school stood and observed for a while, They could notice many cars most of which were adorned in party flags going towards the local fishing yard. Arjun understood, Madan was successful in his lobbying for better supply chain in fishing industry.
They could hear the villagers accumulated alongside the road to observe the commotion discussing the matter in a hushed manner. It seemed their village was going to treated as a trial run for the new government initiative. Even though he could not hear what the new initiative was called Arjun was perceptive enough to understand his proposed supply chain plan was beginning to be implemented.
Arjun was happy for Madan, this seemed to be starting of something big for his political career. If the pilot run was a success Madan would accumulate considerable amount of prestige in the nearby fishing communities essentially guaranteeing their votes.
The next couple of days carried on without any major news, But Arjun could sense it. He could feel it in the air the idle village atmosphere was slowly shifting. Although not much had changed, people were more busier, there was a smile on every fishermen's face.
In their small village where most of the people's life was based on fishing this was quite a big change. Even though the fishermen were more busier he could sense a feeling of satisfaction among the fishermen. Some of their goodwill carried to his house too once they learned from Madan that this was Arjun's idea he had bough earlier.
Everyone knew it would be impossible to implement this pilot test without Madan's lobbying so major credit went to him, but in a corner of their hearts villagers had a shift in opinion about Arjun's family too.
Arjun was very thankful for this, He did not know whether this would be of any use. But he believed any amount of goodwill would never go to waste.
As they were done with their school and were returning to their home Saritha pointed at a high school student who was waiting at the gate seemingly waiting for them.
Arjun instantly recognized him, "Shiva Ram anna are you waiting for us?" Arjun said as he approached him. He remembered this guy, he was one of the seniors he had hired to assemble the question and answer sheets. If he remembered right he was handed chemistry as that was his specialty.
Noticing Shiva Ram shaking his head, Arjun proceeded to enquire "Is there any issues with proofreading or assembling the interesting facts in chemistry that was handed to you?"
Shiva Ram declined once again but turned silent. Arjun who noticed hesitation on his face, comforted him, "it's okay anna you can say anything without any hesitation. You don't expect that i could harm you right?".
Shiva Ram thinking perhaps Arjun was imaging too much declined immediately "No no Arjun it's not regarding those at all, i have something else i just don't know how to put it".
"It's like this recently i have been working on a small project of mine. I was trying to delay the spoiling of milk or buttermilk for some time now, Although i was not successful with making the milk last longer i was successful in making butter milk last much longer than it is right now. Currently with the changes i made it could last up to two weeks if stored properly. I was wondering if this could be useful to you in any manner", Shiva Ram hurriedly spoke without waiting for Arjun to speak further.
Arjun who was waiting for some sort of bad news was surprised, very surprised who would have imagined this tenth standard kid to give him such a shock.
Packaged buttermilk was a very popular product in the future. Arjun too noticed this very early as he had already planned to enter this very lucrative industry in the future. He had considerable knowledge regarding dairy products as he acted as a distributor for one of the companies which manufactured butter milk, rose milk and so on. He even knew of the methods to make them much longer without adding any chemical substances.
But neither did he have enough funds nor did he have any experience in making of these products. Even though he knew the process of making he was not a chemistry enthusiast like Shiva Ram who could turn theory into practice.
Arjun felt this kid was a gift sent from heaven. If this opportunity could be grasped properly Arjun was sure this would be start of something big, very big. He then enquired Shiva Ram about his current method.
Shiva Ram proceeded to explain, with the addition of salt, roasted cumin and ginger the butter milk he produced could last around a couple of weeks.
Arjun could finally make sense of it, these were very commonly available spices in every household. During these times when every household had at least one or two buffalos to meet their needs, Shiva Ram had everything he needed at his disposal. Although the method was a bit primitive and not suitable for commercial usage it was a good start. Especially Shiva Ram who seemed like a diamond amidst a pile of rocks.
If this kid could accomplish this without any financial backing or monetary benefits he could not imagine how he would do if he was given all those and a good environment.
Arjun then asked for Shiva Ram to join him for a cup of tea in the nearby stall and signaled for Karan to accompany Saritha home.
Once seated and served Arjun began, "Anna this is very good but unfortunately the process as it is right now would not be very useful".
"Is it so? is there no way for this to progress?" conveyed Shiva Ram with disappointment written all over his face.
Arjun: "Actually anna there is something we could do, i was wondering if you could hear me out".
"Sure please do say" still disappointed with earlier statement Shiva whispered back slowly.
"It's like this when i was out on the trip past week i noticed an article in the local newspaper. According to it if a liquid like juice or coffee is heated at 135 - 150 degree Celsius and immediately sealed in a sterile container or package it would help the liquid last without spoiling for at least 3 months if the packaging is left unopened, this is called Ultra-High Temperature packaging", Perhaps we could try and use this same method for butter milk and possibly other dairy products too mentioned Arjun.
Even though he had read no such news Arjun could only lie, After all it would be too ridiculous to say it was his knowledge from the future. Arjun felt this was a perfect excuse as this method was already prevalent in Europe already.
Shiva Ram who was sulking looked up "Is this true Arjun? you're not making things up are you?".
Arjun : "It's not like i have any reason to lie to you anna, if you could accomplish this it would be very helpful to our future".
Shiva Ram hearing the sincerity in Arjun's words felt his spirits lifted. It was the first time in his life that someone believed in his crazy experiments and offered advice too. Although he was staring at a kid who was only ten years old, Shiva could not let go of the feeling that he was conversing with someone who is much older than him. Still he did not care much about it, perhaps it was how his parents taught him, Shiva reasoned and let it go.
Shiva Ram : "Okay i will work on this, but i don't have any equipment to measure temperatures with me right now. It would be very helpful if you could get one for me".
Arjun : "Leave this matter to me, i will visit the town in the nearby weekend, if you need something else let me know by then. Don't be shy with me. We need this thing to work."
Shiva Ram happily obliged and went on his way. Arjun meanwhile wanted to take a while to organize his thoughts. This news came as a too much of surprise for him, he needed to adjust his plans to the new changes.
Even though it would still take a while to get done with experimenting and move onto production phase it would never hurt to be more thorough in terms of finances.