Pratap had a vague feeling that Arjun was trying to pitch these together but he did not say it out loud. Arjun went to visit Madan's house to invite Bhargav while Sari went to Lalitha's home.
Lalitha was taken aback when they invited her to the family picnic as they had only met a few days back but they were treating her so good, this left a sweet feeling in her heart. Something she never expected to experience again and agreed.
When Arjun mentioned his purpose of visit to Bhargav he was initially not willing to come as this was his only holiday for the week but hearing Lalitha was coming along he quicky nodded his head in acceptance as quickly as he refused.
Karan who was on the side wanted to go too but instead of going to picnic he suggested going to the exhibition happening in Machilipatnam. Since it would only take around forty minutes for the travel from their village to this town which was much smaller than Vijayawada Arjun regularly visits.
Arjun felt this was perfect as his sister has never been to a exhibition before. He returned to his home and explained his new plans which made Sari very excited.
She hugged her mother's hand and asked her jumping "Mom mom what is exhibition??", upon learning it would be full of games, toys, sweets and food she was even more enthusiastic.
When she got to know that it would only start in evenings though, she was a bit disappointed still she sang her favorite song and went to her new big sister next door to tell about the changed plans. She asked Lalitha if she had ever gone to one, but when Sari learned she did not was a bit disappointed.
When Lalitha explained what it looked like from a distance Sari was amazed, the surrounding filled with lights and kids, big giant wheels rotating filled with lighting she started imagining it but failed to do so and went back to her home to still thinking about it.
But when she returned home they calmed her down seeing how excited she was, Pratap warned her, if she doesn't get proper sleep today then tomorrow's plans would be cancelled which made her hide the eager expression and try making a stoic face which was even more funnier and everyone in the house burst out laughing.
The next day in the noon after having a small nap entire family along with Bhargav, Lalitha and Karan boarded the public bus to Machilipatnam around four. Since this was the only nearby town there were three trips a day from the town to their village for the public bus.
When they reached the exhibition it was already starting to get full, with people from surrounding villages lacking any proper entertainment it was the perfect place for a holiday.
Sari ran around holding Arjun wanting to check out all the toy shops but when Arjun mentioned getting on the giant wheel she was struck. She wanted to experience how it felt to ride one but was afraid of getting on.
Pratap held her closed her eyes and sat her down on his lap as they boarded the giant wheel. When they were through the first rotation and he felt she was getting used to it, he removed his hands covering her eyes.
When Sari looked at how high she was she gave loud scream and turned back to hug her father closing eyes back. After some coercion from Pratap she finally regained her courage to watch the surroundings.
Have you ever been on a giant wheel before asked Bhargav to Lalitha trying to start a conversation
No she replied
Why? you don't seem afraid of heights
No when you live the life i had, most things stop scaring you she replied with the same unbothered expression she always has
"..." He did not know how to follow it up, this woman had a knack for bringing up sad stuff on every occasion he tried to engage in a conversation
This was a surreal feeling for Saritha who had never been to a building larger than one floor. It felt like floating in air whenever the wheel came down and she liked it very much. Very soon the ride ended but she did not want to get down making Pratap take another trip with her while the rest of them got down.
After second time she wanted to ride again but when her father mentioned the other rides she gave up the idea and started running towards other smaller rides.
Arjun took her for a couple rides on merry-go-round where he had to wait for over fifteen minutes just so they could ride on her choice of horse.
After she got down Sari wanted to have some cotton candy when she noticed some on the side. Alas they did not have pink colored candy floss which she wanted making the family search around the park for other stalls selling pink cotton candy.
She was adamant they could not move elsewhere without the candy no matter how much they tried to reason. Finally after fifteen minutes of searching Karan bought her one from a corner stall which made everyone relax.
Arjun now realized treating someone like a princess was a tough job. Even though they have everything they'd need in front of them, kids were notorious for coming up with strange new requests.
He did not want Sari to become like those obnoxious brats. If this continued then no matter how much money they had it would go down the drain. Imagining her asking for a pink Ferrari or something similar sent chills down his spine.
Perhaps it was time to start putting limits on her requests but Arjun felt this was too much of overreaction for a cotton candy. He let it go and they went on to play balloon shooting.
Arjun, Karan and Sari failed to pop a single balloon while Bhargav was able to shoot a couple which caused him to grin smugly at Lalitha, which only lasted until Pratap picked up the gun.
For the next five minutes all they could hear were sounds of reloading and popping balloons. The stall owner had to beg them to stop and Pratap only relented when the shop keeper handed Sari two big teddy bears which made her ask Pratap to stop. She felt sad looking at the shop keepers expression and the two teddy bears which were too big for her to hold which satisfied her enough already.
When they left the stall she excitedly asked her father to teach her to shoot which made everyone of them pause. Young lady what do you want to do learning shooting and all Lalitha asked the kiddo.
"Hmmpphh i want to shoot those balloons myself and get over fourteen teddy bears" Sari patted her chest and replied.
"Why fourteen?" Bhargav asked from the side
This made Sari pause, yes why fourteen she wondered until her mother Kavitha from the side explained that's the largest number she can remember right now which made everyone laugh out loud.
Sari did not know why they were laughing but she too joined them.
Arjun wanted to ride a roller coaster but the exhibition had none so he had to settle with a pendulum ride. Sari got scared just by looking at how it was swinging high from left to right but upon her brother's insistence that it would be a fun ride she joined the others too.
This was much more scarier experience for the small kid who came back out with her stomach churning with all the crazy movement. They settled down in a small food stall to have some snacks and wait for her to recover.
Sari kept throwing tantrums for the next fifteen minutes about not feeling right but soon returned back to normal after drinking some coconut water Kavitha was having and a few minutes of rest.
When Pratap mentioned about going back she ran to a toy store and started crying wanting them to buy some for her or she threatened to keep on crying.
When Arjun showed her the couple teddy bears she did not relent at all crying even more loudly screaming she wanted the barbie doll and small cooking set. With no other option Pratap bought them both and hurriedly pulled her away from the stall afraid of her next tantrum.
It was finally the time to leave but as it was already past seven and the last bus which they planned to get on leaving at eight they decided to change their plans a bit.
After all no holiday ends without a family dinner and Pratap did not want his wife to return home to cook after such a hectic evening. They had their dinner at a local restaurant which took over an hour but since Sari did not like the food, Kavitha still had to go back home and make her a couple of Dosa(Indian pancakes).