Even amidst cricket trials and practice, Arjun's mind wandered to patterns beyond the pitch.
On a rare trip with his father to the Guntur market, he watched the merchants handle transactions. Some cheated customers, some overcharged suppliers, others hid profits. Arjun noticed it all. Every inefficiency, every flaw, every opportunity.
Back home, he began small exercises: calculating profits for local stalls, imagining alternative logistics routes that would reduce costs, mentally designing supply chains that would maximize efficiency. It wasn't play; it was training.
He also noticed influence. A small gesture, a word whispered to the right vendor at the right time, could alter the flow of trade for the day. One man's stock moved faster, another's slower, and the market responded almost mechanically.
Arjun realized: People are predictable. Systems are manipulable. The earlier you notice, the more control you have.
He began cataloging mentally: vendors, routes, timings, habits, weaknesses. By fifteen, he knew more about the informal economy of Guntur than most adults, and he was only beginning.
Cricket taught him precision, timing, patience. Markets taught him leverage, flow, and influence. Both were lessons in control. One day, he realized, he could combine them.