My ad strategy for ATTI strikes gold on first day

Before embarking on the mission of collecting ads for the ATTI souvenir, we requested our Principal to suggest possible sources and he told us about a few of his friends who held important positions in some MNCs. Their friendships dated back to the time when he was in England, hence they mattered.
Moreover, I had with me a classmate who was from Delhi and he was rally a smart alec, he talked like an expert and appeared to have all the answers.
The first ad we received was from the oil giant Burmah Shell – they booked the front cover page and the PR manager handed over the block for the ad. It was fine start because the rate had been pegged at Rs 125. We then went to Dunlop tyres – and the PRO booked an inner cover page whose rate was Rs 150. He could not hand over the block but asked us to take it from their ad agency. Similarly for ESSO – another oil giant. They booked an inner full page priced at Rs 100 and asked us to collect their block later. All these three were associated with aviation, hence there was no problem because all of them knew our Principal and respected him.
That was the result of our first day’s efforts – and when we gave the feedback to our Principal, he was satisfied. We had decided to print 300 copies and use good quality paper – and, we needed to obtain some rates from the printers for printing in order to arrive at some budgetary estimates. For that, we went to the printers who had printed the souvenir for our Durga Puja. He was known to me and he assured that the cost would come to around Rs 450.
That was fine with us because we had already collected Rs 375 and the balance would not pose any major problem. (to be continued…)