April 15 – Meeting the Minister

in front of the minister's house

This morning my phone rang, Tyler telling me that Hemal just called and we have an appointment with the Minister of Industry and Employment of Madhya Pradesh, Kailashji Vijayvargiya. Remember, it is Sunday the only day which is not a working day in India. So we are getting ready to meet the minister. Hemal picks us up and we drive to Old Indore where he has his house. On the way she tells us that he has been hospitalized yesterday and is now back at home but still sick. This is why we suddenly had a chance to get an appointment with him. This wouldn’t happen in Germany… when you are sick; you stay in bed and want as little interaction as possible with others. But this man really must be committed to his work.



the minister, Tyler, Hemal, Jessica and I

When arriving at his place we saw many people in front and in the hall of his house who came to see him. After the confirmation of our appointment we were led into a waiting room. We were told that you usually get little time (2-5 min) with the minister but we are lucky and can expect to have a meeting of about 15 min with him. After a while he joined us in the meeting room and sat down with us. Tyler and Hemal showed him the concept of the Women’s Resource Center that we have been working on over the past 3 weeks and we got really good feedback from him and he promised to support Hemal with this project. Wow… this was great, this is what she wanted. So this meeting went really well. In the end he also introduced us to his wife and his two little dogs. This day could not have gone better... congratulations Hemal...way to go!

Tyler, me, the minister & his wife,
Hemal, Jessica and another minister