Calcutta girl Chanda Zaveri, who left home at the age of 17 in 1984 to escape her arranged marriage, went on to writing her own success story of becoming a millionaire entrepreneur and innovator with a master’s in molecular biology and a Nobel laureate as mentor on her CV. Instead of compromising with the life chosen for her by her parents, she preferred to leave home alone and embrace Life’s challenges head-on. She faced them with extraordinary courage and dedication and returned home after three decades as a millionaire entrepreneur.
Zaveri met a tourist couple on Park Street in Kolkata on a day when she fell unconscious due to heat and humidity. Zaveri helped them to reach hospital and they became good friends ever since."I had no money, just a pair of diamond earrings," said Zaveri, whose parents had arranged her marriage. "I sold it, got myself tickets on British Airways and landed in Boston."
There, she took various jobs as a maid for elderly homeowners. One employer was impressed enough to give Zaveri a huge gift: $30,000 to go to Harvard, where she completed the two units necessary to pursue a master’s degree.
Next, she headed to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to begin biochemistry research under visiting professor Linus Pauling, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist.
Today, Los Angeles-based skin care company Actiogen, which she founded, its website states, anticipates a $100 million turnover from their latest product. Some of the profit will fund continued research.
"Money she makes from the sale of her products goes to her true passion: curing cancer, healing wounds and sequencing the proteins in the human body," reads her biography on SkinHealix.com.
In town this winter, like she is every year, Chanda narrates to Metro her believe-it-or-not journey from Calcutta to California and how a penniless girl founded the skincare products company Activor Corp (now Actiogen) and devised a formula that is also used in one of Calcutta-based Emami’s bestselling creams.
She comes her hometown every year.She said "I love Calcutta, keep coming back every year and I built my own house in Salt Lake. I am happy to see more Marwari girls pursuing higher studies, but the priority of finding a good groom still remains. Having gone through that and having worked as a maid, I hope for a day in India when people, irrespective of their status and gender, will treat each other as equal.
I think I had a destiny that I asked for. I believe in the law of attraction. If you want something and you don’t have ifs or buts, you will get it. No matter what."
There, she took various jobs as a maid for elderly homeowners. One employer was impressed enough to give Zaveri a huge gift: $30,000 to go to Harvard, where she completed the two units necessary to pursue a master’s degree.
Next, she headed to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to begin biochemistry research under visiting professor Linus Pauling, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist.
Today, Los Angeles-based skin care company Actiogen, which she founded, its website states, anticipates a $100 million turnover from their latest product. Some of the profit will fund continued research.
"Money she makes from the sale of her products goes to her true passion: curing cancer, healing wounds and sequencing the proteins in the human body," reads her biography on SkinHealix.com.
In town this winter, like she is every year, Chanda narrates to Metro her believe-it-or-not journey from Calcutta to California and how a penniless girl founded the skincare products company Activor Corp (now Actiogen) and devised a formula that is also used in one of Calcutta-based Emami’s bestselling creams.
She comes her hometown every year.She said "I love Calcutta, keep coming back every year and I built my own house in Salt Lake. I am happy to see more Marwari girls pursuing higher studies, but the priority of finding a good groom still remains. Having gone through that and having worked as a maid, I hope for a day in India when people, irrespective of their status and gender, will treat each other as equal.
I think I had a destiny that I asked for. I believe in the law of attraction. If you want something and you don’t have ifs or buts, you will get it. No matter what."