
Calcutta girl who fled home & marriage at 17 returns as millionaire US innovator - rjim86
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130126/jsp/calcutta/story_16488020.jsp#.UQYNrVUyjdC
======
btilly
If the story is true, then I question her ethics.

As
[http://www.preventcancer.com/consumers/cosmetics/cosmetics_p...](http://www.preventcancer.com/consumers/cosmetics/cosmetics_personal_care.htm)
(among many other sources) points out, we do not have good regulation of the
cosmetics industry. Which is kind of scary, because the cosmetics industry is
deliberately seeking biologically active stuff, and smearing it all over
people. Stuff that, in her case, does things like change your natural skin
color.

What else does it do? We don't really know. We do know that a lot of these
substances can cause cancer. We know that cosmetics mimic biologically active
stuff in our body that could do other things. We know it has not been studied.

The last point is important. As
[http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/a...](http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/athome/cosmetics)
makes clear, the situation right now is, "The jury is out, we don't have
data." But I'd be firmly on the side of, "When you're deliberately trying to
get the body to interact with biologically active stuff, it is just a question
of time until you succeed..disastrously."

~~~
guard-of-terra
So now you vote for stopping progress forever for the fears of safety?

I assume you understand this makes you undeserving of that safety.

~~~
Tuna-Fish
There's a difference between stopping progress forever and expecting companies
to perform some kind of human safety tests before bringing products to market.

~~~
guard-of-terra
Do you have proof (or reasonable doubts) that the person described in an
article doesn't?

~~~
campusman
I do....I know this person personally. She is duplicitous and ethically
bankrupt. I have seen studies done years ago supposedly on some of the things
she has developed and their efficacy but nothing in the last decade pretty
much. The people commenting with skepticism on her credentials earlier in this
thread are getting close to the mark with their assumptions. If you dig deeper
on her a lot of claims fall apart. It sickens me she is getting all this
exposure and publicity.

------
sksk
This story is very sketchy. Couple of Google searches do not turn up anything
useful about her beyond the standard PRish articles.

<https://www.google.com/search?q=chanda+zaveri+linus+pauling>
[https://www.google.com/search?q=chanda+zaveri+uc+santa+barba...](https://www.google.com/search?q=chanda+zaveri+uc+santa+barbara)

I tried looking list of people who have received honorary doctorate degrees
from Harvard but couldn't find the entire list. But it is not in the summary
list they have. (All this additional info from here:
<http://www.chandallc.com/index.php?p=1_4_About>)

~~~
twentysix
She does have some patents in her name

[https://encrypted.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=pts&hl...](https://encrypted.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=pts&hl=en&q=ininventor:Chanda+Bhuwalka+Zaveri)

[https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=d&tbm=...](https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=d&tbm=pts&tbm=pts&q=ininventor:Chanda+Zaveri)

------
prakashk
From <http://www.chandallc.com/index.php?p=1_4_About>:

 _Ms. Zaveri received a Masters degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from
the University of California at Santa Barbara. Subsequent graduate studies
were undertaken at California Polytechnic University (“Cal Tech”)_

Since when _California Polytechnic University_ is called _Cal Tech_? Isn't
that abbreviation used for "California Institute of Technology
(<http://caltech.edu>)?

Searching for _California Polytechnic University_ shows "Cal Poly" or
"California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA
(www.calpoly.edu).

Update: Wikipedia says (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Pauling>), Linus
Pauling was at Caltech in the 1927–1963 period and does not indicate he was
there in the later stage of his life (nineties). Nor does it say that he was
ever associated with CalPoly. At least this part of the Ms. Zaveri's story
seems suspicious to me.

------
billpaetzke
_She was lonesome, without a child and I became her daughter who she started
raising instead of me helping her. She gave me $30,000 one day and said: “I
want you to go to Harvard.”_

Wow, that is some luck!

~~~
flyinRyan
All business success stories have some element of luck (most of them a great
deal). It's just a question of how much and what you did with it.

------
bosky101
I was more surprised when I found out that Freddie Mercury (vocalist for
Queen) spent much of his childhood between Africa & India [1], moving to the
UK only after the age of 17 under trying circumstances.

~B

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Mercury>

~~~
zaph0d
Of course. His real name is Farokh Balsara.

~~~
jacquesm
Farrokh Bulsara

~~~
guard-of-terra
Pharōkh Balsārā‌

------
chris_wot
Popup ads to be had here. Perhaps an inspiring story, but marred by some
unethical practices by the paper itself.

~~~
gnosis
Try using an ad blocker.

I use the AdBlock Plus, NoScript, and RequestPolicy plugins for Firefox, along
with Privoxy, and virtually never see ads.

~~~
chris_wot
My point is really more that I question the veracity of the site, and thus the
story.

Incidentally, I can't get those on my iPad.

~~~
Indyan
Don't go by it's website, which hasn't been given a facelift in at least 6 or
7 years. However, having been a subscriber of Telegraph (India) for over a
decade, I can say that it is not often inaccurate. It's the leading English
daily (combined sales of #2 and #3 are less than Telegraph's) in Eastern part
of India.

------
jacquesm
For an encore, verified real and a lot more impressive imo:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anousheh_Ansari>

------
ycuser
A true Slumdog millionaire. A shining example of Luck, opportunity and will
playing their part. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

~~~
ananthrk
_A true Slumdog millionaire._ Not quiet the same, as she comes from a wealthy
family. She was running away from the social pressure of getting married and
ended up with what followed. [NB: Nothing to take away from what she achieved,
I am just responding to the term _Slumdog Millionaire_ used in this context]

------
jgenius07
What we should look for in the article is simply "the virtue of will power."
At least thats what i will. Does anyone really have the time to doubt and
investigate the bullshit doubts. She may be a schemer, i don't care, but her
determination and conviction is what attracts me and that's what i or anybody
else should take away from this article.

And i gotta say hailing from Calcutta (now Kolkata) and becoming what she is
now, really Really take balls of titanium.

------
khitchdee
Calcutta is famous for its musketeering personalities.

~~~
arjn
What ? Are you sure "musketeering" is the word you wanted to use here ?

~~~
khitchdee
I was searching for a better word. I thought of pioneering but it was too
tame, swashbuckling but it was too far out. Can you suggest something better?
I mean they are go-getters and bending the boundaries of the system.

~~~
MichaelGG
Is this actually statistically true? Wikipedia says it's the third largest
metro region in India. Apart from outliers providing anecdotes, what's the
reason to say people from this particular city are exceptional pioneers and
"bend the boundaries"?

~~~
khitchdee
West Bengal in general is characterized by such people and Calcutta is like
the center of West Bengal like Paris and France. They tend to be much more
into the arts and culture. Bengali, the local language is very sweet. If you
hear it it sounds like they are singing. e.g. Rabindranath Tagore.

------
solutionhn
A shiny example of a country filled with incompetent people, including the
ones who frequent HN.

How can a journalist be such a fool to publish something as ridiculous as
this? A simple Google search can confirm that she is fake.

With this article behind her back, don't be surprised if she ends up on a '50
under 50' list within a year.

~~~
shiven
Wow! By this metric if you can't find my life's story on Google, I must be
_fake_. And, _pari passu_ , anything you find about me on Google must be _not_
fake. Unless, of course, your post was an attempt at trolling... In which
case, I must admit, you've succeeded. ;-)

~~~
hermaj
She is on the board of advisors for RUMi OM™ YOUR SOUL VACATION™ HOME:

<http://www.rumiom.com/index.php/board-of-advoisors.html>

The other members are:

A mystery man who's biography is a copy and paste of the next mans bio.

The head of the International Schizophrenia Foundation, the ISF plays a vital
role in improving health by 'Orthomolecular medicine'

Jerry Garcia's third wife Deborah Koons Garcia (A Filmmaker)

A Former Soviet Special Forces physical training instructor.

A medical anthropologist and ethnobotanist who has researched shamanism.

A family physician practicing 'Integral Theory'.

I don't know any scientist who would be associated with this much nonsense and
be expected to be taken seriously.

------
spitx
I wonder what happens to HN on weekends and extended holidays.

The quality of comments plummets remarkably, approaching pedestrian at times.

------
suyash
That is why they call America the Land of Opportunity. If you work hard
enough, you dreams will come true here.

~~~
thewarrior
Yeah but this girl got two lucky breaks , She found an old lady willing to
give her 30,000 dollars to go to Harvard , and there she ended up meeting
Linus Pauling .

~~~
mikecane
She was also willing to do _the grunt work_ \-- clean petri dishes. How many
people here would be willing to join a start-up as a janitor? She would have
been -- because she knew _any_ in is an _in_. And in is always damn better
than _out_.

