When the first wife of businessman Shri Thanedar, born and raised in India, committed suicide in the United States in 1996, their two children, Neil and Samir, were only four and eight years old.
Thanedar had emerged from a life of poverty in Belgaum and fought in Mumbai to become the owner of a pharmaceutical company in Michigan and had been living the American dreamBut in that moment, he felt the world collapse around him. He survived the crisis and made his business successful and worth $ 200 million. Then came the economic depression of 2008 – his business collapsed and he even lost the dream home he built. He had to start over.
Now, at 65, he has made his third comeback. On Wednesday, the Maharashtrian who is proud of his roots was elected to the 110th member House of Representatives in Michigan with 93% of the vote. A Democrat, he will now represent District 3 in Detroit which, with a population of 1.5 lakh, represents some of the richest parts of that city and some of the poorest, a mixture of wealth and impoverishment with which he is familiar.
Thanedar, one of six siblings, had a difficult childhood in Belgaum: his father retired from a government work at 55, and had to do odd jobs at 14. He soon moved to Mumbai where, after completing college education, he joined the Bhabha Atomic Research Center as a scientist. He went to the United States when he was 24 years old, earned a doctorate in polymer chemistry, and became a US citizen in 1988.
Grateful for the benefits of the government-sponsored school and college education he received in India, Thanedar wants to focus on education in his constituency. “I also want children to get free early childhood education, like I got it in India,” he says.
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