Can you draw a picture of Donald Duck while dancing on roller-skates? Aditi Mamtani can.

Aditi, the 69th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, performed this feat while competing at Miss India Australia last month. She placed second (which makes you wonder what you have to do to finish first).

When Aditi’s not dancing and competing in beauty pageants, she’s running her growing business, Arete Labs, which she founded last year after a successful corporate career. Arete Labs does ‘formulation chemistry’, which means it develops personal care, cosmetic and pharmaceutical products for brands. 

Clearly, Aditi is very smart; she’s also someone who thinks for herself and has a fierce will to succeed.

When Aditi was 15, she proposed to a boy who had just joined her school. Foolishly, he said no – but, years later, he came to his senses and married her. When Aditi was 19, she moved from India to England to study, and paid her way through university by washing dishes and doing other odd jobs.

So I’ve got a feeling Arete Labs is going to be very successful. 

Aditi has promised me a tour of the laboratory once the COVID crisis ends.