{"id":2030,"date":"2023-06-25T17:22:57","date_gmt":"2023-06-25T17:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/doctormeah.com\/?p=2030"},"modified":"2023-06-25T18:01:07","modified_gmt":"2023-06-25T18:01:07","slug":"titan-implosion-dawood-family-titanic-wreckage-exploration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doctormeah.com\/titan-implosion-dawood-family-titanic-wreckage-exploration\/","title":{"rendered":"Titan Implosion: A World Connected, A Story of Humans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
A team of five crew members perished on June 18, 2023 on their voyage to explore the wreckage of Titanic. From the news media I also heard each of them paid 250,000 US dollars to pay for the voyage. Although sad, I have no special interest in exploring to what the super rich does with their money and resources. That was until two days later when my mind was drawn to the event hearing that two of the ill-fated people had last names “Dawood”, Pakistani Industrialists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My curiosity sprang up immediately and I could hardly contain it. So I jumped into action. But why? I am not related to this family, my upbringing is far more run of the mill downtrodden compared to this family, I am not even Pakistani, they don’t even know me! Then why am I so curious to know about the two perished billionaires laying 13,000 feet deep in the North Atlantic? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two words about them seized my mind: the last name “Dawood” and “industrialist”. In the 60s and 70s I grew up in a remote jungle town of the then East Pakistan established by a sprawling paper mill, called Karnaphuli Paper Mills, which was at that time the largest paper manufacturing facility in Asia. The factory owner also established a school to educate the children of the workers there and that is the school I had studied from nursery to 10th grade. Not surprisingly, name of our school was also: Karnaphuli Paper Mills School(K.P.M. School). This paper mill was owed by Ahmed Dawood, the patriarch of the family. This was the flagship industry among many he owned across Pakistan. My mother used to be employed in this school as a teacher also.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ahmed Dawood was born in a small town in British colonial India who at his early teenage years had moved to Mumbai to establish his business. An orphan, and a self-learner, having no formal education, he showed his talents in business from very early on. In 1947 with the division of India, he moved with his extended family to West Pakistan, almost empty handed. But talent of entrepreneurship doesn’t stay dormant. He started his business in newly independent Pakistan and soon started several industrial ventures in West Pakistan and eventually extending his industrial empire in both West and East Pakistan. He was reported to be very close industrial advisor of one time military strongman and president of Pakistan, Ayub Khan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although not formally educated himself, Ahmed Dawood patronized education and invested heavily in this sector including the school where I got my education. I still remember every few months his factory used to donate papers, reams of it, rulers, geometry boxes, school equipment and other goodies in addition to funding free education and bearing all the expenses of the school. His mill also fully funded our Boy Scout programs, cricket and football games and other extra-curricular programs for children to develop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most importantly, as a demonstration of his direct commitment and patronization, to this school, Ahmed Dawood himself would take part in the annual ceremony of students promoted to the next grade and prize distribution. It used to be festive day with a whole day of celebration and entertainment for all the teachers, students, guardians and the whole community at large. <\/p>\n\n\n\n