As a teenager, Jahandad ran away from his village to become a cabin boy. The boy from Neela, a small village in the heart of British India, returned home after more than 25 years later as a prosperous plantation owner in East Africa.
Though he never received a formal education, Jahandad returned in the Potohar region, with a vastly broadened worldview and a passion for education. He realized that education is the key to success for every man and woman.
Back in Neela, he put his philosophy into action. Each child, even his daughters, was encouraged to study, something virtually unheard of in that remote village in the 1930s. One daughter had an aptitude for mathematics and entered a scholarship competition. Jahandad took her to a Hindu tutor 22 miles away, every day by bus. She won the competition, and later became a well-known teacher herself. Other children and grandchildren became successful government servants, doctors and pilots.