Stories That Inspire

Every Republic Day, the names that get repeated are the same: Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. One name that almost never comes up, despite writing the document's original draft before the Drafting Committee ever touched it, belongs to a doctor's son from Mangalore.His

Mangaluru had a "double dhamaka" moment on Zee Kannada's Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li'l Champs: young singer Ashmith won the trophy and Rs 20 lakh, while fellow Mangaluru contestant Achinthya Rai finished first runner-up.

He inherited a family business built on timber and trade. Dr. Yenepoya Abdulla Kunhi turned it into a 32-acre campus of medical, dental and nursing colleges, and a university that today carries his family's name across Karnataka.

Born in Keradi village near Kundapura, Rishab Shetty went from performing Yakshagana as a schoolboy and selling water cans in Bengaluru to writing, directing and starring in Kantara — a film so successful its 2025 prequel became one of the highest-grossing Kannada films ever. His career has been built almost entirely on refusing to leave coastal Karnataka's stories behind.

Born in Karkala and orphaned by age two, Anant Pai trained as a chemical engineer before a 1967 quiz show — where children knew Greek mythology better than their own — set him on the path to creating Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle. Millions of Indian children who never knew his real story simply called him Uncle Pai.

Born in Mangalore in 1903 to the district's Collector, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay went on to become the first Indian woman to contest a legislative election, one of the first women arrested in the Salt Satyagraha, and the single most influential figure behind independent India's revival of handicrafts, handlooms and theatre. She built a refugee township, founded institutions that still shape Indian culture today, and largely refused the political rewards offered to her for it.

A Class 10 dropout from a small village near Bantwal, Varanashi Subraya Bhat turned a collapsing areca nut market into CAMPCO, one of India's largest farmer cooperatives. His chocolate factory in Puttur, inaugurated by a sitting President of India, remains a symbol of what Coastal Karnataka's farmers built for themselves.

Prabhakar Kamath — Mangaluru's beloved 'Pabba Maam' — taught himself to make ice cream at home and opened Ideal's first parlour on 1 May 1975 with 14 flavours. A story of quiet enterprise, coastal pride, and lasting sweetness.

Harekala Hajabba — Mangaluru's orange-selling 'Akshara Santa' — built a government school from scratch using daily earnings of Rs 60–150. A story of humility, grit, and Padma Shri glory.