Mr Sadananda Shetty – Mangalorean Star
Mangalorean.com is proud to present Mr Sadananda Shetty, as the Mangalorean Star for the month of August for his great selfless community service and entrepreneurship and leadership in promoting sports and placing our city of Mangalore in world sports map.
Sadananda Shetty’s family hailed from a rural family. His father, Late Sri. Babu Shetty, opted to serve the Government and thereby the public. He successfully concluded his great community service and service to his society by being a retired Thashildar. His service to the society was impeccable.
Sadananda Shetty was born in Udupi on 20th Sept 1942, when the freedom struggle was entering the decisive phase and life was a never – ending struggle for a common man. Fighting against all odds, he completed his education in Mangalore. After completing his education he was attracted towards business field. So he established a successful venture, a hotel in Mangalore.
Apart from owning and running a successful hotel, his heart always yearned to do something auxiliary for the people and the field of education struck to him as a most appropriate platform to achieve his dream. Finally with lot of hard work and his innovative entrepreneurship, his dream was fulfilled. Thus, Sree Devi Education Trust was established by him in 1992. Today this Trust has over 1,200 students. The institution offers quality education in plethora of faculties; namely Hotel Management, Computer Application, Fashion Designing, Interior Design & Decoration, Nursing (B.Sc), General Nursing, MSW, and Physiotherapy. As the Chairman of the Trust, he has ensured that quality of education is imparted at very reasonable cost so that qualified human resource is available for nation building.
The sports and games have remained his first love ever since his childhood and it was normal for him to promote sports in this part of the country, after having secured his moorings in hotel industry. His strong presence in the field of education provided a perfect foil to his interest in sports. In the last 20 years he has successfully organized countless Taluk and district level sports meets and tournaments.
Some of the important sports events which he was very proud to be associated with as an organizer as well as the chief promoter are as follows:
• Indian Satellite Tennis Team Tournaments held in Mangalore during 1985 in which 90 participants from abroad took part to provide Mangalorean tennis lovers a super experience.
• All Indian women’s Cricket Tournament at Mangalore in 1997, which was a super success in terms of organizations and attendance.
• ‘Say No To Drugs’ run at Mangalore in 1993, in which thousands of Mangaloreans participated alongside over a dozen Hindi cine stars exhibiting their concern over increasing drug abuse.
He has taken numerous responsibilities during his long involvement with sports thus far and has played a paramount role to discharge them successfully.
The following are a few of the important assignments he has been entrusted with:
• President of Sports Promoters Club Mangalore.
• President of D. K. Dist. Amateur Kabaddi Association.
• President of D. K. Dist. Basketball Association.
• President of D. K. Dist. Badminton Association.
• President of Mangala Athletics Mangalore.
• Vice President of Karnataka State Basketball Association.
• Vice President of Karnataka State Amateur Kabaddi Association.
• Vice President of Mahatma Gandhi Peace Foundation.
• Past President of Kanara Club Mangalore.
• Past President of Ramakrishna Teams Club Mangalore.
• Past President of Riders Club Mangalore.
• President of Kadri Gymkhanna Mangalore
He humbly avers that, in recognition of many contributions to the cause of sports, he was deputed by the Karnataka Government to the Asian Games at Bangkok in 1998, as a technical observer. He also had an opportunity of witnessing the 2000 Olympics held in Sydney, Australia.
His achievement in placing our district in the world map of Sports is due to his vision and relentless efforts as an innovative and challenging leader in this field. With his keen interest in sports and by availing himself for very badly needed liaisonship and mentoring between the top echelons of the District Administration, Sports bodies, Sports-persons, Patrons, Promoters and of course the sports loving public, the momentum is maintained forever.
His aspiration to serve people through hospitality, education and sports field is no doubt a grand success – a dream come true! During his tenure as a President of Bunts Alias Nadavara Sangh, he had successfully invoked, conceptualized and conducted the “World Bunts Conference” at Mangalore in 2002, a massive get together of over 2 lakhs people from India and abroad. This two-day event, was a resounding success, and was acclaimed as an unprecedented occurrence in the history of Bunt community.
A brief interview with Sadananda Shetty:
What are your contributions to the society?
I have already established Shridevi Education Trust to contribute to the field of Education. My dream of starting an Engineering College has been materialized. The college is near Kenjar, Bajpe, it will be opened in the coming academic year. Sports is my pivotal interest and I am trying to popularize sports and games activities.
As a senior of Bunt community, what do you have to say about dowry system, which is more prevalent in your community?
I strongly oppose the dowry system and I have been trying to eradicate the evil system.
What is your suggestion to control and to eradicate the dowry systems?
Earlier most of the people in our community lacked education. But now the time has changed, even women are being educated and are against the dowry system. This will gradually bring down the dowry cases.
There are many Bunts Community people who are abroad. Can they contribute to the betterment of people over here?
There are many people who are in Foreign Countries. They generally go there to earn more money. But my request to them is; to look back to our district, realize how they came up in the life and to contribute some money. This would help a lot to the next generation in our community.
Not the one to chase honors and awards that he says, but privileged to receive several awards in recognition his superior community service like:
• Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award in 1977.
• The Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Excellence Award in 1990.
• The Sadhana Prashasti.
• The Seva Ratna Prashasti.
• The H. D. Devegowda Award in Nov. 2004.
• Rajiv Gandhi Excellence Award – 2005.
• Business Excellency Award 2005 instituted by International Integrity Peace and Friendship Society.
• Vandana Award – 2005 instituted by Rotaract Club Mangalore City for Sports Promotion.
• “Buntara Samajada Prathistitha Bunta-2005” Award instituted by Buntara Sangathi fortnightly News Paper.
On a personal note: he is happily married to Smt. Myna and is blessed with two sons, Sri. Nidhish, M. Tech from MIT Manipal, who is currently the Vice Chairman of Shree Devi Education Trust. Sri. Nikshep, M. S. from Andresa University in U.S.A, and is currently living in U.S.A. His family has been extremely supportive in all his activities and crusades.
Mangalorean.com wishes Mr. Sadananda Shetty success in all his future endeavors!
By R. K. Bhat – Team Mangalorean
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Comments:
prakashan e, India:
Congratulations to Mangaloe.com for providing a wide range of information about Sri Sadananda Shetty. Mangalore is in need of people like him for its overall development. I wish Sri Sadananda Shetty all success and hope that he will continue his community service relentlessely