Late Kasturi Ramachandra Pai

Founder President

We are very sad and deeply mourn the death of Sri Kasturi Ramachandra Pai, our founder President. He left us a on may 22, 2011. He was 76 years old. He leaves behind His wife, four children and a host of admirers. Sri Kasturi Ramachandra Pai was born on 15th April 1935 in the well known Kasturi family of Mangalore. He had his education at the Canara High School, Mangalore and Ganapathi High School, Mangalore. After completing his studies he joined his family business at M/s P.V. Pai & Co, as partner in the year 1956. M/s P.V. Pai & Co were representing M/s Simpson & Co.,Madras dealing in Ford Cars and Trucks. Later M/s P.V.Pai & Co were sub dealers under M/s Sundaram Motors for Premier Fargo Trucks and Fiat cars. They were also sub-dealers for Ashok Leyland bus & truck chassis from the year 1980. When Sundaram Clayton started manufacturing TVS Mopeds, M/s P.V.Pai & Co started dealing in TVS mopeds also. In the year 1984 when Ind Suzuki Motor Cycles Ltd, came to the market with Ind Suzuki motor cycles. Later Ind Suzuki merged with TVS and became TVS Motor Company. Sri Kasturi Ramachandra Pai, when he joined M/s P.V.Pai & Co., initially was in charge of their workshop. Subsequently he was heading their spare parts division also. When the family partition took place in the year 2002 Sri Pai started his own firm in the name of Mahalasa Motors for dealing in TVS scooters and motor cycles. Sri pai married srimathi bhagirathi pai in march 1960 and had four children Mr.K Rabindranath Pai, Mrs. Anitha Pprabhu, Mrs Poornima Shenoy and Mr.K Sudhindranath Pai. Sri Pai was a very simple and unassuming person, a down to earth gentleman & a good public relations man. He had extensively toured the Southern States and had attended almost all the Automobile conferences. He had personal rapport with all the automobile manufactures and dealers. He was very popularly known as Automobile Rampai. He was an enthusiastic cricketer. He was taking very keen interest in all the sports activities. He alongwith late Sri K Viswanatha Prabhu toiled for 15 long years from 1984 to 1999/2000 to organise Dakshina Kannada Automobiles & Tyre Dealers' Association. It was Their complete devotion to the cause that enabled the Association to mobilise membership and keep the actives going. They gave a strong association on a very sound Footing to the automobile dealer fraternity. His sad demise is a loss to the association. On behalf of our association, we humbly offer our prayers to the almighty to bless his soul with Eternal Peace and also to grant all the strength to the bereaved family to bear this irreparable loss.

Late K. Vishwanath Prabhu

Founder Secretary

The greatest strength of an organization is its people. A voluntary body like Dakshina Kannada Automobile & Tyre Dealers' Association can grow only when individual members willingly contribute their effort and selflessly strive to further the organisation's cause. Our beloved Sri K Vishwanath Prabhu who breathed his last on 23rd march 2009 at the ripe old age of 78 years was one such individual who was a pillar of strength for our Association. Sri Prabhu was the founder Secretary of the Dakshina Kannada Automobile & Tyre Dealers' Association. He built up the Association along with Sri Kasturi Ramachandra Pai, who was the founder President of the Association. The founding team took up the initiative to start this association, Sri Prabhu very enthusiastically took forward the cause by mobilising members, coordinating the Association activities and contributing new ideas for future growth. Sri Prabhu had toiled day in and day out to bring the dealers of automobile spare parts in the undivided South Kanara District under one roof and organise a strong association with their co-operation. For his selfless contribution, the association conferred him the title of Patron. Sri K Vishwanath Prabhu was born on 19th April in Mangalore. He did his schooling at Canara High School, Dongerkery, Mangalore, after completion of his SSLC in the year1950, he joined the well-known Automobile Empire CPC Co Ltd, mangalore and at Adi Kaveri Motors, Madikeri as also at madras in their lorry department. He thereafter joined M/s. Nayak s Automobiles, the automobile spares business of his former colleague at CPC, Late Sri Vaman Nayak. Being industrious and enterprising this relationship resulted in great expansion actives and in the year 1973, late Sri Vaman Nayak and Sri K Vishwanath Prabhu jointly in partnership started M/s Prakyat Engineering Works. This workshop engaged in lathe works and reboring was situated at bunder in Mangalore. The success of this venture encouraged them to start yet another venture Prakyath Diesels . This unit started in 1976 was soon followed by establishing M/s Prakyath Engineering Works at kasaragod. Following the sudden demise of Sri Vaman Nayak in 1978, Sri Prabhu left the service of M/s Nayaks Automobiles. After the tragic demise, Engineering Works and Prakayath Diesels were bifurcated with the family's agreement and Sri K Vishwanath Prabhu continued running these firms on his own. In the process Prakayath Engineering works at Kasaragod was closed. In the year 1980, Sri Prabhu started one more unit M/s Prakayath Automobiles for tata spares which he had to close down during 1991. But he started his second unit for fuel injection pump calibration at sagar, shimoga district in the year 2001. He closed his lathe workshop M/s Prakyath Enggineering Works at bunder, Mangalore in the year 2008. Sri prabhu was an active member of GSB Sabha, Kodikal, Mangalore. He was president of the sabha for 10 long years from 1997 to 2007. He was also the President of the Dakshina Kannada District Tiny Industries association mangalore during 2004 to 2006. Sri Prabhu was a very unassuming simple person. He was a good organizer and very very co operative. He was very generous and of very helping nature . He always encouraged newcomers and youngsters to start new ventures. Sri Prabhu's death is a great irreparable loss to the association and he will be missed forever. AS OUR ASSOCIATION REACHES THE LANDMARKS ACHIEVEMENT OF ESTABLISHING AUTO BHAVANA WE PAY RICH TRIBUTE TO HIS MEMORY AND OFFER PRAYERS TO THE ALMIGHTY TO BLESS HIS SOUL WITH ETERNAL PEACE.

‘Auto Ratna’ Sri Maroor Padmanabha Pai

Founder

“There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth,” said the great writer Leo Tolstoy. Our illustrious Past President Late ‘Auto Ratna’ Sri Maroor Padmanabha Pai, who served our organization with tremendous vision and zeal for over three decades, was such a man whose actions always have spoken louder than his words. A founder member of our Association, ‘Auto Ratna’ Sri Maroor Padmanabha Pai took on the mantle of Presidentship of the Association in the year 1999-2000. A veteran in this field, he has shared his deep insights with us all by spearheading the Association activities. It was under his initiative that the long cherished dream of the Association to have its own building came true with ‘AUTO BHAVAN’. He also initiated a series of programmes to establish a strong identity, promote unity and goodwill among members as well as organized training seminars for professional advancement. ‘AUTO SANDESH’, the illustrated quarterly newsletter of the Association was launched in April 2015 and the official website was launched during the Association’s 32nd Annual General Meeting held on 18th September 2016. He continued the tradition of honouring outstanding veteran Members of the Association with the Lifetime Achievement Award. In order to foster family bonding, the Association under his leadership began to felicitate meritorious children of the Members as well as those of their employees with Merit Student Award. Both these recognitions are conferred to the recipients during ‘Auto Sangam’, a special felicitation programme which is hosted immediately after the conclusion of the AGM every year. Organizing an outdoor family picnic for Members and their families is yet another of his successful initiatives. A generous personal contribution towards building of a corpus for financially supporting the children of Members’ employees in their education is one of the last philanthropic initiatives he undertook under the auspices of our Association. Despite his senior age and the busy demands of his own business, he pursued the Association activities with incredible zeal. During his term our Association strength nearly doubled from 176 members in 1999 to over 300 members in 2017. He had extraordinary ability to build rapport with all and he was able to improve the public profile of our Association with his excellent public relations skills. Due to his efforts, our Association today enjoys a better stature and he has raised the benchmark of leadership for all. He steered the Association on to a path of systematized and structured growth. He brought in a professional touch and introduced several new systems like having periodical meetings, maintaining records and documentation of activities, diligent compliance with all mandatory requirements etc. He kept in touch with all the members and ensured that there was good attendance at Managing Committee Meetings as well as during the Annual General Meeting. The AGM itself was conducted with all the decorum befitting a corporate body. Due to these reasons, the annual renewal of registration of the Association with the Registrar of Societies became very easy. In the year 2015, on the eve of his 84th birthday, the Association had honoured him with the title of ‘AUTO RATNA’ in recognition of his lifelong service to the trade and dedicated service to the Association since its inception. ‘Auto Ratna’ Sri Maroor Padmanabha Pai passed away on Sunday, 22nd October 2017, at the age of 86. He is survived by his wife Smt. Sumathi Pai, three sons Rammohan Pai Maroor, Chandrakanth Pai Maroor, Shashidhar Pai Maroor and a daughter Sumana Nayak. Following his demise, Federation of All India Automobile Spare Parts Dealers Associations (FAIASPDA), New Delhi, our national apex body summed up the contribution of ‘Auto Ratna’ Sri Maroor Padmanabha Pai in its condolence message as follows: “Late Sri Maroor Padmanabha Pai was a learned and knowledgeable person. He had contributed a lot not only for the growth of DKATDA, Mangaluru but also for the FAIASPDA and the welfare of the trading community. He was one of our most respected persons and great supporter of the FAIASPDA. In his passing away we have not only lost a veteran and a great personality but also a well wisher. His ever smiling face, amiable nature and willingness to help others selflessly, will always remain with us. He was a pillar of strength and source of inspiration for the Apex Body.”