82 years old bespectacled man, clad in a white Kurta and loose white pyjamas, walking stick in one hand and a bag,containing books and papers, hanging on one shoulder, a wrinkled face which greets every one asking "tumche naau kayee? , Tumi kayee kaam kartat? Tumche vidyabhyaas kayee jala?.......", encouraging people of Rajapur Sarastwat Brahman community to join the Sangha, encouraging poeple to send their children to schools, providing information about scholarships, spreading the message from one house to the other, from one village to the other, this, great gentleman who dedicated, his whole life towards the development of the Rajapur/Bahalawalikar Saraswat Brahmin community, is Shri Kuntikana Ramchandra Shyama Nayak.

    Born on february 4th 1917 in Devasya of Puncha graam, to Shri Shyama Nayak and Shrimati Parvati Nayak, he was brought up by his foster parents, Shri Venkappa Nayak and Shrimati Devamma. After completing his primary education in Alike, he went to his uncles house to pursue higher studies. He still has memories of having lunch at Panjekallu Hari Ajja's house when he was in primary school. His primary school head master Shri Timanna Bhat convinced his family to send Shri Ramachhandra Nayak for higher studies. With the help of Baindoor Prabhakar Rao, he procured a certificate of being a member of backward community, which helped him to get his fees reduced and also get free accomodation in high school. Just before his SSLC exam, his father passed away. So he could not appear in the exam. Instead he took the exam the next year and passed with flying colors.

    After passing the SSLC exam, he started looking for a job. He got into the armed forces, but his dream was to take up a teaching job. So he met the district's school inspector, Shri Rama Rao, and got an assurance from him that he would be sent for Teacher's training.

    He got married to the sister of Thakur Anand Ray, Ms Meenakhshi, a trained teacher, in 1940. After the marriage Shree Ramchandra Nayak had to accompany his wife to Kumble, Kasargod. There he worked as an honorary teacher in a private school for 6 months. Next year he joined, teachers training centre in Mangalore and became a teacher. As both husband and wife were working at different places, they had to bear with the caustic comments passed by some "smart" members of our community.

    After completing teachers training, he started work in Shirva - Katapadi as a school teacher which lead him to work for the people of the RSB community. He started his social service by developing the unity among the members of Saraswath community in and around Shirva. He invited Mr Panduranga Kamath to the Bantakal temple and Pandi Narayana Nayak, President of Bhalavalikar Saraswath Brahman Sangh Puttur to the Bantakal Utsav and introduced them to the community and made every body understand that all the sub communities are the followers of the Swami ji of the Kaivalya Mutt. From there onwards, he actively participated in conducting Saraswath Sammelan in Bantakal which was presided by Mr. Mukunda Narayana Nayak in 1955, in starting Bhalavalikar/Rajapur Saraswath Brahman Vidhyavardaka Sangha, inviting His Holioness Shri Sachidananda Saraswathi Samiji Maharaj of Kaivalya Mutt and His Holiness Shri Sudhindra Thirth Swamiji Maharaj of Kashi Mutt to Laxmipur (Ennehole) Adishakti Mahalaxmi temple in 1963. This clearly highlights his attempts in trying to unite the Rajapur, Bhalavalikar and Gowda Saraswath communites.

    In 1971 he was actively involved in arranging the Chaturmasya programme for Shri Kaivalya Matadhish at Laxmipura Temple.

    He has been actively involved in clearing misunderstadings and mediate in case of confrontations and problems. He single handedly collected three fourths of the funds for the construction of "Sacchidananda Seva Sadan-Darbe" in Puttur. He collected these funds by visiting the houses of the members of the Saraswath comunities and collecting donations from them.

    He retired on 31 st may 1975. He wrote a book called "Saraswat Sudha", which was published in 11 Feb 1990. He summarized his interactions with community members and the information regarding our community and the his experiences in this book.

    He has set up charitable funds to help poor students in their studies. He has also collected funds for the renovation of the community temples, construction of kalyan mantapas and various activities of the Sangha. His commitment for the upliftment of the community has been recognized by various Sanghas and he has been felicitated by different Saghas for his social work.

    Shee Ramchandra Nayak, spent his retired life with his son in Mumbai. Though he was retired, he would still occasionally writes letters to the office bearers of various Sanghas, advicing and providing them with information and suggestions for various social service events. He passed away on 25th of Dec 2001. His guidance and support will be sorely missed by RSB community.