Santosh Hegde, who took on the might of the Reddy brothers of Bellary mines with his Lokayukta report; Bollywood beauty, talent and enterprise like Aishwarya Rai, Shilpa Shetty and Sunil Shetty; flamboyant (and currently flailing) businessman Vijay Mallya; illustrious writer Arvind Adiga—the list of Mangalore’s icons is endless. Beyond the glamour, what has put Mangalore firmly on India’s economic map is the spirit of enterprise and its reputed educational institutions (though one’s eyes may boggle at the capitation fees charged by some of them).