“One day, I came back home after yet another job rejection,” Basavaraj S told The Better India, pausing before adding, “That’s when my father handed me Rs 1,000 and said, ‘Don’t come back.’”

That moment — painful, humiliating, and deeply personal — became a turning point in Basavaraj S’s life. With nothing more than a shattered sense of worth and Rs 1,000, he boarded a bus to Bengaluru.

He made two promises to himself as he left his village behind: he would never return until he had built something of his own. And he would do it within 10 years.

Door to door, rejection to recognition

Bengaluru wasn’t kind at first. With no connections, no capital, and barely a plan, Basavaraj began knocking on doors — quite literally.

“In the early stages, I used to visit individual companies and do a minimum of 20 to 25 cold calls every day,” he said. “Nowadays we are talking about cold calls through telemarketing, but I am talking about individual meetings, and knocking on the doors of each company.”

Through relentless effort, he eventually found his rhythm in sales and soon earned recognition. “While I was good at my sales job, I always felt like I was here for something bigger,” he added.

With Rs 55,000 saved through sheer determination, Basavaraj launched Kambar Products and Services, a company that supplied uniforms, safety gear, and office merchandise.

Over the next 18 years, he turned Kambar into a multi-crore enterprise, but the hunger to do something with deeper purpose never left.

A new purpose born from a crisis

The pandemic made everyone pause. For Basavaraj, it became a moment of reckoning.

© The Better India