He is mostly known to be the founder of Udavum Karangal, a NGO based in Chennai, India Pappa Vidyaakar was born in Mangalore but grew up in Kollegal in the state of Karnataka.

At the beginning of the 1980s Vidyaakar moved to NSK Nagar, a poor area in Chennai, to start a volunteering collaboration with a local charity.

Soon many people started spontaneously to support his project, allowing him to hire other social workers and expand the area of interest of the charity to elders, mentally challenged and education.

In the 1990s a new headquarters was built in the outskirts town of Thiruverkadu and in 1997 a public, free of charge school by Udavum Karangal started operating in the same area.

Recently a new branch has started in Coimbatore and Udavum Karangal is now a NGO fostering over 2,000 between students, elders and mentally challenged and giving work to over 120 people.

Thanks to the life-changing impact they had in the area and the relief work produced following the 2004 tsunami event which struck Chennai, both Pappa Vidyaakar and Udavum Karangal received in the last decades several international and Indian awards 1. International award for most outstanding voluntary organisation in India - Matsushita, Japan, 1992 2.