Jakkada Bella Gowder is such a wonderful person. Talking to him is an honour and pleasure and needless to say, highly educative. It was indeed my good fortune when he dropped in at my place in Bangalore, though for a very short while. Discussing about [Jakkada] Hethe Amma or about Rao Bahadur Ari Gowder when he was a student of Madras Christian College, Madras in the 1930s, he becomes very exited and emotional. My only regret was that I could not spend more time with him.
He is 92 years young and is in good health and does not like to have any artificial help like hearing aids etc. He moves on his own and politely declines when somebody tries to help him climb down the stair case or get into the car.
May God bless him with many more active years!
Incidentally, Bella Gowder’s second son Bala, an engineer by profession, is another Badaga Buff, having done a lot of research on Badagas.
