At 100, his curiosity for current affairs is as strong as ever. For that, he reads the day’s newspaper unfailingly every morning.
This man, young at heart is one of the very few surviving members of the State’s Assembly - T G Thimmegowda. The Assembly is celebrating its 60th anniversary on June 18.
The Assembly secretariat has identified three members of the first Assembly - Thimmegowda, U M Madappa and Mulka Govinda Reddy. They will be feted at a function at the Assembly Hall on June 18.
He does not need the reading glasses to pore through the pages and it does not come as a surprise for a man who has had a disciplined and healthy lifestyle. Even at this age, he can walk without assistance and write legibly.
Thimmegowda was elected to the Assembly in the elections held in 1952 from the Tiptur constituency. Those were the days of innocence, recalls Thimmegowda, when service was supreme for elected representatives.
The centenarian former legislator reminisces the campaign for the first elections. He had then spent Rs 30,000, peanuts when compared to the countless crores that today’s politicians spend.
The leaders of yore could not even imagine buying votes through various inducements. The former MLA recalls how he had rented a car for the purpose of campaigning only and used to travel by bus or train to reach Bangalore for the Assembly sessions.
Thimmegowda’s craze for the bicycle was legendary as he pedalled through the length and breadth of the Tiptur constituency to apprise himself of the problems faced by the people. Having taken part in cycle races, he was nicknamed ‘royal man’.
Regret is writ large on Thimmegowda’s face as he analyses the present day political situation and says in a resigned sort of way that the present day leaders “will pay for their sins”. They have become synonymous with wealth and only the wealthy end up in politics, he says.
The members behaved with proper decorum as the Assembly sessions of those years had an air of divinity about them, recalls Thimmegowda. Public interest was the sole intention of the arguments that took place, he says.
Born at Thimmalapura, six km from Tiptur, Thimmegowda does not remember his date of birth. He is the third son of Girigowda. Thimmegowda has seven sons from his wife Gowramma.
After his matriculation, he started taking part in the freedom struggle and the activities of the Congress party.
His entry into politics was as a member of the Mysore Praja Pratinidhi Sabha, before independence. He bid goodbye to his political career after his defeat in the second elections.
Thimmegowda had close relations with former chief ministers Kengal Hanumanthaiah, Kadidal Manjappa, S Nijalingappa and Shantaveri Gopalagowda, who was the leader of the opposition.
Good food, noble thoughts and a calm mind have kept the ex-MLA going as he leads a life of contentment at his house on Gandhi Marg in Tiptur, with the pension provided by the government.