(The long forgotten legend )
"India is my country and all Indians are my brothers and sisters..." This famous national pledge recited by schoolchildren was composed in Visakhapatnam by then district treasury officer, Pydimarri Venkata Subba Rao, a native of Anneparthy village in Nalgonda, 50 years ago in 1962.
The original pledge composed in Telugu, first heard in a school in Visakhapatnam in 1963, was later translated into English, Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and various other vernacular languages and incorporated as the national pledge to be recited on the Republic Day in 1965. The author was a multi-faceted personality and a polyglot having achieved mastery in Sanskrit, Telugu, English and Arabic. He wrote on various subjects, including naturopathy besides authoring many books in Telugu, including a popular novel, 'Kalabhairavudu'.
Interestingly, the author was reportedly unaware of the nation-wide presence of the pledge till he heard his granddaughter read it out from her book. The National Pledge is treated on par with the National Anthem and the National Song and deserves to be commemorated.
