This 72-year old’s tryst with words and his insatiable passion for compiling dictionaries never stops. Peddi Sambasiva Rao is neither a lexicographer in the mould of Samuel Johnson nor a bibliophile but has compiled 50 dictionaries in six languages and is not done yet. He has now designed an android mobile application- ‘Nigantuvu’, a three-language dictionary with a database of meanings of 40,000 words in English, Telugu and Hindi and a built-in voice based pronunciation tool.
For Mr. Sambasiva Rao, who had served in the Medical and Health Department, the tryst with words began when he edited a magazine on leprosy and then when took up an opportunity to update the Sankara Narayana bilingual dictionary, after his retirement, in 2012. The updated dictionary running into 1,600 pages, had more than 40,000 words and created a buzz in the market.
Mr. Rao later began working on an Unicode script for trying Telugu words on computers using a tool in Windows 7 operating system.
After tasting success with the updated Sankara Narayana dictionary, he went on to compile Basic Two Languages Dictionary, a compilation of 10,000 words in English and Telugu, a mini dictionary and completed a 2-in-1 English-Telugu and Telugu-English dictionary. He also brought out dictionaries on diverse subjects such as art, painting, Social Sciences, Chemistry etc. A Telugu-English dictionary on administrative jargon has been widely circulated. Mr. Rao grew up at a time when computers were not known but he was never tired of updating himself.
‘Not an easy task’
Now, with the help of few friends working in software in Bengaluru, Mr. Rao has designed the mobile app. Working with his team of three graduates on the premises of Annamacharya Library at Sri Venkateswara Swamy Devastanam here, Mr. Rao said that this mobile app would be extremely useful for the present generation. “Compiling a dictionary is not an easy task. I have been observing the standard practices in some of the best dictionaries in the world and have also noted the frequently used words in written and spoken English and included them in the mobile app. The app is being designed in such a way that new words can be added. It also has English pronunciation of the words,” he said.
