Happy Makar Sankranti, Birthday of Fakir Mohan Senapati

Makara Sankranti or Uttarayan or Maghi or simply Sankranti, is a festival day in the Hindu calendar, dedicated to the deity Surya (sun). It is observed each year in the lunar month of Magha which corresponds with the month of January as per the Gregorian calendar and is a day the people of India and Nepal celebrate their harvest. It marks the first day of the sun’s transit into Makara rashi (Capricorn), marking the end of the month with the winter solstice and the start of longer days.
Makara Sankranti is observed with social festivities such as colorful decorations, rural children going house to house, singing and asking for treats in some areas ,melas (fairs), dances, kite flying, bonfires and feasts. The Magha Mela, according to Diana L. Eck (professor at Harvard University specializing in Indology), is mentioned in the Hindu epic Mahabharat. Many observers go to sacred rivers or lakes and bathe in a ceremony of thanks to the sun. Every twelve years(marking one complete revolution of Jupiter around the Sun) the Hindu’s observe Makara Sankranti with one of the world’s largest mass pilgrimages, with an estimated to 100 million people attending the event.At this event, then they say a prayer to the sun and bathe at the Prayaga confluence of the River Ganga and River Yamuna at the Kumbha Mela, a tradition attributed to Adi Shankaracharya.

Text copied from wikipedia

Fakir Mohan Senapati was a great writer [13th Jan 1843-14th Jun 1918] from Odisha. He was born on Makar Sankranti and died on Maha Bisuba Sankranti, so he is often cited as Sankranti Purusha. He contributed immensely to Odia Literature. His writings include Cha Mana Atha Guntha, Galpa Swalpa( a collection of short stories including Rebati, Dhulia Baba, Patent Medicine etc) etc. His writings targeted the extremely conservative mindset of his contemporary time period. Rebati explores, how little girls were deprived of education, n how Rebati suffered from it. Rebati story is such a tragedy, a person who can’t cry would cry. Same goes with Cha Mana Atha Guntha, which explores crooked money lenders of the past, who exploited the power of Kalantara Sudha ( compund interest), Randi Pua Ananta ( Ananta, son of the widow) explores how a so called notorious son of a village sacrifices himself to save his fellow villagers. He tries to block a flood by his own body weight, and he fails. So, he decided to put his body as a blockage and asked the villagers to put soil on him. All he said was Hari Bol (Similar to Jai Shree Ram). And he got buried alive while saving his village. Then in Dhulia Baba, Mr Fakir exposes a fake baba. Can you imagine someone raising his voice against fake Babas in early 1900s in a super conservative atmosphere. Well, he did. Patent Medicine tells us the story about a super strong woman who literally beats the crap out of her husband n makes him sober. And the saga of Mr Fakir goes on and on. His work can be compared with Premchand. His writings had sharp humor and social awakening messages.

Source: 1) http://magazines.odisha.gov.in/Orissareview/200...
2) https://www.academia.edu/10988188/Fakir_Mohan_S...