Good Luck-day to start something great
From this day begins the six-month long Uttara-yana, considered very auspicious for attaining higher worlds hereafter. So this day was seen as a sure-shot Good Luck day to start your journey or endeavors to the higher realms beyond. From Uttarayana starts the ‘day’ of Devatas, while dakshinayana is said to be the ‘night’ of devatas, so most of the auspicious things are done during this time. Uttarayana is also called as Devayana, and the next half is called Pitrayana. While the traditional Indian Calendar is basically based on lunar positions, but sankranti is a solar event, so while dates of all festivals keep changing, the english calendar date of Makar Sankranti is always same, 14th January.

It’s a sunny festival
“Escalation of mankind should lead the world towards light, not towards dark”
Makar Sankranti is the day when the glorious Sun-God of Hindus begins its ascendancy and entry into the Northern Hemisphere; and thus it signifies an event wherein the Gods seem to remind their children that 'Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya'. May you go higher & higher - to more & more Light and never to darkness. Sun for the Hindus stands for Pratyaksha-Brahman - the manifest God, who symbolizes, the one, non-dual, self-effulgent, glorious divinity blessing one & all tirelessly. Sun not only represents God but also stands for an embodiment of knowledge & wisdom.

Let your father’s head be held high by the life & deeds of his children
Lord of Makara Rashi is Shani is visited by Sun. Father (Sun) in fact himself comes to his son’s house, for a month. This day symbolized the importance of special relationship of father & son. It is the son who has the responsibility to carry forward his fathers dream and the continuity of the family.

Dawn of Sankranthi day is high time to meditate
Get up early in the morning, before sunrise, have bath and be ready with water & flowers for the sunrise. Worship the rising Sun, by offering water, flowers with both the hands & then pray with folded hands by chanting the Gayatri Mantra and pray for knowledge, wisdom and enlightenment to rise in the similar way to greater & greater heights. Pray for blessings to live a dynamic, inspired & righteous life.
Do tarpan for your ancestors. Offer water to the ancestors while praying for their blessings. Resolve to redeem the pledges & pride of your forefathers. Live life in such a way that wherever your forefathers may be their head is held high by the life & deeds of their children.
Affirm the greatest importance of your spiritual goal very clearly, and pray to God to bless you with the capacity to constantly revel in your true self. May the graph of your rise like the Uttarayana Sun. May there be greater 'Love & Light' in your life & the world. Have a special session of Meditation, wherein you bring about the awareness of the self-effulgent subjective divinity.

Share your pleasure with fellow beings
Prepare laddus or other sweets and offer them to your friends & relatives. See to it that your ‘Well-being Prayer for all’ gets manifested in action & deeds. Have the lunch of Chekkara Pongali. This stands for inculcating simplicity in your life & habits.Give some Daan on this day to someone who truly deserves. Visit your son at his place and give presents to the son and the daughter-in-law. If it is not possible to visit, then organize to send presents to them to express your love & affection to them. Work to properly cultivate the generation, which has to carry forward all the best you cherish & value.

Those were the possible things all you can do on Sankranthi. There are many other things; to welcome Sun, Telugu women clean their homes and decorate their front yards with muggulu. Children offer a vibrant salute to lord of Sun with their kites.

Here we end..
How busy you may be, take a break and have a glance at your customs. They will show you the solutions for many problems you come across in your life. Be proud to be an heir of one the world’s ancient and rich cultures.

Guest speaks
Mr. Laxmi Sekhar Kalepu reveals how Germans incline towards Indian tradition and he asserts the need to practice their kind of diligence here in A.P.

Sekhar teaches German language at Goethe Institut, Hyderabad. He had been to Germany twice, on a study about the country, people and culture.
“Germans are just like us. There is a wrong notion that they are racists; on the contrary, they are open to all kinds of cultures and people. Though it takes some time to get acquainted and drive it en route for a close friend ship, if once a German considers you as his/her friend you can find the warmth of intimacy throughout your life.
They are perfectionists. I was astonished when I found a rich collection of music including our very own beats of “tappetlu” and lyrics like “yenki paatalu” with one of my German friends. They always admire at our rituals like “surya namskarm” and foods like “puli hora”. They explore the reason behind every thing whatever they find and whatever they feel which always keep themselves clear about their deeds.
Germany is a safe place to live and one has to find oneself how a common man’s rights are protected there. Here I should say some thing about the success saga of a Telugu.

Ravindra Gujjula comes from A.P., India, studied medicine in East Germany, started a practice after reunification and, eleven years ago, first stood for the office of honorary mayor of Altlandsberg in the state of Brandenburg - and he is still the mayor today. He rarely gets less than 80 percent of the vote. His position has brought him fame and put his small town that lies not far behind the last high rises of Marzahn on the map. The New York Times has written about him, the BBC made a film on his work, Indian radio stations broadcast programmes about him and he is invited by universities and congresses all over Germany.
You rarely find Telugu Associations and get-togethers of Telugu community. Our cottons, Kalamkari designs and many handicrafts of Kondapalli, Nirmal and Cheryal, recipes and fine arts like Kuchipudi can always find a place in the creative and lucid space of their minds. There is a need to promote our culture first here in India. South Indian states are recognized by their predominant attributes, for example when you think of Kerala, nature cure, resorts and greenery strike first and when you think of Tamil Nadu architectural splendor of ancient temples jog on your memory.
There are many striking features which place the A.P. in the diary of globe trotters. Places like Araku Valley, Srisailam, Horsley Hills, Amaravati and vivid culture hailed from Kakateeyas, Rayalu, and Nawabs and many are there to propagate the glory of Telugus apart from our sweetest mother tongue. Unfortunately, many tourists feel bad about some thing here; first is lack of security, continuously staring at them, charging more bucks for every service we offer thinking as if every foreigner is ultra rich, etc.