Known as Nepal's "Yug Kavi" (Poet of the Era), Siddhicharan Shrestha (1912–1992) was a legendary writer who used his poetry to fight the oppressive Rana regime. Born in Okhaldhunga—which inspired his famous masterpiece Mero Pyaro Okhaldhunga—he wrote passionately in both Nepali and Nepal Bhasa about freedom and social change. His revolutionary words were so powerful that the government sentenced him to 18 years in prison in 1940 for a single poem, though he was released after five. When the regime finally fell in 1951, he continued shaping the country's voice as the editor of Nepal's very first daily newspaper, Awaj. Today, he's remembered simply as a brave literary icon who risked his freedom to awaken his country.