Ananta Press is delighted to officially announce Shamayita Mukherjee as a winner of the prestigious Ananta Press Sahitya Ratna Award for her heartfelt contemporary fiction novel, When We Met At That Morning!! This recognition celebrates her meaningful contribution to modern Indian fiction and honours a story that beautifully captures friendship, love, ambition, personal growth, and the unforgettable transition from youth to adulthood.
We extend our warmest congratulations to Shamayita Mukherjee on this remarkable achievement. Through this novel, she has created an emotionally engaging world filled with relatable characters, genuine relationships, youthful dreams, difficult decisions, and memories that continue to influence people long after life takes them in different directions.
When We Met At That Morning!! begins with what appears to be an ordinary college morning. However, that simple meeting becomes the beginning of an extraordinary journey for seven young individuals. Sankar, Sampa, Ritwik, Mili, Aditi, Abir, and their friends enter college carrying different ambitions, fears, family experiences, and expectations. As they attend classes, participate in competitions and cultural events, face misunderstandings, and support one another, their friendship slowly develops into a family of their own.
At the emotional centre of the story is the evolving relationship between Sankar and Sampa. Their connection grows naturally within the broader journey of friendship and self-discovery. Their relationship does not exist separately from their ambitions, responsibilities, and emotional development. Instead, it matures as they themselves mature. This makes their journey realistic, sensitive, and meaningful.
The novel was selected by the Ananta Press Sahitya Ratna Award Committee because it offers much more than a conventional romantic narrative. It combines romance with friendship, family values, career aspirations, sacrifice, resilience, humour, heartbreak, and hope. Every major character experiences meaningful development, allowing readers to connect with several emotional journeys instead of following only one central protagonist.
The award committee particularly appreciated the novel’s realistic representation of college life and its honest exploration of adulthood. The book captures the excitement of youth without presenting life as perfect. It shows that friendships may be tested, love may require patience, careers may create distance, and personal dreams may demand difficult choices. Yet it also reminds readers that meaningful relationships can continue to guide people even when circumstances change.
The Ananta Press Sahitya Ratna Award recognises books and authors whose work demonstrates literary value, originality, emotional impact, social relevance, and the ability to form a lasting connection with readers. A six-member reading and evaluation committee considered the book’s storytelling, characters, themes, message, relatability, and overall contribution to contemporary literature.
When We Met At That Morning!! stood out because of its simple yet powerful central idea. Some of the most important moments of life do not announce themselves when they arrive. A normal morning, an unexpected conversation, or a new friendship can quietly change the direction of a person’s entire life. Shamayita Mukherjee transforms this idea into a warm and memorable coming-of-age story.
Jury Feedback
Glenville Ashby
Glenville Ashby appreciated the emotional sincerity with which Shamayita Mukherjee presents the lives of the seven friends. According to him, the novel succeeds because the relationships do not appear artificial or created only to move the plot forward. They develop gradually through conversations, shared experiences, misunderstandings, celebrations, and difficult moments. He found the college setting especially effective because it gives the characters enough freedom to discover themselves while still showing their dependence on friendship and family support. He also appreciated that the story does not treat love as the only important relationship in a young person’s life. Friendship, ambition, responsibility, and personal identity receive equal attention. Glenville felt that Sankar and Sampa’s relationship becomes more meaningful because it grows alongside their individual development. He described the book as a sincere reflection on how ordinary meetings can create lifelong emotional connections. In his view, the novel will strongly appeal to readers who remember their college friendships with affection and gratitude.
Roxana Jaffer
Roxana Jaffer found When We Met At That Morning!! to be a warm, relatable, and emotionally balanced novel. She appreciated how the author brings together characters from different backgrounds without making their differences feel forced. Each character carries a distinct dream, fear, and emotional struggle, which gives the group a natural sense of variety. Roxana particularly valued the way the novel moves from youthful excitement to the more complicated realities of adulthood. The transition is gradual and allows readers to understand how careers, distance, family expectations, and personal choices can affect even the strongest relationships. She also admired the balance between humour, romance, disappointment, and hope. The novel does not remain emotionally heavy throughout, nor does it avoid difficult situations. Instead, it presents life as a combination of joyful and painful experiences. Roxana believed the book’s greatest message is that people may not remain physically close forever, but the love, encouragement, and memories they share can continue to shape their decisions and identities.
Apeksha Gupta
Apeksha Gupta praised the novel for portraying friendship as a powerful form of family. She observed that many stories about college life focus mainly on romance, but Shamayita Mukherjee gives equal importance to companionship, loyalty, emotional support, and collective growth. The seven friends do not merely spend time together. They help one another understand failure, ambition, love, responsibility, and change. Apeksha appreciated that the characters are not presented as perfect individuals. They experience misunderstandings, emotional confusion, disappointment, and moments of weakness. These imperfections make them believable and allow readers to recognise parts of their own lives in the story. She also found the theme of nostalgia especially moving. The novel shows how people often understand the importance of a particular phase only after it has passed. In her view, the book encourages readers to value the people who stand beside them during important years of growth. Apeksha considered the story an affectionate tribute to friendships that survive through memory, even when life separates the people involved.
Asha Seth
Asha Seth appreciated the simplicity and clarity of the novel’s central message. She felt that the story does not depend on unnecessary complications to create emotional impact. Its strength comes from familiar experiences such as attending classes, preparing for competitions, participating in cultural programmes, sharing laughter, facing heartbreak, and discussing future dreams. These everyday moments gradually become important because they are connected to the characters’ emotional development. Asha admired the way the author presents adulthood as both exciting and demanding. The characters receive opportunities, but they must also make sacrifices and accept that not every relationship can remain unchanged. She found the journeys of Sankar and Sampa particularly touching because their relationship develops with patience and emotional maturity. Their story reflects the fact that love must grow alongside responsibility and self-understanding. Asha believed the novel carries a positive and valuable message for young readers. It encourages them to follow their ambitions while also respecting the relationships and memories that give meaning to their achievements.
Neel Preet
Neel Preet described the novel as an engaging coming-of-age story with a strong emotional foundation. He appreciated the author’s decision to give several characters meaningful journeys instead of limiting the narrative to one person’s experience. This broader structure allows readers to observe different forms of ambition, love, sacrifice, and resilience. He felt that the characters’ individual struggles add depth to the group’s friendship because each person has something different to overcome. Neel also praised the book for showing that growth often changes relationships without completely destroying their importance. As the friends enter adulthood, their paths begin to separate, but their shared experiences remain a source of strength and identity. He found this idea realistic and relevant, especially for readers who have moved away from old friends because of education, work, marriage, or family responsibilities. According to Neel, the novel’s emotional impact comes from its honesty. It celebrates friendship while also accepting change, distance, disappointment, and the passing of time as natural parts of life.
Deepak Seth
Deepak Seth found the novel memorable because it turns an ordinary beginning into a meaningful reflection on life. He appreciated the symbolic importance of the morning mentioned in the title. At first, it appears to be only another day in college, but it later becomes the starting point of friendships, relationships, ambitions, and memories that shape the characters’ futures. Deepak admired how Shamayita Mukherjee connects youthful experiences with adult consequences. The decisions made during college are not forgotten once the characters grow older. They continue to influence their careers, relationships, emotional choices, and understanding of themselves. He also valued the novel’s hopeful approach. Although the characters experience separation, heartbreak, and unexpected changes, the story does not suggest that meaningful relationships lose their value. Instead, it shows that their influence may continue in quieter forms. Deepak believed that the book has strong reader appeal because it invites people to remember their own defining mornings, friendships, and unfinished conversations. He considered it a deserving and emotionally resonant work.
A Deserving Literary Recognition
The jury’s observations demonstrate why When We Met At That Morning!! has earned the Ananta Press Sahitya Ratna Award. The book possesses literary value not because it distances itself from ordinary life, but because it recognises the emotional significance hidden within ordinary experiences. Its classrooms, competitions, friendships, conversations, misunderstandings, and farewells become reflections of universal human experiences.
Shamayita Mukherjee’s originality lies in the way she combines several emotional and social dimensions within one narrative. The novel is romantic without being limited to romance. It is nostalgic without becoming trapped in the past. It is hopeful without ignoring pain. It celebrates youth while honestly acknowledging that growing up involves difficult decisions, changing priorities, and emotional sacrifice.
The book also contributes to readers by encouraging them to reflect on the relationships that have shaped their lives. Young readers may recognise their own ambitions, friendships, and uncertainties in the characters. Older readers may revisit memories of college, first love, early dreams, and people who once played an important role in their personal growth.
At its heart, When We Met At That Morning!! reminds us that the value of a relationship is not measured only by how long people remain together. Sometimes, a person’s presence during one important phase can influence an entire lifetime. Memories may become distant, but their emotional meaning can remain alive.
Ananta Press proudly congratulates Shamayita Mukherjee on winning the Ananta Press Sahitya Ratna Award. Her work reflects sensitivity, imagination, emotional understanding, and a genuine appreciation of human relationships. Through Sankar, Sampa, Ritwik, Mili, Aditi, Abir, and their friends, she has created a story that honours friendship, celebrates personal growth, and recognises the lasting power of shared memories.
We extend our best wishes to Shamayita Mukherjee for her future literary journey. May When We Met At That Morning!! reach readers across generations and remind them of the ordinary mornings, unexpected meetings, and unforgettable people who quietly changed their lives forever.
