Desk Correspondent , Kolkata - ' Shankar,' the author who won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2020, is no more. Once again, losing a writer like Mani Shankar Mukherjee feels quite personal to the people of Bengal.  

Mani Shankar Mukherjee, better known by his pen name, Shankar, took his last breath this morning. He passed away at a private hospital in Kolkata on Friday, February 20, 2026. The renowned author and former clerk to the final British barrister in the Calcutta High Court was born in Hooghly on December 7, 1933, at the age of 92.

Mani Shankar Mukherjee's memoir, "Eka Eka Ekashi," earned him the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award 2020, which was announced in 2021. The renowned writer received the honour for his exceptional contributions to Bengali literature. 
One of the oldest Bengali writers of our time, who was raised in West Bengal's Howrah. Shankar became a clerk to Noel Frederick Barwell, the final British barrister of the Calcutta High Court, after his father passed away when he was still a teenager. He worked as a private tutor and typewriter cleaner while attending Surendranath College. Shankar still affectionately refers to him as a "Barwell sahib," who introduced him to literature. "First, I wanted to build a statue. It was not possible. I then wanted to name a road. Even that was not feasible. And then I decided to write a book about him," according to Shankar. This led to the classic creation, "Kato Ajanare," which remains a bestseller to this day.

Around the same time in 1962, Sankar pictured Chowringhee on a rainy day with fog pressed against the windows, standing where rain pooled thick at Central Avenue and Dalhousie—Kolkata's humming core. Though soaked through that afternoon, his mind held a grand hotel named Shahjahan. Years passed before it was adopted into film by Satyajit Ray, which people still talk about. That version arrived in 1968, quiet but unforgettable. Later, pieces such as Jana Aranya and Seemabaddha were chosen by Satyajit Ray for his films. Shankar has diversified into spiritual writing and has written several books on Vivekananda, which never leave the bestseller charts.  

The spark of his thoughts, words, and vision suddenly feels very full today, but that won't take away the feeling we all had while reading his novel. We felt you when you quoted A.C. Maffen in Chowringhee by saying, "Our life is but a winter's day:/Some only breakfast and away/Others to dinner stay and are full-fed:/The oldest man but sups and goes to bed:/He that goes soonest has the least to pay." We felt you, and we always will.