Raghavendran Shanmugam, Manjunath Shanmugam’s younger brother and a huge supporter of the movie – Manjunath, has been a great support in the efforts to keep his brother's sacrifice alive and relevant. In this case view, he fondly remembers his elder brother who was very different from himself and their sister Sujatha. Raghavendran is proud of his brother’s honesty, courage and sacrifice and recounts their humble upbringing. He explains that their parents always taught them to live within their means, a value Manjunath stood by even amidst adversities. Raghavendran recollects how Manjunath mentored and protected him.

1. Raghavendran Shanmugam
Manager, Industrial Services
Karnataka, TUV India Pvt. Ltd.
Raghavendran Shanmugam, Manjunath Shanmugam’s younger brother,
has been a huge supporter of the movie – ‘Manjunath – IdiotTha Saala’
and a great support in the efforts to keep his brother's sacrifice alive
and relevant.
ET CASES
October 2014
Interviewed
by
Dr. Nagendra V. Chowdary
Interview
with
Raghavendran
Shanmugam
Ref. OB-1-0033B
CASE VIEW ON
IIM LUCKNOW’S MANJUNATH SHANMUGAM:
PURPOSE-DRIVEN PERSONALITY AND THE VALUE OF VALUES

2. 2
Interview with Raghavendran Shanmugam IIM Lucknow's Manjunath Shanmugam: Purpose-driven Personality...
ET CASES
1. What was Manjunath’s family background? What was the value system? How did his
family values influence his value system?
Our family background is like any other middle class Indian family, where there are lots of
dreams but with monetary constraints. Added to that a father who lost his father i.e., my
grandfather at a very early age. So my father started working at a very young age, in fact
he once told that he used to work as a laborer in BGML, later completed his DME and
joined BEML as a Supervisor.
Every single rupee was accountable and my father never believed in borrowing money. He
managed to send us to colleges outside Kolar i.e. Manju and Sujatha in Mysore, myself in
Rourkela. We grew up learning these values from him i.e., he never cheated or was never
interested in others money . It was only our parents’ hard work and sacrifices that we
studied in good colleges.
Just few days before my brother was shot, Manju spoke to my father over phone from
Lakimpur and asked, “Should I take the bribe from the dealers, is that what you taught us
dad?” My dad kept quiet.
We learnt to lead our life with the limited money we had. For example, once Manju went to
Bangalore to write some exam. So it was understood that my father gave him `16 + `16 (
to & fro train fare ) + `10 for local travel by bus, `30 for lunch and return back by late
evening to KGF and Manju followed it religiously with no deviation. Our family value is to
lead our life with whatever limited money we had.
2. Please describe through any anecdote from childhood that you were witness to, which
indicated the above. Also any anecdote to show how your father’s and mother’s
values affected Manjunath and the other children.
Myself and Manju were studying in the same school KV BEML. We used to keep our school
bags in queue and in the same order we used to board the school bus, it so happened that
one guy did not follow this system. Out of so many guys standing there, Manju went and
questioned him and bashed him. I was surprised, why the hell was he interfering? It’s the
matter of one person and he could have allowed him.
“““““Our family value is to lead our life with
whatever limited money we had.”””””

3. 3
IIM Lucknow's Manjunath Shanmugam: Purpose-driven Personality... Interview with Raghavendran Shanmugam
ET CASES
Once Manju was traveling back from Lakimpur and after reaching home (KGF) , he said
that during the journey he saw a guy eve teasing and he bashed him, again I was surprised,
out of so many passengers in the train why he alone was concerned about it ?
Manju felt studies to be too much strenuous, so dad suggested him to start participating
in singing competition, when he was in 8th
standard. First song that he sang was HAWA
HAWA, he sang it so well that he continued singing in various competitions. I was happy to
see him sing so naturally. All the teachers recognized him as a good singer apart from
being good in sports.
Manju had certain qualities within him, all it needed was a situation to bring it out. Myself
and my sister – his siblings, belonging to the same family and brought up in the same
environment have an entirely different thinking from Manju.
We accept the fact that we did not have the courage and guts to fight against something
which we very well know is incorrect, but Manju had the courage and he did it.
After Manju passed away, couple of his close friends expected me to become like Manju,
they invited me to their home, etc. but I can never be as social as Manju was.
Our KGF bus stand is about 2 km from our home and when he used to walk from KGF bus
stand to home Manju used to never miss saying “Hi” to whomsoever he met with a smiling
face. I can never do this, I try to avoid and mind my business.
Our parents always insisted on speaking the truth as they believed that it may be hard to
digest the truth for the first time, but the matter ends there.
The questions and answers were very simple :
• Did you drink today Manju? * Yes I did, it was my friend’s birthday.
• Did you take money from here? * Yes I did, I needed money to buy
something to eat.
• Did you bunk the classes today? * Yes I did, it was boring and I went to play.
• Did Monu Mittal offer you bribe? * Yes he did, but I don’t want that money.
• Do you still want to continue * Yes, I need to straighten things there,
working with IOCL in-spite of all it is my responsibility.
these problems?

4. 4
Interview with Raghavendran Shanmugam IIM Lucknow's Manjunath Shanmugam: Purpose-driven Personality...
ET CASES
It was very simple, get scolding the first instance, rather than multiplying the number of
lies and hiding the truth.
Manju was very friendly with me, whenever I used to do mistakes, then he played the role
of a brother by correcting the mistakes.
He used to always say in Tamil, Yaam Irukka Bayam Yean, it means, “when I am there you
need not fear for anything”, which gave me lot of confidence.
Manju maintained a big social circle and he was very confident about what he was doing,
no one in the family used to question him.
I think , I will stop here. I tried to give as much input that I could, there is a lot more to
Manju to share with everyone but going back to those memories will bring tears. Hence I
will pause here.