CASE VIEW ON

IIM LUCKNOWS MANJUNATH SHANMUGAM:

PURPOSE-DRIVEN PERSONALITY AND THE VALUE OF VALUES
Interview
with
GANESH RAJ

GANESH
RAJ

Interviewed
by
Dr. Nagendra V. Chowdary
Ganesh Raj was Manjunath Shanmugam's childhood friend and is a Ref. OB-1-0033B/2
staunch supporter of the movie Manjunath. He has been close to October 2014
Manjunath's family before and after his tragic death.

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 Interview with Ganesh Raj IIM Lucknow's Manjunath Shanmugam: Purpose-driven Personality...

1. How would you describe Manjunath in school/higher secondary school/college?A

few anecdotes that would showcase his priorities, principles and therefore his values?
Did he come across as an agenda setter or an agenda follower? What was his conviction
for and how would his friends describe his conviction levels?
Manjunath was a very normal guy, just like anyone else and a dynamic and an easy going
social person, at the same time. I dont think there was anyone who would miss noticing
his dynamic attitude in the first meeting. He would simply charm you over with his simplicity.
He was an understanding friend to his schoolmates/college mates, a good son to his
parents and a supportive brother to his siblings. He would always support and motivate
people, ask them to follow their heart and do the right thing. He was a very straight-
forward person who had the courage to call a spade, a spade.

Manjunath studied at the Kendriya Vidyalaya School in BEML campus, KGF (Kolar Gold
Fields), a town 90 kms from Bangalore. I wouldnt say he was great in his academics (an
average 6 or 7 out of 10), but he compensated with extracurricular activities - a full 10 on
10. A superb football player, he played the center forward position an aggressive player,

He had the ability to be a leader when the

situation demanded and a follower when
required.

but with his gentle nature off-field and his social skills, would earn him friends from the
opposition team as well, after the match!

I saw Manjunaths potential as a great actor in SJCE College (the Engineering College that
we studied together at Mysore). He displayed a superb performance, playing the character
of the jungle bandit Veerappan, on stage for a College Drama act. There was no stopping
after that. He was one of the key members who founded the Local Boys a dramatics
group at SJCE and travelled to various colleges in Tumkur, Mandya, Bangalore, etc., to
participate in the annual fests and won prizes everywhere.

He was not formally trained in singing, but was gifted with a unique voice which had the
depth of good singers like SP Balasubramanium and Hariharan. He would often sing songs
of Kishore Kumar and was a great fan of RD Burman and Ilayaraja. In fact, youll know

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IIM Lucknow's Manjunath Shanmugam: Purpose-driven Personality... Interview with Ganesh Raj

when hes around, because he would be humming songs most of the times. He will
sometimes greet you with a song when you bump into him in the college lobby! He was a
part of SJCEs Students Orchestra and was one of the lead singers. People would eagerly
wait to for him to come on stage and sing...in fact, at times I remember his tunes even
now.

He had the ability to be a leader when the situation demanded and a follower when required.
He was a mentor to most people at college and would be humble at most times, except
when he lost his cool. He would get angry, but would channelize his energy positively.

2. Why did he choose, of all the available openings, the assignment with IOC? Did he
ever discuss anything on this topic with you? Even before that, did he ever discuss his
future professional life with you? Can you describe specific conversations/anecdotes?
Manjunath had two offers when he passed out from IIM Lucknow. One was an HR position
with ONGC and the other was as a Sales Officer with IOC. Manjunath was close to my
father, and would often take his advice in career-related matters. My father advised him to
take up the ONGC HR role, but he was more keen on taking the IOC Sales role since it
would be more challenging.

A drawback about Manjunath was that he would never discuss his problems with others,
unless really pushed and asked. There was an instance when I received a call from him
one night, asking me if he could get a job as a Radio Jockey in Bangalore. I guess, his
ongoing problems at work and the oil mafia threats somehow made him think that he
should choose an alternate profession, possibly where his best interest lay in music.

While I was checking with my contacts, he called after couple of weeks, to say that he had
certain important things to do at work, so he wouldnt be interested to pursue the Radio
Jockey profession. I guess, he had made up his mind to take the corrupt guys head on. The
rest is history.

3. Anything else, that you would like to throw light on, which would help in bringing
out the real Manjunath for the reader, the formation of his value system and its
impact on him and others around him?
Manjunath stood for his values integrity, honesty and being straight forward. His mother
was the foundation of his value system.
Also, I guess one of his Professors from IIM Lucknow had a great impact on him. His value
system became much stronger when his Professor mentored him during the course.

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 Interview with Ganesh Raj IIM Lucknow's Manjunath Shanmugam: Purpose-driven Personality...

Manjunath lost a year when he was in IIM Lucknow, because he failed in couple of important
subjects. He came to Bangalore during that period and stayed at the Aurobindo Ashram.
He visited IIM Bangalore to study the subjects that he had failed in. Very soon, he had
made friends with the hostel students of IIM Bangalore and would often stay and study
with them.
There was so much positivity around Manjunath that you would wish you could spend
more time with him. I rarely recall seeing him in a negative state of mind.
Very rarely do we come across such a humble person, who always had something to give
his unconditional love for people around him without expecting anything in return.

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