INTERVIEW WITH SIDDHARTH SUCHDE Sunday 10 June 2007

Siddharth attended Merchiston from 1999 to 2003, and he gained straight As in his three A Levels and two ASs, as well as playing squash to an extremely high standard, while still finding time to be a prefect in his final year. He has just graduated from Harvard.

Headmaster: It’s absolutely fantastic to see you again in your home in Zurich. First of all, Siddharth, your upbringing in India and Cathedral & John Connon – how much do you owe to these two places?

Siddharth: Definitely a lot because they were the foundations of my personality in a big way. I think the lessons you learn when you are young definitely stay with you – they’re probably among the most valuable ones you learn. I am very indebted to both of them.

Headmaster: So you will be delighted, then, when we send a copy of this interview to Meera back home and, remember, the Merchiston website these days is a very live website and this will be on our website by at least half way through next week. So, Mum trawls you round hundreds of schools in the UK and you eventually choose this school in Edinburgh, called Merchiston. I remember you were playing in the Squash Scottish Junior Open Championships, why did you decide to come to Merchiston?

Siddharth: The Headmaster was pretty persuasive and convincing, so no doubt that helped! I think what helped in making the decision was actually having the opportunity to tour the place and speaking with the Faculty and the teachers, so that I saw that there was much on offer, both academically and in sport. I liked the whole ethos of the school: you work hard during the day and you play sport in the afternoons, so there is a pretty important emphasis on both these departments, which is certainly what we were looking for. Just going in, I felt a very positive vibe about the place when we visited, and Scotland is a lovely country as well, and I think that helped!

Headmaster: OK Siddharth, so you made this big decision, but in all honesty, I want to hear, please, what challenges you faced when you joined Merchiston? Remember, you’d flown thousands of miles – was there anything that really worried you or upset you?

Siddharth: I think you’ve answered that question for me, really. I had flown a long way, and I had never left India before. I came from the comfort of Bombay, where I was with my family into a boarding school, living with 70 other kids of my own age. I lived in an Indian community, Indian culture, and I was thrown into a Scottish culture, being the only Indian kid in my year, I think, at the time when I first arrived. So, I guess it was slightly intimidating – you don’t know how people will react towards you or how you will come across to them, and I think the education system was different, what you put emphasis on, the way it’s taught, the way learning is structured, I think there is a lot more emphasis placed on understanding and reasoning as opposed to memorisation, which was the background I came from. I think just these small things when you are confronted with them….

Headmaster: Obviously you’ve looked at how Merchiston challenged you – what did you enjoy?

Siddharth: I think there are too many things to run through, but I would say the thing I enjoyed the most and which I will always remember is the friendships I formed with the other students. I had never lived in a boarding environment before and actually living with people one’s own age is something very special – you form bonds with them that are just not possible in any other type of environment, unless you study with them, you play with them, and you live with them. It is just something very different that you don’t get anywhere else, and it’s those friendships that I probably enjoyed most and which I will keep always.

Headmaster: Again, I want some real honesty here – there will be something about all of our schooldays that we did not particularly enjoy. So, what did you not enjoy about attending a school in the UK for four years?

Siddharth: I think, if I am brutally honest, what I didn’t enjoy, and this struck me much later on in my school career when I was 18 was that I felt there was a lot of control for my liking – it was too regimented and controlled as to what I had to do and how I had to lead my life. I felt it was a bit like babysitting almost, and it wasn’t going to prepare me well for the future, but I think if I were to look back at it now it wasn’t really the case. I would actually have liked to have had a lot more freedom in the way I organised my day and when I chose to study because I felt that at 18 I was pretty responsible to do that myself.

Headmaster: OK, that’s a very fair point, and again, hopefully, with our new Sixth Form boarding houses, pupils will be much more independent. We are going on to Harvard and squash in a while, but I want to wind the clock back. You’re an incredibly academic young man – what about the teachers who taught you? Which teachers in particular actually inspired you, and how and why? Because I remember you were doing incredibly taxing subjects.

Siddharth: I would have to say Mrs Muetzelfeldt for sure. I definitely put her in there. Also, my Electronics teacher, Mr Craig. I would say that those two stand out for me. It’s strange you mention that because I have gone from studying Mathematics, Physics, Electronics and German to majoring in Economics, and there is of course a very close link between Mathematics and Economics.

Headmaster: OK Siddharth, so you made this massive decision to go to the College of Harvard, and, by the way, at Merchiston now, every year Harvard, MIT and Yale actually visit the School as part of the Fulbright Commission US Colleges Day in Scotland, to see if they can find good young people for their colleges as well. So why did you choose Harvard?

Siddharth: I think definitely its symbol as one of the best universities around helped but also just to experience a different culture, and a different system of education. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to study straight after leaving Merchiston because I had not had any experience in other vocational subjects and it was nice to be able to go to university, try out a whole range of different things and then narrow down to something that interested me the most. So, I really like that system and it was well structured.

Headmaster: You’ve graduated with incredibly high honours in Economics – by the way, you’ll be delighted to know that we now do Economics at A Level – we’ve hit the modern world! Talk to us about your squash. You’re world ranked – which tournaments have you been playing over the last four years? Who’s been looking after you? Who’s been coaching you? Talk about your present squash and then we’ll talk about the future.

Siddharth: The last four years have been dominated by playing for Harvard: I have played for the Harvard team in intercollegiate matches, and played no 1 in the team for the last four years. I got most of the honours distributed in this time and finished national champion in my final year. I think an important part of playing for a team is the comradeship with your team mates and that experience was fantastic, but the drawback was that I didn’t get to play professional squash because I had to maintain my amateur status, which is essential if you want to compete in the intercollegiate league. That’s one thing I really did miss out on but I have time to catch up on that right now.

Headmaster: Presumably, your world ranking is now somewhere in the top 200? Obviously, you are still playing for India so have you been playing as an amateur in the World Championships, in the Asian Games?

Siddharth: It is definitely an honour to play for your country and I really enjoyed that while I was still studying, with a full-time academic commitment at Harvard. In its own way it was an education, just travelling to these different places, interacting with individuals from all round the world, playing sport at the highest level – it brings out certain aspects of your personality that even you didn’t know existed. It’s just a fantastic time. I really enjoyed it, which is why I continued to do it.

Headmaster: Now you’ve decided to give professional squash three years, what are your plans for these three years as you embark upon becoming a professional squash player. 

Siddharth: I think the idea is actually to give squash a try 100% without any other commitments or distractions, and to honestly go after it and see how high I can get in the world rankings, and then at the end of that make a realistic evaluation to judge whether or not I can get right to the top. If I can, well and good, I will continue with it. If not, I have a decent enough degree, which should, hopefully, help me in getting a job after that.

Headmaster: I hear that already many of the leading world financial institutions, like Morgan Stanley, have actually said to you that they are delighted you are embarking upon a different career before maybe going back to them. So, what do you mean by reaching the top? World top 30? World top 10?

Siddharth: Let’s say the higher echelons, in about the top 20, top 10 region. That would be my eventual aim and if I don’t think that there’s a possibility of getting there, or if I’m limited in any department, then I will reconsider my future.

Headmaster: That’s absolutely brilliant, and again, it’s good that you have a dream, remembering Martin Luther King. Presumably, winding the clock back again, there are a few other people to whom you owe a huge amount? Obviously, your Mum, Dad, Urs – what about George Mieras?

Siddharth: Definitely. He was instrumental in my development, shaping the sort of person I am today. He’s like family, like my parents in Scotland. I learned a great deal from him. He was actually at my graduation, which shows what an important aspect he was for me in my time over there. I think for a person to have taken me on as he did, without having any sort of formal relationship, is certainly testament to the fact that he is a very kind human being. He just put himself out there.

Headmaster: You’ve been really generous with your time and you have so many other friends to say hello to. You may remember many, many years ago meeting Mr Dastur from Mumbai. His son, Zahan, is joining Merchiston this September in the Lower Sixth. Do you have any words of advice for Zahan, or Mr and Mrs Dastur?

Siddharth: I would say I think that the school has definitely been for me one of the best times of my life, and if I look back I sometimes ask myself what l would like to have done to have made my experience better at Merchiston. I have no regrets about the way I lived my life: I worked hard, I played a lot of sport, things worked well. But you always wish that you could have spent those extra hours with your friends, or just that extra bit of time relaxing and sort of learning a bit more about them because time flies by so quickly. So the thing is that you’re going to have your ups and downs but make sure to enjoy every minute because that’s crucial. Sometimes, it’s not really what you learn in the classroom that you are going to remember the most or hitting the ball against a wall but it’s the time you’re going to spend meeting people, exceptional people from all over the country, that’s going to stay with you for much longer than anything else. So I would just say, enjoy those moments and make the most of them while you can.

Headmaster: Siddharth, it’s been absolutely fantastic to see you again. We loved having you at school for four years and we’re so delighted that you’ve done so well at Harvard. All of us at Merchiston will watch extremely closely, because undoubtedly you will climb up the world rankings. We would love you to come back to school to talk pupils about your experiences. We wish you all the very best.

Siddharth: Thank you very much – I appreciate it – it’s good to see you too!