Concordia Magazine 2025

A Summer in Singapore

Krish Thakrar (2018– 2025) was the recipient of the Spirit of the Manor prize in 2025. Alongside the prize, a travel grant is awarded and he describes his experiences of travelling to Singapore this summer. I would class myself as someone fairly curious, and this summer I had the opportunity to enrich my curiosity in ways I would never otherwise have imagined. It started in 2024, with a surprise meeting with Mr Herring and Mr Latham. I was told that in the spirit of quietly maintaining and growing the underlying values of our School community, two OMTs, Hamesh and Aashish Mehta, had decided to establish the Spirit of the Manor

time I travelled alone internationally, so I was delighted with the newfound responsibility of planning a feasible trip. With the key objectives of connecting with alumni, exploring the startup and technology scene and having opportunities for cultural and general exploration, a plan started to take shape. After 15 hours of travelling I was sitting under the waterfall in the indoor rainforest in Jewel Changi Airport — an exciting foretaste of the two weeks ahead. Aashish and his family are based in Singapore, and being welcomed into a foreign country by a familiar face and some delicious food was a great start to the trip.

Award, to recognise someone who strives to do just that. In 2024–5 that was me! As I got to know Hamesh and Aashish better over the year, I came to appreciate the true greatness of the Old Merchant Taylors’ global network, and consequently the importance of striving to uphold it. As part of the award I was given the chance to plan a fully funded trip to any destination in the world. The travel aspect excited me: not only would I be able to experience and learn from immersion in a new environment but I would also be able to strengthen connections with the OMT community in another part of the world. A strong desire to experience different approaches to technology, engineering and startup settings, alongside my lack of awareness of culture in more southern parts of Asia, led me to choose Singapore as my destination. As A Levels drew to a close and the summer came into view, planning was well underway. It would be the first

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