About Ajay

I grew up in the world's largest human laboratory—India. Only in India can you go to a Protestant British boarding school, as I did, come home once a year to a village where farmers still use oxen to plough their fields, and then set out to see a country so bewilderingly diverse that it has 25 officially recognized languages, including English, which is understood in every corner, and more than 3,000 dialects.

Over the years, I have made my home in India, Japan and China. And I have written about life and politics in every continent except Africa and Antartica, sometimes going to extreme lengths to find material to write about: In the early 1990s, for example, I took a Greyhound bus from New York City to San Jose, and worked undercover as a curry chef in an Indian restaurant in Tokyo to research the lives of undocumented workers serving Japan's postindustrial economy.

I started out in journalism in 1988 at the New Delhi bureau of the Wall Street Journal Asia, went on to the Associated Press and eventually to Asiaweek, a Time Inc. newsweekly in Hong Kong. For six years until 2009 I was a writer and editor at an online newspaper and quarterly magazine at UCLA.

Email: Ajay.Singh@Patch.com

Phone: 323-351-4542

Birthday: August 15

Beliefs: At Patch, we promise always to report the facts as objectively as possible and otherwise adhere to the principles of good journalism. However, we also acknowledge that true impartiality is impossible because human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal their beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable. This disclosure is not a license for you to inject your beliefs into stories or to dictate coverage according to them. In fact, the intent is the opposite: we hope that the knowledge that your beliefs are on the record will cause you to be ever mindful to write, report and edit in a fair, balanced way. And if you ever see evidence that we failed in this mission, please let us know.

Politics

How would you describe your political beliefs?

I consider myself an old-fashioned liberal who would like to see humane values firmly rooted in our political, social and educational institutions. I favor public education, universal health care, large but environmentally sound public works projects, strict regulations on capital markets, managerial rather than investor control of corporations, tax credits, guaranteed employment, social safety nets and international trade policies that protect domestic workers not just in the United States but everywhere.

Are you registered with a certain party?

No.

Religion

How religious would you consider yourself? (casual, observant, devout, non religious)

When it comes to religion—or matters of spirituality—I find myself in such a labyrinth that I have great trouble being consistent in my opinions. I therefore prefer to plead the privilege of a skeptic, a position that, I confess, I often find very difficult to understand. 

Local Hot-Button Issues

What do you think are the most important issues facing the community?

In Eagle Rock, land use is famously said to be a contact sport. A judicious development of land that encourages aesthetic architecture and a balanced mix of businesses is a perennial issue. An inter-related issue is the preservation of local history—and identity—to which many Eagle Rockers are fiercely committed.

Where do you stand on each of these issues?

I think a community has the right to decide which kind of businesses it will allow and which not. But once a business is allowed in, local authorities must ensure that it opens speedily, with as little red tape as possible. Coming from a country rooted in a 3,000-year-old civilization, I also strongly support preserving local history and architecture, which isn't something Los Angeles is particularly known for.