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.
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.
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.
The experts want to hear from the public about what kind of environmental impact the first year of L.A.’s 2010 Bicycle Plan has had on parts of the Northeast, including Eagle Rock.
Three vehicles stolen, two burgled; seven incidents of theft.
The district is planning to appeal a local court's order to share resources with charter schools.
Beat the heat on July 11 by ducking into the 7-Eleven on Montrose Avenue and grabbing a free 7.11-ounce Slurpee beverage.
Beat the heat on July 11 by ducking into the 7-Eleven on Colorado Boulevard and grabbing a free 7.11-ounce Slurpee beverage.
Whoever is responsible for the abandoned, foreclosed house on 5115 La Roda Ave. faces criminal prosecution for failure to heed the City’s warning to clean up the property, barricade all entry points and fence the entire lot.
The Council member who lost nearly all of Downtown to Huizar's CD 14 says she's sad 'public testimony was ignored.'
The LAPD responds to a call from Fire Station 42 on Colorado Boulevard, where a man brought explosives he evidently wanted to dispose of.
Dave Evans tells on Oxy student why Dave's Chillin-n-Grillin is the place 'every Eagle Rock restaurant owner eats.'
LAUSD Board Member Bennett Kayser invites parents to meet four new instructional and operational superintendents for District 4 and 5 in the beautiful environs of the Los Angeles River Center and Gardens.
LAUSD Board Member Bennett Kayser invites parents to meet four new instructional and operational superintendents for District 4 and 5 in the beautiful environs of the Los Angeles River Center and Gardens.
Tuesday and Wednesday are forecast to be the hottest days, but the weather should cool down by the weekend.
LAUSD Board Member Bennett Kayser invites parents to meet four new instructional and operational superintendents for District 4 and 5 in the beautiful environs of the Los Angeles River Center and Gardens.
The dog was seen in the Silver Lake area and may be somewhere in Northeast L.A.
The City Council has approved a $1 increase in admission fees to the L.A. Zoo and first offense parking fines by $5.
The graffiti-covered, three-bedroom house on La Roda Avenue looks like something out a horror movie.
A tabby cat named Batman got out of his home Thursday night but was found and is now safe and sound back home.
Hint: On a major street toward the far east of Eagle Rock.
The asking price for Eagle Rock's legendary vegan restaurant is $2.4 million.
A panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal rules that state law preempts any ban on pot shops in Los Angeles County.
