Rtn Ajay Sinha: Job Talk

Before Ajay’s Job Talk, President Jan announced that Past President Angela Dickman, who transferred to a Club nearer her home after she and her husband moved, had decided to rejoin our Club. We were delighted to welcome her back.

Ajay may be our newest member but he comes from a Rotarian family. His great-grandfather and his father were both Presidents of Rotary Clubs in India, as was Ajay himself before he moved to the UK in the 1990s.

He was born in Patna, the capital of India’s Bihar State, but his family moved to Delhi when he was five. He was brought up there before going to medical college. After graduating as a doctor he went on to train as an ophthalmologist.

His father encouraged him to give something back to the Bihar State from which the family came. Ajay spent some time working as an ophthalmologist in a hospital there before moving to Ireland. After six weeks he decided to move to Warrington for further training. While there he qualified as a Member of the then newly-formed Royal College of Ophthalmologists, bravely taking all four examinations on the same occasion.

He later returned to Delhi and established a successful private ophthalmology practice. He joined the Rotary Club of Delhi Riverside, where he served a year as President.

Ajay, his wife and their two children were invited to dinner by a friend. “Bring you horoscopes,” said the friend. When he looked at Ajay’s horoscope, he told him he would be moving to the United Kingdom. Ajay was sceptical because he didn’t see why he should want to give up his successful practice in Delhi.

Two things happened. Firstly, the owner of the building from which Ajay practised announced to the tenants that for financial reasons he was selling it for redevelopment. Secondly, one of Ajay’s former colleagues from Warrington contacted him to invite him back as they were accumulating a backlog of cases. Ajay and his family moved to Warrington in the mid 1990s.

After working there for a while, Ajay applied for and obtained a job at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford. He and his family moved to Chelmsford, where the children completed their education.

Both Ajay’s son and daughter are now doctors. Ajay said he was pleasantly surprised, when his son introduced his future “life partner”, to realise that she was the daughter of someone who had been two years below him in medical college.

At Broomfield Ajay rose to become Clinical Lead for Ophthalmology and later Clinical Director for Head and Neck. He is now a Fellow of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists. He retired last year and joined our Club shortly after.