Ajay Mehta has worked in NGOs for 36 years. He is happy that his NGO has been able to bring real change in the condition of the villagers. He has no regrets in life.

Ajay Mehta is currently President of the Vidhya Bhawan Society,an educational organization, where he has been serving for the last five years. Formerly he was the CEO of Seva Mandir, a renowned NGO in Udaipur.

Born in Switzerland to diplomat parents, Ajay spent some time of his early life in various countries. Later, his mother left her job as a diplomat and became a writer, and Ajay completed his schooling from Ajmer. He did his B.A. from Yale University, USA. He also did M.Phil from JNU, Delhi.

He had a desire inside him to do social service and so he joined Seva Mandir, which had been formed by his grandfather, in 1985. He worked at Seva Mandir for 14 years and then went to Delhi where he worked in the National Foundation of India for 10 years. Thereafter he also worked for the State Planning Board in Jaipur for five years.

In his earlier years, he was influenced by the ideas of Marx, but he realized that he could not do that type of work. Gradually he drifted towards Gandhian ideals and was happy to work for the downtrodden through Seva Mandir.

Talking about ups and downs he says he did not have to face many, as his parents had given him good education and he was doing what he liked.

Ajay considers his mother his role model. In his own words she was very capable and sensitive. She wrote in her books about the pathetic conditions of the poor but she never pictured the rich in bad light. He was also influenced by his father who was very energetic, and by his grandfather Shri Mohan Singh Mehta who was a Gandhian.

When asked about his success mantra Ajay says that he thinks that everyone in an organization is important and success only comes when everyone contributes their part.

For the youngsters his advice is that they must do their work diligently and first they must understand their work in a professional way. They shall also adopt work-ethics in life.

Ajay considers that education and experience are both important but character is more important in life.

Ajay does not consider himself as a leader but he says that he has a capability to recognise the abilities of others and tries to make space for everyone in the organization according to their abilities.

Ajay recalls his childhood spent in different countries. He had a great interest in sports in his younger days.

If he is put in a time machine and taken back into time, Ajay wonders if he had been born in a more ordinary household he would have been able to understand the difficulties faced by the poor in a better way.

In his spare time Ajay loves to read. He also goes cycling daily. He watches films in the film club in his organization and also likes to spend time with some of his friends.