The Gazette
MONTREAL, CANADA, April 27, 2003: Migrating to Montreal, Canada, from Lucknow, India, in the 1970’s, Asha and Govind Saxena have held fast to their Indian culture and Hindu religion for nearly 30 years. They are among 58,000 Montrealers that have South Asian roots and who have tried to establish a balance between the East and the West in their family life. Asha Saxena says, “Our family has grown, integrated and done well. We have told our children: Take the best of both worlds.” However, Asha admits that she was uneasy when her boys wanted to date, as her own marriage was arranged. Asha gave up a law career to raise her two sons, but now she has become a teacher at a local college where she wears business suits to work. When she arrives home, she dons her Hindu attire. Govind Saxena, a Dawson college professor says, “We live in a global community, our sons are examples of this.” The couple has two sons that are engineers, one lives in Washington, D.C. and the other in Uganda. At the couple’s recent 25th wedding anniversary, the two boys gave a speech in honor of their parents. In the tribute, they spoke of their desire to raise their own children the way they had been raised.