Asiri and Heena met in a bar in Japan.

She was a teacher.

He was a bartender.

She likes his food.

He likes her way of thinking.

Asiri and Heena

Her name: Heena Amin

He is 26. She is 25.

He is of Sri Lankan origin

She was born in Canada and with Gujarati roots.

He is a BCIT computing diploma student.

She has two university degrees and is a high-school teacher in Burnaby

He says: "You don't really find girls in Sri Lanka that are well-suited in all situations.

They look after you, take care of you, but I need someone to say 'no it's wrong.'

Maybe our culture is too male-dominant...The women back home are nice but they don't have too much knowledge about the outside world...You need a middle ground."

She says: "People kind of stare but you get over it..."The food is good. They have a different religion: Buddhism. It's a good philosophy to live by...I don't really hate anything about his culture...There are just the subtle differences,"

He does not like women who scream

She does not like wet bathrooms

On kids

he says - "No I'm not concerned about the future of our kids. They can even go to church if they want, it's up to them. I just want them to be able to differentiate between right and wrong."

she says - "No I'm not concerned about our kid's future.

They'll grow up here so they'll lose a lot of culture anyway. I don't even speak Gujarati."

On parents

Hout with Heena. They gave me 100 percent freedom. They were happy that she's closer to our culture."

She says - "Be careful of the parents. If they don't approve they will never approve. Just because the wedding occurs, nothing will change. Their beliefs are still within them."

He describes himself as an outcast, maverick, lovebird

She says she is an adventurer

(First in a series on the lives of interracial couples in Canada by Zahra Jamal)