Dosanjh receives education at home

Ujjal Dosanjh used to talk the talk, but his wife taught him to walk the walk.

It seems the social justice and equality issues that fuel him never made it through the front door of his Vancouver home.

Household chores were a foreign concept to Dosanjh, who was raised in a traditional Sikh home in a tiny village in India. His wife, Raminder, set him straight.

"He came from a fairly male-dominated household where he was used to everything being done for him," she said. "Cooking, cleaning, everything, and he did very little because he didn't need to because it was all done."

Raminder Dosanjh, used to be an assistant director of the English as a second language program at a Vancouver college and a feminist activist, said she pointed out the contradictions between what her husband was saying and what he was actually doing.

"It's things that he used to talk about and believe in. I challenged him to actually put them to practice," she said. "He's been very good."

Now he's a full-fledged happy homemaker.

"It's over the years that we've been together that he has changed very much," Raminder said. "Ujjal actually looks after the bulk of the household cleaning. He still is not a very good cook, but that's fine with me."

"The way it's evolved, he takes over and he cleans the washrooms, he does the dishes every morning and he'll help cut vegetables if that's what is needed. He's there."