thestar.com

Jainism knits the [Prafulla Mody] family together. The two children, Yash, 12, and Hetal, 10, are being brought up as Jains and the family prays together mornings and evenings, occasionally visiting Metro's Jain temple on Park Lawn Rd.

The earliest Jains are said to have arrived in the Metro area in the 1950s. The Jain population increased considerably in 1972 with the arrival of refugees from Uganda's bloody civil war. By 1974 there were about 150 Jain families in the Metro area and the Jain Society was formed. In 1983, the society bought a former Christian church on Parklawn Rd. and converted it into a temple.

Jain said that many may find the practice of Jainism, with its dietary regulations that include the prohibition of certain foods at certain times, difficult to comprehend. "But Jainism has very elaborate explanations, it's not left as a mystery," he said.