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Waxing Poetic: A Bengali Tale In Singapore, Zakir Hossain Khokan

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In 2003, I left my freelance journalist job in Dhaka for work in Singapore as a construction supervisor. My wife, Jui, and son, Zarif, stayed behind in Bangladesh. Coming to Singapore, I brought with me my love for poetry, journalism and photography. Outside my work hours, I would read up on Singapore and explore the local literary and poetry scene. In Bangladesh, one can readily fi nd poems published in books and newspapers; however, I could not fi nd a single poem in any of Singapore's newspapers, and this gave me the initial impression that Singaporeans do not like poetry.