Kuala Lampur, Aug. 25 -- The other day I watched a CNA documentary on a young construction worker, an aspiring poet, Mukul Hossine.

Mukul, a Bangladeshi national, has been working as a construction worker in Singapore, on and off, for seven to eight years. One of the city's 200-300,000 foreign construction workers - but among this cohort, Mukul stood out.

Unlike most of his peers who spend their spare time with cricket or downloading films and videos on their phones, Mukul devoted his spare time to poetry. He even took to scribbling verses on cement bags at the construction sites he worked at.

His verses and tenacity would eventually earn him recognition in Singapore and Bangladesh. Attending local poetry events, he introduced himself ...