Talk:Sukumar Barua

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. You can locate your hook here. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Crisco 1492 (talk) 14:40, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

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• Comment or view
• Article history

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• ... that Sukumar Barua refused to quit his job to pursue his poetry because the pay was too good?

• Source: এ সময় কেউ কেউ তাঁকে বাবুর্চির কাজ ছেড়ে পড়ালেখা করতে বলল। কিন্তু খাওয়াদাওয়াসহ তখন তাঁর আয় মাসে ১৫-১৬ টাকা। এমন সুযোগ কে দেবে? At that time, some people asked him to quit his job as a cook and write. But at that time, including food, his income was 15-16 taka per month. Who would give him such an opportunity?

• • ALT1: ... that Sukumar Barua reflected themes from the Bangladesh Liberation War in his poems? Source: His works span satire, humour, moral instruction and education, while also reflecting the spirit of the Liberation War and conveying strong social and political messages.
  • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Burning of Bekasi
  • Comment: I'm not well versed in Bangla, so a spot check on any translation issues may be in order. Otherwise, I hope you find this article and hook interesting!

5x expanded by The Robot Parade (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 7 past nominations.

--^The Robot Parade 17:15, 2 January 2026 (UTC).

• General eligibility:
• New enough:
• Long enough:
• Other problems:

Policy compliance:

• Adequate sourcing:
• Neutral:
• Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:
• Other problems:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

QPQ: Done.

Overall: x5 expansion met on 2 January. Great work, as always, Robot. Concise and well sourced. However, as much as I like the original hook, I'm wondering if the wording is correct given that it doesn't say that he "refused" ... May you like inserting a subtler word? (did not leave) or something like that to water down the emphasis? Open to hear opinions. Otherwise, this is approved. Waiting to tick this once the wording thing is solved. CoryGlee 21:37, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

• @CoryGlee: Thank you for the review Cory! I believe you're right about the phrasing. I think if changing "refuse" to something like "denied" is in order, the promoter will be able to do so without an ALT hook. I have listed one below to make the phrasing more subtle as suggested. --^The Robot Parade 09:15, 4 January 2026 (UTC)
  • ALT2: ... that Sukumar Barua chose to work as a cook instead of pursuing poetry as a career because his pay was too good?
    • (drive-by editor) I like ALT2 a lot. You might also say "declined". Cremastra (talk ·contribs) 15:29, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

• • • • @The Robot Parade: Indeed! ALT2 is accurate and interesting! CoryGlee 23:02, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

The DYK hook isn't supported by the article

The hook says that 'Sukumar Barua chose to work as a chef instead of pursuing poetry as a career because his pay was too good'

What the article actually says is that: 1. he, among other jobs, worked as a chef for two years at some point; and 2. that after his first book was released, he was encouraged to quit his job to focus on his literature studies, but he refused because the pay was too good. But it is not clear from the text that the job he had when his first book was released was precisely the job as a chef. If anything, the exposition implies that being a chef was his first job after he came to Dhaka in 1960, so those two years might have been 1960-1962; whereas his first book was published two years after 1968, i.e. in 1970. ~2026-81635-9 (talk) 13:26, 21 February 2026 (UTC)

@CoryGlee @The Robot Parade The hook was also confusing to me. I thought it meant Barua felt the poetry pay was too high and wanted a lower-paying job. Might not be worth it to change it this late, though. Aaron Liu (talk) 20:07, 21 February 2026 (UTC)