K. T. M. Iqbal
Mohamed Iqbal (born in 1940), better known as K. T. M. Iqbal, is a Singaporean poet and essayist. He was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 2014. Early life and education Iqbal was born in Kadayanallur, India in 1940. He and his father left for Singapore in 1951 after his mother and his three younger brothers died from cholera. He then began attending the Umar Pulavar Tamil School on Maxwell Road. He began writing poems in 1957. After his graduation, he was employed at Gattey & Bateman, an auditor's firm. When he turned 22, his father arranged for him to be married. He began attending evening classes at the Cantonment Road Primary School in 1963. He began attending Gan Eng Seng Secondary School the following year. Career After graduating, he returned to Gattey & Bateman, which had been renamed to Coopers & Lybrand, as a clerk. A few years later, he left the firm to become a share registration officer at Singapore International Merchant Bankers Limited. In 1971, he began as a freelance songwriter for the Tamil-language Radio Singapore Children's music programme Let Us Sing. By the time he had stopped working for Radio Singapore in 1989, he had written over