, Aug. 31 -- When the opening chords of 'Baaji' rolled out on Coke Studio Bangla's Season 3, marking the return of the platform after more than a year - listeners expected another reimagined track that fused folk lyricism with modern instrumentation.

What they didn't expect was a moment of quiet revelation - a glimpse of the poet himself, whose words had long travelled beyond him.

At the 4:12 mark of the song, the camera shifted, and there he was: Hashim Mahmud. Not just a name in the credits, not just a ghost behind beloved verses, but a living presence, lending his own fragile yet resonant voice.

Sometimes, a song finds its way into the world long before its singer does. It drifts across radios, lingers in conversations, seeps into c...