0f1f43239aa58210VgnVCM100000e56411acRCRDapproved/thenational/Articles/Migration/2009-Q4A poignant reminder of homefe1f43239aa58210VgnVCM100000e56411ac____Jumaa Iman, a Bangladeshi in his early 20s, arose from a bench facing the Arabian Gulf at 5am one recent Friday.<p>Jumaa Iman, a Bangladeshi in his early 20s, arose from a bench facing the Arabian Gulf at 5am one recent Friday. He and his workmate, Youssef Khan, had spent the previous evening walking around the city. After talking long into the night, they had fallen asleep on adjacent benches facing the water. "I am homesick," said Mr Iman. "I like to come here and spend a night looking at the sea because it reminds me of home," he said. "I left behind my parents and young sister. My mother just died, so sometimes, when my heart is heavy and I am sad, it is nice to feel the cool breeze."</p> <p>"You stare at the water. You see the dawn breaking when you wake up and then take a walk," said Mr Khan. "This is our form of relaxation." Mr Iman, a mosque cleaner, usually sleeps at the one-bedroom flat he shares with 13 other men. "Three beds," he gestures to indicate how the bunk-beds in the apartment are stacked. "It drives me to get away." Mr Iman has been in the UAE for nine months. He earns Dh800 (US$220) a month and said the pressure of sending money home while trying to balance his everyday finances here often left him unable to sleep.</p> <p>"You hear good things about this place, and it is not bad here, but what drives someone to leave home other than the responsibility to earn money for the family? "Otherwise, I would have never left home and come so far away. I hope some day I have enough money to go back to where I came from." sbhattacharya@thenational.ae</p> NNNATIONAL2009120700000020091207000000100ARhttp://adedit.ad.atl.publicus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091207/NATIONAL/7120699467120699462009120710000000056f13deb6cb58210VgnVCM100000e56411ac____fe1f43239aa58210VgnVCM100000e56411ac____b4617fdfa2448210VgnVCM100000e56411acRCRDd1b8baeb59b58210VgnVCM100000e56411ac____fe1f43239aa58210VgnVCM100000e56411ac____de4ac4f35ea58210VgnVCM200000e66411acRCRD