How would you react when you are woken up at 5am in the morning by the loud call of the koel, a bird, outside your bedroom window? Living in urban Singapore, we often forget that there is a natural world around us. The writer reminds us that there is more to life on this planet than urban comfort and utilitarian convenience. Stopping to listen to the thrumming cicada chorus, or the call of the koel, or watching the family of otters in Bishan Park, perhaps could help us reconsider our relationship with the natural world and what we are doing to it. 

Read the full article on http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/the-sounds-of-nature

Yu-Mei Balasingamchow is the co-author of Singapore: A Biography (2009). Her short fiction had been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize (2014) and selected for the biennial Epigram Books Collection of Best New Singaporean Short Stories (2013 and 2015).