In this moving tale by S. Rajaratnam, a pregnant Malay villager bathing in a river notices a tiger watching her from tall grass near the riverbank. Initially too scared to move, she is surprised as the tiger takes less and less interest in her. Eventually able to swim away, she immediately tells fellow villagers about the encounter. She feels uneasy when a party of men set out to shoot the apparently harmless animal, and is horrified by what they find after killing it. Themes include: fear, connection, compassion, bloodlust, motherhood, conservation (co-existence with vs. destruction/exploitation of nature).
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