Model slams critics after Pongal clip boils over into cultural controversy

Model slams critics after Pongal clip boils over into cultural controversy

Screenshots of the clip showing Gayathri Moorthi greeting fellow Indians a ‘Happy Pongal’, last Sunday.


PETALING JAYA: A TikTok clip by a model clad in a saree with her midriff exposed to wish Malaysian Indians “Happy Pongal” last week has boiled over into a cultural controversy.

The clip on the local actress’ social media platforms received more than 274,000 views and 100,000 comments, with many of them lashing out at her for “destroying the Indian culture with her style of dressing”.


However, in a strongly worded response, Gayathri Moorthi slammed her online critics for being hypocrites, accusing them of not practising what they preached, and asked them to send their kids to Tamil schools before talking about culture.

Netizens who commented on the clip had said Gayathri’s dressing in the clip wishing Indians on the auspicious day last Sunday was spoiled by her “exposed” midriff and navel and that it went against the religious and cultural spirit of the occasion.

“Stop destroying Malaysian Indian culture. What you are portraying is Bollywood culture. Showing your navel and hips is a bad influence on our future generations,” said one netizen.

Another said her 16-year-old daughter was watching, and the clip would have a bad influence on her.

Gayathri lambasted her critics by saying in her clip that Indian culture is not judged by just what one wears or how it is worn, adding that there is more to this. “It’s the attitude that decides your culture, not what you wear.”

“What culture are you all talking about? Is drinking, robbing and stealing our culture? Why are you looking at my navel and other parts when the wish for the occasion was more important?


“Culture is showing love and compassion to all, and respecting your elders,” she said.

She added that the very people commenting and criticising her probably don’t send their children to Tamil schools or teach them the language, which is a cultural heritage.

“Send your kids to Tamil schools and make them speak the language first. Teach them to become responsible children first. That is culture,” she said.

She also pointed out that Indian ladies have always exposed their midriff when they wear sarees, adding that there was nothing wrong with it as that is the fashion.

When contacted, Gayathri said no one should try and teach others their version of culture when they themselves do not practise what they preach.

“While many criticised me over this clip, there were a fair number of others who defended me saying the way I wore my saree is much more decent than what others wear for certain occasions,” she said.

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kt comments:

Gayathri Moorthi, just ignore those pseudo-sanctimonious hypocrites. As I remember it since my kiddie days, Indian ladies in Malaysia have in general dressed as you did.

Talking about culture I remember once when I was in a bar surrounded by my Indian friends, all happily yamseng-ing with Anchor's delightful brew, a 3rd party invited over by my friends, undeniably inebriated, suddenly shouted at me "You blardy Chinese have no culture at all except for the culture of war" - subsequently I was to discover he had been discussing the Sino-Indian War of 1962 with his yamseng-ing host as part of his curriculum in History in the university.

In that 1962 war India lost badly and Nehru even had to swallow his pride and call upon the US for assistance - the USN sent a carrier fleet to the Indian Ocean. Poor Nehru was of course cursed by most Indians for being a moron to lose the war.

My uncle told me that booksellers in his days, mostly Indians, refused to market the book 'India's China War' by Neville Maxwell because they felt the book provided a bad light on India, though internationally, military and international affairs experts then viewed the tome as superbly documented (largely from official Indian sources but also from secret Indian papers) and beautifully sustained.

Apparently the book showed how India led the world up the garden path, thus demolishing and throwing to the wind a pillar of the 'contain China' doctrine - the belief that in 1962 India was the victim of unprovoked Chinese aggression. Maxwell's book was hailed as magnificent on every count, an historical achievement of the first rank. Aisehman, no can do for the Indians including the booksellers in Malaysia, wakakaka

Anyway, the inebriated bloke with whom I was then recently acquainted was furious at India's loss and thus at me because I was a (presumably in his less-than-sober mind) war-like bellicose blardy Chinese.

At that time (in the bar), I thought of telling him, like what Gayathri Moorthi had lambasted her critics into ensuring their children study at Tamil schools before scolding her on Indian culture, to remember and read the two greatest Indian work of literature, namely the Ramayana and Mahabharata, before e;f;f;-ing the Chinese as cultureless except for the culture of war, wakakaka.

But I wisely kept quiet and allowed him to rave and rant until he was satisfied Indian honour was once again restored that night in a boisterous bar, wakakaka again.

Ramayana

Mahabharata