Lyricist Gifts Golden Pen To Girl Who Got 600 In Class 12, Criticised For Calling Her ‘Sister’ – News18

The Directorate of Government Examinations, Tamil Nadu (TNDGE), announced the Class 12 or HSC results on May 8. Around 7.5 lakh students cleared the exam, and the overall percentage of the state stood at 94.03 per cent. Even though the state didn’t officially announce the toppers, S Nandini, a resident of the Dindigul district, has scored a perfect score of 600. She has scored full marks in subjects Tamil, English, Economics, Commerce, Computer Application and Accounts. She completed her education at a government school, and her father is a daily wage worker.

It has been reported that lyricist Vairamuthu visited the girl’s house and gifted her a golden pen for scoring a perfect score in her Class 12 examination. He tweeted about this and congratulated Nandini. He wrote, “How can we appreciate that a carpenter’s daughter topping the state exam shows the pride of womanhood? I am coming to Dindigul to present the gold pen I received recently to my sister Nandini. Let your dream come true, girl!”

However, he has received backlash for calling Nandini his sister. A few years ago, his name came up in a #MeToo complaint, which created a lot of anger  towards him in the industry. He started losing out on work and many people in the industry refused to work with him. Even Mani Ratnam, who is considered Vairamuthu’s close friend, didn’t offer him work in Ponniyin Selvan, as per reports.

People have trolled him on social media. One user commented, “How can you call a girl who is your granddaughter’s age a younger sister? It would have been correct if you had posted it as a granddaughter.”  Another user wrote, “A 17-year-old girl is the sister of a 71-year-old man? He is going to personally go and give me a gold pen. Leave that little girl alone. If you want to give a gift, send it by post.”