THE phrase “to not take yourself too seriously” means to let go of an inflated ego, stop stressing over minor flaws or status and be able to laugh at your own expense or shortcomings.
That self-depreciating characteristic was very much on display when an Indian lady responded to a Malay woman’s enquiry about the Indian community’s fondness for stainless steel kitchen ware.
What was the reason? Were there secret health benefits? Or were there cultural reasons behind the choice for chrome-plated cutlery, wondered @beauteashe who, too, was thinking of switching from plastic to stainless steel ware.
Amid all the practical and pragmatic reasons proffered, one Threader’s response stood out simply with its hilarious take on why Indians here prefer non-glass wares.
According to Jirisha Rajendran (@iamjsha), the real motivation behind such sturdy utensils had to do with “Indian parenting styles”.
Accurate ‘missile’
Explaining “Indian moms have a unique way of disciplining their children” whereby they’d use whatever is on hand as projectiles, it was better that such items were NOT made of glass or easily-breakable materials.
It was surmised that by using stainless steel kitchen ware, the disciple-measure of a well-aimed missile is then “100% cost-effective and maybe only 5% damage to the kitchenware.”
The hilarious and “honest” retort itself has generated 24.9K Likes, 575 comments, 556 re-posts and 358 shares at the time of writing, an indication that many Malaysians still had a sense of humour.
This much was evident when a fellow Indian commenter confirmed the practice of aiming accurate headshots by disciplining elders at wayward children.
Explaining the science behind stainless steel wares as “anti-microbial, cleaner and silver balances the human body”, he nonetheless conceded that his grandmother targeting his uncle’s head with a flying silver plate had a “100% hit rate”.
This light-hearted observation drew loud guffaws from many commenters who obviously saw the funny side to this unique parenting style.
Chiming in were a couple of amateur stand-up comics who added their own punchlines. SJ🇲🇾 (@shmljffr) remarked that this was probably the reason behind “decorative dents on his stainless-steel cups” when he visited his Indian friend’s home.
Another comedian claimed that a former (presumably Indian) neighbour explained that it was “easier to wash the blood”.
This tactic was confirmed by a few commenters who had Indian neighbours. Tales of flying stainless-steel saucers at naughty children aplenty, they claim they too froze in fear at these fierce-but-always-smiling Indian aunties with an Olympian archer’s aim.
Apparently, one traumatised Indian individual was driven to pursue psychology in an attempt to understand such phenomena of throwing stainless steel plates at children. “This is Indian mother’s default setting” came the retort.
A Malay commenter recounted an anecdote involving an Indian family at a pharmacy. When the cashier tried to promote some glassware to the family, the patriarch remarked that glass was easy to break, hence they preferred stainless steel wares for ease to hurl at misbehaving kids.
“Sometimes, I, too, am the target,” he added for good measure whereby everyone in the pharmacy broke out in laughter.
At a time when race rhetoric is getting too toxic, it is indeed a breath of fresh air to see Malaysians laugh at themselves and not take themselves too seriously.
Not all stereotypes are grounds for 3R (race, religion and racial) huffing and puffing, perhaps just a well-aimed throw of a stainless-steel plate at one’s head. – Oct 25, 2026
Main image credit: Vinod Stainless Steel
