We saw this picture while driving past the paddy fields that lined the narrow roads as they wound their way through the villages of Gokarna; in the region of Uttara Kannada in Karnataka. It was also put up on the outer walls of some houses and near the entrance. The driver of our cab explained that it was done to ward off the ‘evil eye’. In the paddy fields, this picture kept company with scarecrows- kind of a combo deal. So of course we had to stop and take a picture of the picture, all the time hoping that no evil eye would be cast upon us for having the temerity to do so.
The next step was to go to Aunty G (Google) to find out more about this mystery lady. Unfortunately the search turned up nothing except the same pictures and more comments about why it was used. No one knows who she is and if she has allowed herself to be photo shopped into an evil- eye -warding- off poster or whether some clever photographer hit upon this idea and is making money out of a studio photograph.
One has to look closely at the picture to see how effective it is because while it did give us a lot of laughs, I can well understand any human or non-human with ill-intentions deciding to move on, instead of casting a ‘burri nazar’ on the dwelling or fields of its owner.
As one Reddit user put it “Even if I lived in that house, I would think twice before entering it!”
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