Kan drushti (nazar)

A baby in the house spells a total revamp of routines and also belief systems. Every household has its unique DNA of routines and systems. The baby arrives and kicks out the entire gamut of comfort zones and structures in the house. Everything revolves around the baby's needs and everyone else squeezes her time and activites deftly around the hero, Tamil filmy style.My mornings used to be quite predictable; no fixed time for getting up, get up when you feel awake; and then yoga routine. This goes on for a while and then coffee, breakfast of kanji and some dry fruits and I sit down with my feet up for Tamil Hindu. Other papers follow and then settle down comfortably with metro plus crossword. Peace and quiet and all is well with the world kind of morning. The only strenuous activity in the morning is to squeeze my head to identify items to be bought from the market.Then it is handed over to K. He starts his day with a leisurely coffee and paper and then starts out with the list to the market, at the same time also finishing his morning walk in the Indira nagar park.

Now , we dont know when the morning starts, because the night was not a peaceful slumber and with barely open eyes I come to the kitchen for my coffee. No yoga.  For K many a morning walk is compromised, but not the 'list'. He also needs to double up as errand boy inside the house. So it is the opposite of peace and quiet morning. As for putting up one's feet, no, the feet stay firmly on the ground to do the numerous sorties with the baby and for the baby.

I think you get the general idea. Utter lack of predictability is clearly established. Now let us move on to the belief systems. The baby is restless for a few days and crying without any reason. We need to buy kaajal and apply it on his forehead and cheeks. This will ward off the evil eye. But nobody came last few days that the baby was crying. No, even the mother's fond gaze is enough to bring trouble to the baby, so kaajal is a must. One of the baby set gift boxes had four black bangles, along with other routine stuff of jublas, nappies, baby oil and baby soap. We grabbed it and the baby wore it next day.The baby has a headbath routine and on those days we do an aarti and one set of black bangles have to be removed and put in the aarti plate. We have started following this  also. "Kan drushti' is removed on everyday basis, by several routines. Timing is usually evening and the baby has to be awake. It could be camphor, the block variety not the cute diamond like pieces that we usually buy. Camphor will be lit and the baby and mother are seated facing east and a specially designated person does the 'drushti warding off' act in their unique style. There is a more powerful method of using 'poo thodappam' (a variety of broom which was used in my grandmother's days, before the rangoon brooms swept the market!).Now  this type of broom has become extinct due to onset of modernisation(!), It is quite a challenge to get it.We tried all the native medicine shops in the neighbourhood;( no, it is not available in any regular departmental/neighbourhood provision stores)
Our maids were duly put on the job of looking out for this exotic and extint broom variety. One of them was successful in spotting one such shop in TVM and when she brought it home she was greeted with such joy, our neighbours  could have mistaken it for us hitting some jackpot in a tv gameshow!When last heard, amma has placed orders to get atleast two more.

I have noticed the  belief in 'nazar' is a pan Indian phenomenon. My Bengali friend use to apply kaajal on her boy bay's forehead and cheeks and drive her Christian friends curious as to why is applying bindi on her baby boy.

My logic and rationale for the 'kan drushti' phenomenon. Thought waves are powerful. So when someone looks at us, some thought waves do pass between them and us. In adults the thought waves have equal strength, so can withstand any adverse impact.
But in an infant any adverse thought wave can have adverse effect. Black is supposed to deflect the adverse thoughts and hence its impact on the baby.

We have bought into this belief system totally. Anything for the welfare of the baby is the motto. We are also told, that if we do these routines, whether we believe it or not, kan drushti will be cast away and the baby will be fine!.





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