"Nazar" Pendant

When I was 2 years old my grandmother, too proud of her "fat" and not so dark youngest grandson, did what most grandmothers blinded with affection do: Introduced me the the world of "black magic". She bought a black nazar thread and tied it around my waist. You do not get these threads any more, but it was a neat peice of craftmanship and was looped in a way that it could easily adjust to my pre and post lunch tummy. Of course, the challenge was to hold it in place while my grandmother soaped and scrubbed me [that was the only piece of "textile" I was allowed to wear while bathing!]

Soon I discovered that many others kids in my neighbourood wore the same thread around their waist and in fact there was a street hawker who sold them by the bunches everyday.

I guess, in the late sixties and early years of seventies when India Inc was not doing too well in terms of food security, infant mortality, politics, social tensions etc., as a post-partition migrant from the east who had lost it all once, my gradmother found the usual way to protect her grandson from the evil eye.

Just a small digression: this was in small town Bihar and believe you me, those were the best days for urban Bihar. the roads were cleaned everyday, 24x7 electricity supply ensured that generators were not known in these parts, you could get the fish of your choice in the market, you could drink Coke and Fanta during movie intervals and my mother did once walk down the streets in her skirt and top without anyone batting an eyelid [my father had in a state of suspended judgement bought it for her on his first trip to Mumbai]

Be that as it may, I grew up to be a pretty decent boy and was now under the direction of my working mother as the first born, only son. She decided that I needed something stronger to keep me away from the evil spirit. I was therefore quickly taken to a local pir [my family was non denominational and subscribed to any god or pir that seem to work in our favour, a trait my ancestors carried from their hoary past in the syncrestic swamp lands of east bengal]. The pir wrote something on a piece of paper shoved it inside an amulet, sealed the opening of the amulet with wax and tied it across on my left arm with a black thread. The pir happened to be a relative of my mother's 'daftari' at the local court, so the service and the product were supplied free of cost. So up came the amulet on my arm and on the second day down it went with a longer black thread to my waist [Even at that age I knew better than to wear my attitude (amulet) on my sleeve (left arm)]

Long gone are the days of hawkers selling black loops, you would not find then even in rural Bihar; Pirs too do not dispense amulets free of cost and in any case most of them have other pressing duties to the Almighty. One would think in the natural progression of civilization they lost out on their roles. And why not? with India Inc going great guns, India exporting food along side software codes, life looking up for the average Indians; no one seems to be in the need of the insignificant nazar thread or amulet. In any case, those whose stars are acting funny could always go to an overpriced jeweller consult an over priced astrologer and buy an over priced stone.

So since my daughter's birth in 2001 I have been looking quite desperately for a low cost solution to the problem of nazar [evil eye] without luck till recently. It was only the other day that I seem to have been directed to the solution.

Again, as in many critical insights of life, late night TV came to my help. Yes, one night, sitting under the faux chandelier in front of my TV, I attained the ultimate knowledge. There was an half an hour advertorial on a channel, talking about the ill effects of evil eye on children and adults and advising me to buy a Nazar Pendant. So the little street hawker and the poor pir were back in a new avatar of a mighty TV channel - Wow! and also selling for a change exactly what I was looking for. I discovered more: now you do not have to wander from ashram to ashram in hardwar or rudraprayag or badrinath to look for that one mouthed [holed] rudraksha, if you know which channel to watch. This was great news and for such services alone, TV should be rated "Public Serivce Media" just as newspapers are.

Much enlighted from the experience I walked to Tanishq next morning and bought a 10 gram gold biscuit for my daughter, my second gesture of securing her future.... [the first one was of course sending her to a good play school]