For the past several generations it is commonly believed in Tamilnadu and other places that if a person is looking at anything with great envy, that thing will go bad.
The evil eye may damage a person or an object. In order to divert the attention of the person with evil eye, certain measures are being adapted. White pumpkin is usually hanged prominently in front of a building being built. Face of a devil or a demon with horns is generally drawn on the pumpkin. A Pumpkin is kept at the middle of a road junction with some magical items. Vehicles generally avoid running over it. Some times it gets smashed by vehicular traffic and the careless pedestrians skid.
Camphor is lighted on a pumpkin and shown in front of the face of a person believed to be affected by the evil eye. It is then taken to the middle of a place where three roads meet and broken into pieces. The same procedure is also carried out with coconut instead of pumpkin.
People hang drawing of “Kan Drishti Ganapathy / Drushti Ganapati / Kan Dhrishti Vinayakar (A form of the Lord Ganesh / Ganesha / Ganesar / Pillaiyar), or drawing of donkey in front of the main entrance of their houses.
Kannaip paar siri / Kannai par siri (look at the eye and laugh) or ennai paar siri (look at me and laugh or smile) is the slogan commonly written along with these drawings.
Some people hang lemon, red chili, charcoal, alum etc, tied in a black rope in front of the house, shop, crop or vehicle, office. This is believed to be protecting them from the evil eye called kan drishti, ketta paarvai, kanneru or kan paduthal in Tamil language.
Newly married couple, while entering house are politely stopped at the entrance and arathi/ aarathi / aarati / arthi is shown in front of them and then the aarti is discarded. Lighted camphor or a mixture of lime water (calcium hydroxide) with turmeric powder or both together are shown in front the person to neutralize the effect of evil eyes. This mixture is red in color.
If nothing is available to neutralize the evil eye, some mud, sand or earth is kept within the palm and shown in front of the suffering (believed to be) person. The person showing this will spit his or her saliva over the sand, and discard it away.
The same act can also be performed with the help of red chili with common salt, but here, the chili with the salt is finally thrown in fire.
For those who are fans of evil eye merchandise, there are a lot of ways to procure one. In daily life you can find glass evil eye amulets almost everywhere. People donate everything they love or appreciate with these blue evil eye charms.
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