The baby with Kajal looked at its mother with a suspicious eye

While walking through the old town of Bhaktapur, I met a mother holding her baby. The baby wore a bindi between her eyebrows and a clear coat of kajal around her eyes. Many children in India and Nepal have this kajal painted on them. It is believed that if you do this, you can avoid the evil eye.

The evil eye is an eye with supernatural powers to bring disaster to people and things. In cultural anthropology, the idea that misfortune brought by the envy and covetous gaze of others is called "evil eye" belief. It is a widely held belief in the world, although it is not taken notice much in Japan. In Nepal, there have been many reports of illnesses such as ill-health, children's diseases, and female infertility caused by the evil eye of sorcerers. Human jealousy and envy must have been considered a nuisance for a long time.

It is interesting to note that there are various types of protection against the evil eye, which is said to lead to death in the worst-case scenario, depending on the region. In Turkey, there is a talisman called Nazar Boncuğu, which has a picture of an eyeball on it, and in the Middle East, there is a palm-shaped talisman called a Hamsa, which is used to ward off the evil eye. This baby's eye make-up, called Kajal, is also a protective amulet to protect it from the evil eye, just like Nazar Boncuğu and Hamsa.

Let's go back to the photo. In this photo, the mother is talking to her baby. But the baby is not in a good mood. It looks back at the mother with a quizzical look. It was as if it was saying, "I won't be fooled by your sweet words." What on earth was she talking about?

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