Tradition meets modern parenting: why South Asian families still guard newborns against nazar, and why the instinct isn't as old-fashioned as it sounds.
The black dot
Across much of South Asia, a small black dot — a bottu or kaala teeka — is dabbed on a baby's cheek, forehead, or behind the ear soon after birth. The logic is almost the opposite of vanity: the dot is meant to make the baby look slightly "flawed" and therefore less enviable, deflecting an admiring stranger's gaze away from perfection. It's a rare tradition that protects by making something look a little less perfect on purpose.
The black thread
A black thread or bracelet tied around a baby's wrist or ankle serves a similar purpose, and is common well beyond India too — Latin America's azabache bracelet and various Mediterranean charms follow the same instinct: something dark and plain, worn early, standing between the child and anyone's stare.
Why compliments get deflected
Many South Asian parents will visibly downplay a compliment about their baby — "oh, he's not sleeping at all, he's a handful" — even when the baby is, by every account, doing wonderfully. This isn't false modesty; it's the same evil-eye logic in conversational form. A grandmother might mutter a quick blessing under her breath the moment someone says "what a beautiful baby." The goal is to immediately counterbalance the praise before it can "stick."
How this echoes modern parenting anxiety
Strip away the specific charms, and the underlying feeling is one every new parent recognises regardless of background: an intense, almost superstitious fear that acknowledging how well things are going will somehow jinx it. Modern parents who've never heard the word "nazar" still knock on wood after saying "he's been sleeping so well," or avoid buying certain baby items too early in a pregnancy "just in case." The evil eye simply gives that same anxiety a name, a tradition, and a ritual response passed down through a family — rather than leaving it as free-floating, nameless worry.
Where Put Drishti fits in
For a family far from home, or simply without an elder nearby to do it the old way, Put Drishti recreates the same three-round salt, chilli or camphor ritual on screen — for the baby, for yourself, or for anything new and precious enough to worry about.