Jadu Tona - Black Magic

Last week, as the festivities were at full swing on Diwali night and Nizamuddin East colony had for one night turned into a full war zone, as it is customary this time of the year. The seemingly incessant ratatat made sure no-one was sleeping in the colony and made the local street dogs run around for cover in panic, ears tightly against their heads.

Eventually the youngsters had shot their pocket money to the sky in bright colors and peace was restored. The colony was falling asleep again. As I peeked outside to inspect the mess of shredded paper and gunpowder, something else had appeared  in front of my house. In the crossroads next to the house, someone had poured what appeared to be mustard oil in a circular shape and had carefully placed a packet of Kurkure chips, a diya-light and a packet of biscuits.

My immediate secular western rationalist brain figured that someone had littered outside my house, but I was quickly corrected by my girlfriend Meg that there are dark forces at play here and one should tread carefully, this was a display of jadu tona, i.e. black magic, a spell to wish ill or curse someone else either out of envy or anger. The spell is apparently to be placed in a spot where four roads cross and whoever unfortunate soul happens to walk or drive over it, will be infected with a horrible curse with a long list of various ill effects.
You might be driving across an intersection completely unaware and the next thing you know, your boss texts you that you're fired, your wife has a miscarriage and you drive off a bridge.

Intrigued as I was, I fetched my camera to go and document this display of sorcery. Photographing was still acceptable but walking across the spell could have had catastrophic effects to my life in the future. Needless to say, it was better to be safe than sorry.

The spell is supposed to be placed in a spot where 4 roads meet.

The circle of mustard oil has a crushed diya-light, a packet of Kurkure crisps and a packet of biscuits placed inside it.

The next day at work I was recounting my fascinating discovery to my Indian colleague. Having heard my description of the spell, her face immediately turned several shades paler and she froze and almost dropped the folder she was carrying: "You...didn't step over it, did you?"

Another colleague recalled that her husband had been cursed by someone, as a result of which he was in a total of 17 bike accidents in a span of roughly two years, always a close call. After a while, his mother turned to a holy man, who managed to sort it out. It's been a safe ride ever since. Similar experiences seem to be very common to most Indians and very few seem to have even the slightest hue of sarcasm in their tone when describing their supernatural experiences with practitioners of magic. Dealing with forces of the spirit world here is no laughing matter or something to make fun of. Belief in the existence of some kind of a supernatural realm is quite common in the world view of Indians and there is no need to risk it, so might as well play it safe and not conjure any evil spirits.

Of course, for a reasonable fee, an experienced spiritual consultant, such as Baba Nur-e-Ilahi can remove all spells cast on you in no time. Also, Baba Sidh Guru Ji is your man in case of any spiritual trouble: