Jinxed paintings

One of the framed prints was of `The Last Supper` of Leonardo da Vinci. At least three of my clients in the past, betrayed by trusted friends, had this jinxed painting hanging on the wall. I suggested removing and throwing it into the Arabian Sea to correct the flaws in the Marriage corner. Ashwin' s wife was cheating on him. So was his partner. And he was so hurt that he almost went into a shell.

Wife and partner were cheating

Perhaps because he was over-involved in his business venture, he didn' t have enough time for his wife Shweta. They couldn' t celebrate his birthday as he was away on a business trip to Hong Kong. They were not together on their wedding anniversary as he was out of Mumbai for a business trip. He thought his wife understood the business compulsions that took him away. "After all, I was working my ass off for the welfare of the family. Who but her would have got the advantage money can give?" he told me. His wife got romantically involved with his old classmate Hiren.

"I picked up Hiren from the gutters. He was so broke that he' d keep bidis in his cigarette packet! Both, his socks and his pockets had holes in them. I trusted him. I made him my working partner and treated him like he was my brother. And he repaid me by stabbing me in the back! He stole crucial data from the office computer and joined hands with my rivals. Worse, he had the audacity to accuse me of exploiting him."

"What had I done to deserve this?" Ashwin wanted an answer.

Judas impact

I took a look at the murals and paintings on his house walls. The answer was staring at us. One of the framed prints was of `The Last Supper` of Leonardo da Vinci. This is not the first time I have seen what I call the Judas impact. At least three of my clients in the past, betrayed by trusted friends, had this jinxed painting hanging on the wall. Along with other Feng Shui suggestions I suggested removing the framed print and throwing it into the Arabian Sea to correct the flaws in the Marriage & Relationship corner. Ashwin is slowly picking up the threads of his haywire life. `The Last Supper` is only one of the many jinxed paintings. M F Husain' s painting of Indira Gandhi after her assassination – bullets replaced by flowers on her dead body, is another jinxed painting. I do not know whether it was among the 18 paintings he gave to Rajiv Gandhi – and whether this jinx caused his assassination – but the prints of this painting have often brought bad luck to those who have hung them on the walls of their offices/homes.

Jinxed

Equally jinxed is the famous painting of Lord Krishna on a chariot, leading Arjun in the Mahabharata. Invariably, I have found disharmony and disputes wherever this painting is hung. The impact is also negative when paintings or pictures of lonely women are hung on the walls of single girls' rooms. Feng Shui has a lot to do with symbolism and this is why a hotel in Oshiwara with a named Dona Paola always waited for customers who never came. Dona Paola is the name of a Goan village. The name has its roots in a story of the unrequited love of a village girl whose statue still stands at the village entrance waiting for her lover to return. Another jinxed painting is The Crying Boy, a portrait of an orphan painted by a Spanish artist. The artist' s studio burnt down and the boy was later killed in a car crash. `The Sun` reported in 1985 that The Crying Boy was a jinxed painting and got a Yorkshire fireman Peter Hall confirming that he had often come across unscathed copies of this painting at the scenes of fire. Several cases from different parts of the world were reported confirming the jinx after the story appeared in `The Sun`. The curse extends to all the many different versions of the painting! Even the Burning of Manila, a painting of Fernando C Amorsolo, based on his personal experiences during the dark days of Japanese occupation and the battle of Manila in 1945 is considered jinxed and never to be found in the living rooms of art collectors. Even the prints have only brought misery to the owners.

Note: The right of privacy is sacred for me. The names of the people mentioned in the diary are usually changed to protect the identity of my clients. The real names are mentioned with the consent of people mentioned.The picture accompanying the article is only for representational purpose.

Write to Mohan Deep