Evil Eye, Meet Wi-Fi: The Wide-Eyed Meme Taking Over Karnataka Walls

Last Updated:January 07, 2026, 12:00 IST

Builders put it up at construction sites. Shopkeepers stuck it near entrances. Homeowners placed it on gates and balconies. The logic stayed the same even if the face changed.

Somewhere between shares and screenshots, the meme jumped off phones and onto walls. Locals began printing the image and using it instead of traditional drishti bombes. Image: X

If you have travelled outside Bengaluru recently, especially into the towns and semi-rural stretches of Karnataka, chances are you have seen her. A woman in a saree, eyes dramatically wide, thick kohl outlining an expression that sits somewhere between shock and intense glare.

Her face stares out from half-built apartment blocks, kirana shops, roadside stalls, farms, warehouses and even freshly painted new homes. She is everywhere, and yet, until recently, no one quite knew who she was.

What looks like a quirky poster trend is actually Karnataka’s newest twist on an old belief system.

From Demon Faces to Meme Culture

For generations, homes and businesses across the state have relied on the drishti bombe or nazar battu to ward off the evil eye. Traditionally, these charms came in the form of frightening masks, devilish faces with bulging eyes and red tongues, designed to scare away jealousy and negative energy.

Today, that role has quietly been taken over by a meme.

The intense, wide-eyed woman now seen on posters is being used in exactly the same way, as a modern guardian against bad vibes. Instead of fearsome demons, people are trusting the power of a viral expression.

The Post That Sparked the Curiosity

The mystery truly went public on January 5, 2026, when a Maharashtrian woman living in Bengaluru, known on X as @unitechy, shared a photograph of one such poster. She wrote about how she kept seeing this woman outside construction sites across Karnataka and admitted she had even tried Google Lens to find out more, with no success.

Her simple question, who is she, turned into an internet obsession. The post clocked over 3.2 million views in no time, triggering a wave of online sleuthing.

https://x.com/unitechy/status/2008070384923369686?s=20

Soon, photos of the same poster began pouring in from different districts. People spotted her on shop shutters, compound walls, farm gates and half-finished buildings, proving this was not a one-street curiosity but a state-wide phenomenon.

The Meme Behind the Mystery

The answer came from social media itself. The woman is Niharika Rao, a Karnataka-based YouTuber whose exaggerated wide-eyed expression comes from a video clip she posted in 2023. The clip had gone viral back then and quickly became a meme, used to convey shock, disbelief and dramatic reactions.

Somewhere between shares and screenshots, the meme jumped off phones and onto walls. Locals began printing the image and using it instead of traditional drishti bombes. What started as humour slowly turned into habit, and habit into belief.

Builders put it up at construction sites. Shopkeepers stuck it near entrances. Homeowners placed it on gates and balconies. The logic stayed the same even if the face changed.

When the Internet Meets Tradition

Once the mystery was solved, reactions online were a mix of insight and entertainment. Some users explained how this was just culture evolving with the times, replacing old symbols with new ones. Others joked that it was the ultimate glow-up for a meme, from internet joke to real-world talisman.

One viral comment called it a demonic sigil that would chase thieves if they dared to steal. Another described it as the true power of modern superstition, where belief meets bandwidth.

Even tech tools like Grok and Google Lens got a mention, as users credited them for helping trace the image back to its source.

A New Age Nazar

Beyond the humour, the trend says something deeper about how traditions survive. Superstitions do not vanish with smartphones. They simply change outfits. In today’s Karnataka, the evil eye is still feared, but it is being fought with a YouTuber’s wide-eyed stare instead of a painted demon face.

From smartphone screens to street corners, this is folklore in the internet age. A meme becomes a charm. A joke becomes belief. And a mysterious poster becomes the most unexpected protector of homes, shops and construction sites across the state.

News viral Evil Eye, Meet Wi-Fi: The Wide-Eyed Meme Taking Over Karnataka Walls