Hindus believe that one's thoughts can have an influence (both good and bad) upon both oneself and others.  When some friends were doing construction work on their lodging house, they hung this nazarpattu from the second story.  It's a clay pot roughly painted with a human face, and its purpose is to absorb any possible bad luck arising from the envy or jealousy of others.  The evil power of these thoughts is called the nazar ("gaze") and the effects are similar to wbat one might call the "evil eye," in which the person's direct gaze transmits the negative energy.  One finds similar designs painted on the back of many trucks and buses, for the same general reason--to deflect or absorb bad energy coming from the hostility of other drivers.  

Apotropaic (protective) measures are an established element of many life-cycle rituals, to provide a little extra insurance at a critical moment in a person's life.  Here the seated boy is getting his hair cut for his sacred thread ceremony (a symbolic makeover).  His mother (left) is presenting offerings (symbolically treating him as a deity).  The man behind is doing a protective ritual known as war-pher ("circling"), in which an object (here, a bank note) is waved around someone's head, and then given away --in this case to the barber, whose hand is already outstretched.  The notion is that any potential bad luck or misfortune affllicting the person will be dislodged by the circling action, stick to the object, and be transferred away from the object's recipient.  Since the barber is not at a vulnerable moment in his life, he can accept this with no danger.  

Concerns for religious purity and impurity drive all sorts of choices.  Formerly the only sort of "single-use" vessels were those made of unbaked clay--here being bought to serve guests at a public feast--since one could be sure that they had not been contaminated.  The vessels were thrown away after use, but because they were unbaked they would quickly dissolve and decompose.  For a while unbaked clay vessels more or less completely replaced with plastic ones, but they are making a comeback as a "greener" more sustainable choice (since single-use plastics last practically forever).  

Dan (gift-giving) is an established strategy for managing potential bad luck and / or inauspiciousness, which can come from life events (such as a death), from unlucky astrological conjunctions in one's horoscope, or from moments in the lunar month/year that are deemed unlucky.   In the popular understanding the donor makes a vow to give a gift, and gives away the bad luck along with the object.  From a religious standpoint accepting such gifts is at best undesirable, and at worst potentially hazardous, but for some people their needs outweigh the risk.  Here a man is searching the Ganges river bed for gupt dan ("secret gifts")--valuables such as money and jewelry that have been tossed there by donors.