Diwali Greeting Cards

The Queen Victoria Building (QVB) is a majestic structure located in the heart of Sydney’s CBD. The shop façade’s are fastidiously kept so as to maintain the look & feel of this building's heritage. Visitors to the QVB are normally international travelers particularly during the festival of Diwali.

Many years ago my family owned and operated one of the shops on the top level of the QVB. We where lucky enough to encounter and sometimes befriend people from all four corners of the planet.

We would note with curious interest the ebb and flow of nationalities and wonder at the circumstances influencing the rise (or fall) in visitor numbers from particular countries. Some visitor nationalities where always a constant such as the Japanese, American’s and New Zealanders’. Other’s where sporadic such as Indonesian’s, German’s, French and Brazilian’s.

We sold this business more than a decade ago however I sometimes wonder what the current trend is.

On the way to a business conference in the city recently I decided to ‘duck-in’ to the QVB for a quick look.

Times have certainly changed.

I can only imagine that the rate of exchange for the Australian dollar has had a significant impact on the number of visitors to our shores. The place was VERY quiet.

As I passed by our former shop I noticed the absence of a shop that was a favourite of mine whenever visiting the QVB.

It was a shop dedicated to Cartoon Cell’s however my interest was not in the Cell’s but the Greeting Card’s they produced once a year for Christmas.

The cards where unlike any Christmas card most people are likely to receive. They where provocative and a little bit macabre but intensely funny for those of us with a dry sense of humour.

The artist would hand draw each one hence only a limited number where available each year. I always made a point of checking their arrival every day in the months leading up to Christmas.

It gave me tremendous pleasure to send them out to friends and family as I knew most would react with indignation before ‘cracking-up’!

The phone would ring and I would be censured for a few moments and then we’d enjoy a long overdue chat.

And so it is with Diwali or at least should be. The year sometimes passes without annotations and we neglect to maintain contact with friends and family. All it takes is a greeting card to renew past connections and hopefully maintain them.

So put pen to paper (or cardboard) and surprise someone you know and want to keep knowing.