Davora, the specialist Ethnic Greeting Cards publishers, were invited to celebrate Diwali with the Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street.

Rajeev Arora, Managing Director of Davora Ltd, and his wife Shruti attended the reception, the first of its kind to be held in the Prime Minister’s official residence, and presented Mr & Mrs Brown with a Diwali card from the Davora range. “It was a fantastic day, and it’s great that this festival is being recognised at the highest levels of our Government” said Rajeev.

“This is the first time we have had such a celebration in Downing Street” said the PM to a gathering of prominent members of the Hindu and Sikh communities from across the UK, including Meera Sayal (Goodness Gracious Me), Anita Rani (BBC1’s Watchdog) and Labour Peer Lord Paul.

After lighting a Diwali lamp, Mr Brown called it an “historic event” and “a great day for Downing Street and a great day for Britain”.

Apache Indian was tickled by our Christmas Card range, which was launched at the NEC Mela. 

'The UK's Bollywood Ambassador' Honey Kalaria was pleased with what she saw at the Davora stand, as was Miss England 2006 Eleanor Glynn who paid us a visit, and commented on how much she liked our contemporary Diwali cards - she may even send some to her Diwali celebrating friends next year!

We also managed to catch up with the creator of Bollywood Legends dolls' creator Shameen Jivraj. Shameen knows how important it is to cater to the desires of the western based Asian community, a thought which resonates with Davora's philosophy.

We ran a free prize draw for anyone who signed up to our e-mail newsletter - and 3 lucky winners will be sent a Bollywood Doll of their choice.

The positive feedback we received from all who visited us, and seeing the smile that our cards put on peoples faces will keep spurring us on to produce more funky and fun designs. Thanks again to all of you for your encouragement!

TV Star Nitin Ganatra with Davora's Rajeev Arora

Ameet Chana

Apache Indian - tickled by our Christmas range

Honey Kalaria is pleased with what she saw

Nitin Ganatra and Raza Jaffrey at the Davora stand

Bollywood Legends creator, Shameen Jivraj

These are just typical of the comments we received at our stand during the Asian Lifestyle Show 2006 at London Olympia. The cartoon designs had people laughing and smiling all day. And with Raksha Bandhan just around the corner, our Rakhi cards were flying off the shelves faster than we could restock them!

Thanks to everyone who visited us. Your feedback and praise has given us further encouragement to increase the range and continue producing fantastic designs. It was a great show for us, and we look forward to seeing you all again soon!