BEST SELLING DESIGN OF MY SHOP - JUNE 2008

THIS card with Hungarian folk motifs was my best selling design last month .

I saw this Omani dancer at the heritage village .Their folk costume were very interesting .Their gown was not black and they were wearing colourful ,striped stockings with a lots of anklets .
Their music was very very cheerful, full of rythm.The musicmakers themselves were dancing .It reminded me sometimes Turkish music ,or Scottish ,spiced with African infuence and traditional Arab melodies .Very special one .

A local grandma and her grand daughter in Qatar heritage village.The mask/burqa/is still in use by the elder ladies .

I like the folklor , I like the nostalgia , so I visited Qatar s heritage village .Though it is nowadays only a theatre . I enjoyed it very much .
First I walked along the village . Old fishermen were mending their nets , were hammering their boats.Little girls were playing old games in front of the houses .Life was going on in the street .Housewives were sitting in front of their little houses .They were doing the little housework there .Their faces were covered by mask according to the old local tradition . It is called : burkha and it is golden colored .Craftsmen were spinning , weaving , pottering . In the market of the village /sukh/ clothes , Omani sweets / halawa/ and homemade spice mixes ,pickles and jams were sold .A woman was making and selling pancakes . It was yellow like a sponge cake , and some cardamomi seeds were added to dough . Otherwise it was filled simply either by sugar or honey .Other women were selling home cooked food: spicy rice with chicken , slowly cooked meat with cereals .
AS the evening came local men were singing . Their songs are reflecting the monotony of the desert landscape and the acceptance of it .Songs used to be very important here in Qatar . Next to the pearl divers dhow there used to be another dhow just for the singers .They used to be payed just to keep up the good working atmosphere by their songs .

The thing that I really liked in Doha when we moved here was that it gave me so much information about the Indian art and culture .India was a great dream for me and I could see it here more or less without having to face the shady sides of that country .
I was happy to discover some words similar in Hungarian , the similiraty in cooking , and in the names. my grandmother s last name happens to be"ranga " , which is the name of millions of Indian as well .
It means colors in Hindi .
Kutta means dog in hindi , in Hungarian it is kutya .There is a state in India called
Bihar . There is a county in Hungary , it is also called Bihar .
The other day I found myself in a Kashmiri souvenir shop :Reshmi . I was shocked to see how the embroidery of that area is similar to the one of South Hungary .
A new mystery to be solved .
In the first pictures you can see the embroidery of Kashmir .In the last one you can see a local artist from South Hungary with her artwork at the background .