Mario Miranda, 1926-2011



Mario Miranda, the longtime, popular cartoonist at The Illustrated Weekly Of India and in the Times Of India newspapers who also published in MAD and Punch, passed away on December 11 at his home. He apparently died of natural causes. Miranda was 85 years old.

Mario Joao Carlos do Rosario de Britto Miranda was born in the western India coast city of Daman to Catholic parents in 1926. He remained a lifelong member of the Goa community of Indian nationals living in the former Portuguese colony, and became a frequent chronicler of their way of life. Like many cartoonists, Miranda was a child artist: drawing at home in a book of blank pages given to him by a supportive parent, drawing figures at school in a way that got him into trouble, selling custom art to friends. Miranda studied at the St. Joseph's Boys' High School in Bangalore and then received a history degree from St. Xavier's in Mumbai. He had originally been pushed towards architecture, but ended up taking a first job in an advertising studio. He would stay there for four years.

While still at the studio, Miranda published his first work with The Illustrated Weekly Of India and also placed cartoons and illustration with The Times Of India. He later expanded his freelance market to Femina and Economic Times. An international scholarship allowed the artist to work in Portugal and then London, where he spent a total of five years. While in England he worked on television animation in addition to finding jobs with newspapers. He subsequently met Ronald Searle, a major influence on his adult work.

Returning from England, Miranda joined RK Laxman as a staff cartoonist at the Times Of India. He married artist Habiba Hyderi, with whom he eventually had two sons. A trip to North America made possible by the United States Information Services allowed Miranda a chance to promote his work to international clients and to meet such cartooning luminaries as Charles Schulz and Herb Block. Miranda's work remained consistently focused on the life of similar Catholics in Western India, although he did a wide variety of portraiture and humorous cartooning as well.

Among book illustration gigs featuring other authors were Inside Goa (Manohar Malgonkar), A Family In Goa and The Open Eyes (both by Dom Moraes). His own books included Goa With Love, Germany In Wintertime and Impression of Paris. A museum was devoted to the display of his original works; I believe the same group runs this elegant web site.

Miranda's art was exhibited in multiple countries on four continents. He won several civilian awards: the Padma Schri in 1988, the Padma Bhushan in 2002 and a lifetime achievement award from the All India Cartoonists's Association in Bangalore. Miranda was a prolific mural maker, a late-in-life painter and an illustrator of several children's books. He spent his retirement still placing freelance work wherever he could, and doing as much travel as possible.

As per his request, the cartoonist's body was cremated Monday after a memorial service.


 
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