10 interesting facts about Mario Miranda

Today’s Google Doodle illustrates one of Mario’s most popular paintings, ‘a rainy street’. Regarded as one of the most famous Indian cartoonists, Mario Miranda had his finger on the pulse of the country — particularly its largest metro, Mumbai and beautiful Goa which has inspired his life and work.

1. Born on 2nd May 1926 in Daman to Goan Catholic parents, Mario always had a flair for art and painting. His mother gave him a blank book when she saw him drawing on the walls. This is where it began.

2. Miranda who developed his own independent style of creating cartoons and characters, is remembered for his works featured in The Times of India and The Illustrated Weekly besides several other newspapers, periodicals and books.

3. He is known for his trademark stylish strokes which illustrates a detailed colourful story with shades of humour and sarcasm, largely based on his life in Mumbai and Goa.

4. Miranda was offered the Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian Scholarship, which gave him an opportunity to visit Portugal and London where he worked for newspaper and television animations. 

5. Later, he was invited to present his art in several countries such as U.S.A., Japan, Germany, Spain and France. 

6. Mario Miranda was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2002, Padma Shri in 1988 and a Lifetime Achievement Award by the All India Cartoonists's Association, Bangalore in the year 2013.

7. After retirement Miranda lived in his ancestral home, at Loutolim, a village in Salcete, Goa, with his family. He died during his sleep on 11th December, 2011.

8. Miranda left a rich treasure trove of his popular creations which includes a pictorial travelogue on famous cities like London and Lisbon and an illustrated book on the history of Goa co-authored with Manohar Mulgaonkar (Miranda's friend and curator of Mario Gallery).

9. In 1990s, Rushi Yazdegardi, owner of Café Mondegar, asked Mario Miranda to draw murals on two opposite walls of the restaurant. One wall was dedicated to the Life in Mumbai, whereas the other wall was dedicated to Atmosphere in the Café.

10. Gerard da Cunha, an architect and a close friend of Miranda, will release a book titled The Life of Mario - 1949, the latest in a series which includes The Life of Mario 1950 and 1951. It recaps Miranda’s life when he was just 22 and a student at St Xavier's College in erstwhile Bombay.