Padma Vibhushan Mario João Carlos do Rosario de Brito Miranda, ComIH (2 May 1926 – 11 December 2011), popularly known as Mario Miranda or Mario de Miranda, was an Indian cartoonist and painter based in Loutolim in the Indian state of Goa. Miranda had been a regular with The Times of India and other newspapers in Mumbai, including The Economic Times, though he got his popularity with his works published in The Illustrated Weekly of India. He was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 2012. Miranda was born in Daman, then in Portuguese India, to Goan Catholic parents of Goud Saraswat Brahmin origin. His ancestral surname was originally Sardessai, before the family converted to Roman Catholicism in the 1750s. At an early age when his mother saw him drawing his home walls, she brought him a blank book, which he calls his "Diary". He even started getting into trouble at school, for sketching Catholic priests. Mario Miranda's early cartoons presented vignettes of Goan village life, a theme he is best known for even today.
He studied at St. Joseph's Boys' High School, Bangalore and then did a B.A. in History at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, while focusing on the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Thereafter he started studying architecture at the behest of his parents, though he soon lost interest. Meanwhile his talent was noticed and his friends encouraged him to make postcards and draw for them, which earned him extra pocket money. Miranda's cartoons were featured in the Lilliput, Mad (once), and Punch (twice) magazines. This supplemented his finances, and enabled him to travel around Europe, interacting with other cartoonists, gaining considerable knowledge and exposure. This led to his meeting of Sir Ronald Searle, whom Miranda considered his mentor.
Besides cartooning, Miranda's murals are present on various buildings in Goa and other parts of India. Late in life he took to paintings which receive wide response. Over the years, he published several books, including Laugh it Off, Goa with Love, and Germany in Wintertime. Besides his own books, he illustrated books by Dom Moraes (A Journey to Goa), Manohar Malgaonkar (Inside Goa) and Mario Cabral e Sa's (Legends of Goa). He also illustrated many children's books, including Dul-Dul, The Magic Clay Horse (1968), The Adventures of Pilla the Pup (1969), and Lumbdoom, The Long-Tailed Langoor (1968), all written by Uma Anand and published by IBH Publishing Company, Bombay, under its Echo imprint. He loved travel and listening to music and it was his ambition to experiment further with water colours and to write memories of his early years in Goa, on retirement. He was not able to fulfill these two latter ambitions.
