Mario Miranda@100: Farzana Behram Contractor Fondly Remembers Mario

Mario Miranda was a genius. No doubt. But that matters not, for there are many in this world we can attribute that adjective to. The difference is that while most are pompous, with little else to them except their genius, it was not so with Mario de Miranda.

Mario was… Mario. An extraordinary man, a man who created his own special world and lived there happily, swimmingly. Apart from being the fantastic artist he was, he had other interests in life, like movies, for example, and animals. And travel. He was kind and gentle, humorous of course, and always smiling. He minded his own business, and no harsh words ever escaped his lips. In any case he was a man of few words and he preferred to stay away from controversies. Above all, he wore his celebrity lightly. Perhaps he was oblivious to it. Or couldn’t care less. All that he was interested in was to draw, draw, draw. That, he was really passionate about. And he was so good at it, I always felt it was a special gift from God Himself. I have sat in his studio at his apartment at Oyster often enough and watched him work. From time to time he would peer over his moon glasses, rather bemused that I wanted to watch him work.

Sketching began early in life, on the walls of his home! As a child he was caught drawing wherever he could, much to his mother’s chagrin. But no sooner was he given a blank book to doodle in, he started making ‘funny’ pictures of those around him, including the local pastor. Clearly the cartoonist in the young lad was stirring…

But before becoming the celebrated cartoonist and artist thanks to the encouragement from his friends who noticed his talent in his adult life, Mario was looking at an IAS career and also studying to be an architect. This is what his parents wanted. But it was not to be, Mario’s heart wasn’t in it. After passing out of St. Xavier’s, Bombay, the bohemian in him made him join an ad agency where he worked in the creative department. He also started contributing drawings and pocket cartoons to newspapers and magazines and thus were born the unforgettable characters like the stupid but sexy Miss Nimbupani, Miss Fonseca, the buxom secretary, Godbole, the silly office clerk and Bundaldass, the fat and paunchy, glib and corrupt politician, among others.

The turning point in Mario’s life came when he was offered the Gulbenkian Scholarship, which enabled him to travel to and stay a year in Portugal. Mario always said this experience is what changed his outlook, forever. After a year in Portugal, he travelled to London and spent five years there, learning as well as doing jobs for newspapers and even worked in television animation. This certainly further widened his horizons and he returned to India, raring to go.

He regained the job he had quit at The Times of India, thereafter met Habiba Hydari, got married to her and produced two sons, Raul and Rishaad, the latter a split image of himself. I lament that we lost Rishaad, and still can’t believe he is gone…

Though cartooning became Mario’s calling, his best works happened only after 1974, when, at the invitation of the United States Information Services (USIA), he travelled to America, which enabled him to promote his art and interact with other cartoonists in the United States. Here he got an opportunity to work with Charles M. Schulz, the creator of Peanuts) and also met Herblock, the editorial cartoonist of the Washington Post.

The idea of travelling to different countries and depicting them through drawings germinated in Mario’s mind and some of his best works came from this international travelling. The candid scenes he reproduced of Israel, Germany and France were amazing and among my most favourite. Though nothing can surpass his drawings of Goa, Goans and the depictions of the Goan way of life. Mario’s drawings were so intricate, so flawless. Behram, my husband, who the world loves to remember as Busybee and who was probably among the closest friends of Mario, once wrote this about him, “Mario has always been a contented soul. With a little push and a lot of ambition, he could have been India’s No. 1 cartoonist and illustrator. He has the artistic talents for this, and some of his drawings are a little short of paintings. But while others have gone on to do commissioned pieces and hold exhibitions, he has been content doing cartoons for newspapers and sketches for advertisers. And since he does not know how to bargain, or is embarrassed to bargain, he has always been paid little for his work and often done it for free.” So very true. Habiba used to always say, "You should have been his Manager!"

Well, this was the professional side of the great artist. What about Mario, the person? Let me tell you. He was exasperating! He could, in his own quiet way, drive you up the wall. For example, ‘dead-line’ was a word he did not want to know the meaning of! It was my job to coordinate with him to send his drawings to Afternoon House, in time. After my nth call to him, there he was, on the other end of the line telling me in a lazy, irritating manner, “Hey Tarzana, what’s the rush? Relax, Speedy Gonsalves is on his way...” That’s how he always addressed me, Tarzana, and laughed like it was a great joke, bugging me further. And good old Speedy, who was a real slow coach, was his peon and the grandfather of our cricketer, Vinod Kambli. He would take two hours to come from Colaba to Fort. He rode a cycle.

Mario, when he was at cocktail parties and among friends, was different. He was funny, very witty and as he downed a few good pegs he would even get talking! But always slowly and in a laid-back manner.

Mario really was a great human being, with no airs and zilch ambitions of accumulating loads of money. He was a handsome devil, a big suave man with a child’s heart. Mario was an absolute sweetheart.

Behram and I missed Habiba and Mario immensely when they left Bombay, shifting to Goa to live in his palatial, ancestral home.