Miss you Miss Fonseca

“Be gentle and sympathetic to me today Miss Fonseca … I’ve just paid my taxes”

So was born Miss Fonseca the sexy and the buxom secretary to a temperamental boss. Probably the best creation of  Mario João Carlos do Rosario de Brito Miranda affectionately known to the world as Mario Miranda or simply Mario. Mario was born on 2 May 1926 in Daman, the erstwhile Portuguese colony, to devout Goan Catholic Parents of Saraswat Brahmin origin. His ancestral surname was Sardessai before being converted to Christianity in the 18th century and the Miranda’s had a ancestral house in the picturesque village of Loutulim in Goa which was featured in Shyam Benegal’s cult classic Trikaal.

As Mario remembers the blank book his mother gave him to stop him from sketching on the house walls and he fondly calls it his “Diary”. His early cartoons displayed a penchant for the Goan life with sketches of “Carriera” (Public Buses in Goa during the Portuguese time), “Tavernas” , “Busqabeatas”(The gossiping spinster), the awestruck pig carried on a horizontal pole to be roasted for the Fest, Mestre Santana and his choir, Babali Borcar the barber with a cynical expression and the ofcourse the Goan Fish market with the bosomy “kharvins”(Fish-sellers).

Mario had no formal training in art. Though he tried architecture at one point in his life but lost interest every soon. He joined architecture just to please his parents.

My early memories of Mario started with an decrepit copy of “Mario’s Goa” published in 1965 that I had in my home. I remember watching the blue shirted gentle man sketching a cartoon on beachside in Goa in the iconic Doordarshan song “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara “ and my father saying “That’s Mario, Mario Miranda”. Little did I understand the significance yet after I grew up and saw his cartoons on Economic Times I understood the talent. That’s where my love for Miss Fonseca began.

Mr Miranda recalls about Miss Foseca , "People thought I made Ms Fonseca too buxom”and I loved the sexy Miss Foseca clad always in her black dress with white polka dots.

In his life time came a lot of recognition. He was awarded the PadmaShri in 1988, the Padma Bhushan in 2002 and All India Cartoonists's Association, Bangalore, honoured him with a lifetime achievement award.The King of Spain, Juan Carlos, conferred on Mario the highest civilian honour of "la Cruz de Isabel la Catolica’ which was presented to him on 11/11/2009 at his family home in Loutulim by Don Miguel Nieto Sandoval and on 29/12/2009 Portugal, under the President of the Republic Aníbal António Cavaco Silva, made him "Comendador da Ordem de Infante D.Henrique", a Portuguese National Order of Knighthood. Mario Miranda was posthumously awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award in the Republic of India, by the President on 4 April 2012.

Finally the time came when we had to bid adieu to this great gentleman. On 11 December 2011, Mario Miranda died of natural causes at his home in Loutolim. With his great murals drawn on lot of Goan Buildings including the great mural on Konkan Railway Station in Margoa and also one of personal favourite the mural drawn on the entrance of Wipro at the Electronic City campus in Bangalore, his memories would still remain forever in my heart.

“A cast of characters who could be counted on to raise a smile and make a tiresome day at work a little less tedious. Mario Miranda's strip on the office had a stellar run in The Economic Times. It was one of the first attempts made by a serious business paper to have a more light-hearted take on the workplace and the strange assortment of characters who populated it.”