The Lines That Goa Remembers

YOU’RE unlikely to have these books thrust into your face when you visit Goa. On the contrary, you might wonder where to find these tomes. That’s the sad part of Goa’s book trade: interesting books can be hard to find. Worse still, you might never ever get to know of them.

- Frederick Noronha

Almost everyone would have heard of Mario Miranda. Because of his long years of working with some of the biggest newspaper chains in India, the cartoonist is very widely known. Not just that, he shaped India’s understanding of Goa through his lines.

Mário João Carlos do Rosário de Brito Miranda (1926-1911) was one of those whom many persons thought of instantly when they remembered Goa. He would often be interviewed or quoted, simply because of his easy brand recall when the media needed to quote a Goan name.

You can blame a lazy national media for that; but it is also a fact that he worked for decades as Goa’s unofficial ambassador to the outside world, particularly Bombay. Of course, Mario also did spread some stereotypes about Goa. His lovely drawings were also suffused with images of the buxom fisherwoman, the sexy secretary, and the caricatured Catholic and Hindu gents. One could argue that the role of the cartoon is, anyway, to caricature society. But anyone with an even slightly awareness of Conservative Goa would know that this is not how the place sees itself.