Google Doodle celebrates Mario de Miranda’s 90th birthday

Mumbai: Google on Monday celebrated renowned Indian cartoonist Mario de Miranda’s 90th birth anniversary with a doodle honouring the artist.

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

He is known for his trademark stylish strokes which told detailed colourful stories with shades of humour, largely based on life in Mumbai and Goa.

The commemorative Google Doodle was created by another comic artist Aaron Renier known for portraying large crowds.

It shows a rainstorm scene in a crowded Mumbai, with the hazy hint of a prominent landmark building, people of various communities that spice up Mumbai in their traditional attire, running around.

“I chose his most popular style, very flat with criss-crossing interactions,” said Renier, of the Indian legend who passed away on December 11, 2011 at his ancestral home in Goa.

Renier added that in the homage to Miranda, a rich litany of people, each unique in their perspective, is seen.

“That is what I liked most about his work,” Renier explained, “trying to pick out who knows who, who’s watching who, who’s annoyed by who, who’s enamoured by who. Hopefully people will see something of (Miranda’s) spirit in it.”

The people on the doodle are depicted struggling with their umbrellas, newspapers, women shown heavy bosomed and large-hipped, a spontaneous lovers hug, the typical dog chasing a stray cat and dragging his master on the leash.

On a ground floor is someone quietly observing the goings-on outside, on the first floor a woman (presumably a maid) absently empties the bucket of water onto the roads after scrubbing her home, while on the left side appears an image suspiciously resembling Mario de Miranda himself struggling with his next creation on the canvas.

“If you google, why not try Google India today? I did the doodle for the great Indian cartoonist,” Renier tweeted.

Miranda left a rich treasure of cartoons, sketches, pictorial travelogues on famous cities like London and Lisbon, an illustrated book on history of Goa co-authored with Manohar Mulgaonkar

Miranda’s friend and curator of Mario Gallery, Gerard da Cunha will release a book later on Monday titled ‘The Life Of Mario – 1949’, the latest in the series which had ‘1951’ and ‘1950’.