Like most cartoonists, Mario de Miranda   appeared to be a serious, shy, no-nonsense but soft-spoken person to a  first-time acquaintance, but gradually warmed up.   Born in 1926, Mario  displayed a keen love and interest in sketching and caricatures - using the  walls in his own house in Loutolim for practice! Until his horrified mother  brought him a book...   Though never formally trained in the fine art of  drawing, Mario started making small, cutely illustrated personal postcards for  his friends for a token payment - earning him some pocket money in his early  days in the 1930s-1940.   While studying at the famed St. Xaviers College  in Mumbai, Mario's eyes were  trained on competing for the Indian Administrative Service   (IAS). He went on to study architecture and gave up, before moving to an  advertising agency for four years.   The restless artist in him finally  persuaded him to take up cartooning as a fulltime vocation, around the time when  stalwarts like R.K. Laxma...
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