Goa, Aug. 22 -- Vivek Menezes

In the invaluable archive of Mario Miranda's artworks being safeguarded and intermittently showcased by Shaun Lobo (whose late father Ronnie was a close friend of the artist) I was delighted to find a letter from the Consulate General of India in New York dated 5th June 1987. The old-fashioned air mail correspondence is addressed warmly to "my dear Mario" by Alan Nazareth, our consul at that time, and reports the great success of "a Goan party" for John Gunther Dean, the US Ambassador to India, hosted at the Taj Group's pioneering Raga Restaurant at Rockefeller Centre. Nazareth tells Miranda the gathering 'which you had proposed to me" had proved "a most enjoyable luncheon party" with "successful socializing...