Indian scientists are, by and large, known to lead dual lives – a life in the lab that demands a rigorous scientific attitude of questioning and critical analysis, and a diametrically opposite one in their private sphere where the same scientific attitude is thrown to the four winds without any compunction while engaging in the most ridiculous superstitions. One scientist who stood out as a torchbearer of rationalism and humanism in this milieu of so-called scientists was Dr Pushpa Mittra Bhargava, fondly called PMB by friends and colleagues, who died on August 1, 2017, at the age of 89.