Dr Bhargava had rational and scientific approach in life

Scientist Pushpa Mitra Bhargava (Photo | ANI Twitter)
Scientist Pushpa Mitra Bhargava (Photo | ANI Twitter)
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When Dr Pushpa Mitra Bhargava, who had earlier worked in world class laboratories in USA and UK, was determined to construct a similar modern biological laboratory in India in the ‘70s, he was told by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) that the building cannot be completely air conditioned. It had even laid a condition that at least 25 percent of the building should not have air-conditioning.


Having air conditioned building was an essential part of it, as in a biological laboratory contamination or wide temperature variation cannot be allowed which would spoil the lab specimens.
Dr Bhargava presented such a building plan to CSIR that the 25 percent condition was fulfilled with places in the building like stairs and corridors. There was also pressure to occupy the CCMB building before its completion. However, Dr Bhargava stood his ground and did not move to the under- construction facility until the building was completed because moving in earlier could have resulted in the building remaining incomplete.


There were many occasions when Dr Bhargava offered resignation instead of doing things which he felt were not right. This sometimes resulted in him coming of as a rude person and some people not liking him. He had enemies everywhere. When CCMB building was constructed some people termed it “Pushpa Sheraton” and even called it a five-star laboratory. However, a conference in which a large number of biologists participated in India and abroad, that was conducted before and after dedication of CCMB building by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1987 put down a majority of the critiques. Moreover, the money used for construction of building was less than 50 percent of amount allocated for by government.


CCMB building construction was also a sort of family affair for us. His wife, Manorama Bhargava, personally went to Pochampally to pick cloth to be used as curtains. I was tasked with buying tables for labs. I used to check the tables personally to see if they could get damaged due to acid or other chemicals used in lab.Dr Bhargava also had a keen interest in art. A wall which I suppose was used for playing squash was to be demolished during the construction but Dr Bhargava decided against it and invited well known artist MF Hussain to paint the wall. The art work is still present.


He conducted art camps a few times in which well known artists like Thota Vaikuntam from Hyderabad also participated. Some of the artists gave their art works to CCMB which are displayed in the building.
Dr Bhargava aimed for excellence in everything, which was visible even in his selection of staff. Almost everyone in the CCMB was handpicked by him including the scientific photographer who went on to win a national award for one of his photographs, his typist who won award of fastest stenographer and CCMB garden won awards many times for its beauty. Dr Bhargava used to sit in interview for drivers as well and personally pick them.


He would handpick scientists and go out of the way to ensure that those whom he selects work for CCMB. In fact, I was one of the first scientists at CCMB to be picked by him.
I remember meeting him after submitting my PhD thesis at the University of Hyderabad. I informed him about my plans of pursuing post-doctoral research at the University of Texas at Austin. However, he was determined not to let me go and spoke with me for hours to convince me to stay back and work at CCMB as he was impressed with my research on malaria parasites using photoacoustic spectrometer which I had built myself at UoH. The research paper on it was published then in the science journal.
I was not interested initially but then Dr Bhargava convinced me to stay. I was given an appointment order immediately and I joined as Scientist ‘C’ in 1984. I later went on to become the Director of CCMB in 2009.


Similar is the case with Dr Lalji Singh and Dr J Gowrishankar, who were picked by Dr Bhargava. While Dr Singh also went on to become Director of CCMB, DR Gowrishankar became Director of Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD). Dr Bhargava believed in working as a team, was democratic as a team leader and never laid stress on hierarchy. There was no getting up in front of seniors and other such traditions at CCMB. Dr Bhargava valued time and efficiency a lot. As most of the lab equipment was imported, whenever there was an issue, the companies had to be informed and it would take months before repairs were done.


However, CCMB was first in the country to develop its own centralised instrumentation group, who would be engineers trained by the company whenever an equipment was bought. So whenever there was an issue with any equipment, our in-house team would repair it and maintain them.
Dr Bhargava had a rational and scientific approach on everything in life. There are various examples of this like he going to court against the Vedic Astrology course planned to be introduced by UGC and going to court against the famous “fish prasadam” for asthma in Hyderabad. He held strong views on all issues and expected other scientists to have the same. However, sometimes there used to be arguments between him and other scientists who believed that personally scientists can believe in things like religion. It was in room number 240 in CCMB that these arguments would take place.


Dr Bhargava also held strong political beliefs, as may be recalled from the incident of him returning his Padma Bhushan award in 2015.Although many consider him to have been close to the Congress party, it was surprising that the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi did not inaugurate the exhibition he wanted to have even after five years of invitation being sent.


When Rajiv Gandhi had dedicated the new CCMB building to the nation in 1987, it was expected that he would make announcement that Dr Bhargava’s term would be extended by two more years as he was due to retire just next year. It was only after more than 25-30 scientists from India and some from abroad including Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA molecule, wrote a letter to Rajiv Gandhi saying that the new facility needed Dr Bhargava to head it, that the extension was granted.
One everlasting legacy of Dr Bhargava is the Guha Research Conference (GRC), an exclusive club of presently just 120 top biochemists and biologists from across the country, which I headed for 16 years. Dr Bhargava participated in GRC until 2014 when he was on wheelchair.


Dr Bhargava did not believe that the Indian Science Congress as productive. In 1960 an informal conference of a handful of top biochemists from the country met in Khandala, Maharashtra as planned and the meetings continued ever since. They were earlier known as the Khandala Meetings which were later renamed as GRC after the biochemist Bires Chandra Guha. The meetings saw intense discussions on latest research findings.


The members of this club first decide to invite a person based on his work after which the person has to present his work while facing a barrage of questions from all the existing members.  We will miss Dr Bhargava for the fun quiz at the GRC. He would remember the papers presented by the GRC members and then make riddles on them and ask us. No one can take the place of Dr Bhargava. One of the scientists with whom Dr Bhargava had openly disagreed over the issue of genetically modified seeds, replied to my email informing him of Dr Bhargava’s death by saying that India had lost one of its dissenting voices.

(The author is a JC Bose National Fellow and former director of CCMB (2009-16))

(as told to V Nilesh)

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