time of his death, he was the President of the National Education Society of Karnataka. Narasimhiah was a connoisseur of Carnatic Music and had close association with the renowned Carnatic Musician R K Padmanabha. R K Padmanabha led a 1000 people goshti in remembrance of Dr H Narasimhiah as a mark of respect. Narasimhaiah remained a confirmed bachelor. He quipped, He was considered as champion of humanism and atheism in India. But he described himself as rationalist, and added, In his later years, he suffered from prolonged septicaemia and died on 31 January 2005 in an intensive care unit of Maiya Multi-speciality Hospital in Bangalore. His body was kept in the National High School for public viewing. He was cremated, as he had willed (he had reserved INR 2,000 for it), at Hossur with a state official funeral the same day evening. Contributions Narasimhaiah wrote a collection of essays titled Tereda Mana ('ತೆರೆದ ಮನ', Open Mind) and an autobiography named Horaatada Haadi ('ಹೋರಾಟದ ಹಾದಿ', The Path of Struggle). In 1962, he founded the Bangalore Science Forum, which conducts a weekly series of public lectures on science topics. This non-profit organisation has conducted almost 2,000 popular science lectures by eminent scientists and over 500 popular science films. He was also responsible for establishing the Bangalore Lalithakala Parishat and B.V. Jagadeesh Science Centre. As a Vice-Chancellor, he constituted and chaired the "Committee to Investigate Miracles and Other Verifiable Superstitions" in 1976. Members of the committee included scientists, academics and rationalists such as A.R. Vasudeva Murthy, Roddam Narasimha, Vinodha Murthy, Anupama Niranjana and A.M. Dharmalingam. The committee aimed to debunk claims of miracles and paranormal phenomena, specifically by Hindu godmen. The first challenged was Sathya Sai Baba, one of the most prominent godmen of India, who was observed to materialise holy ash and objects out of thin air, among other reported miracles such as bi-location and healing of the sick and wounded. Narasimhaiah personally wrote three letters to Sai Baba asking him to publicly demonstrate the miracles under controlled conditions. Sai Baba refused to comply, and remarked, "Science must confine its inquiry only to things belonging to the human senses, while spiritualism transcends the senses." Narasimhaiah commented this refusal as indication of fraudulence in the miracle stories. A public controversy and debate then ensued. When the committee requested to visit Sai Baba, he locked himself in. The committee was also involved in exposing