Flying on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner for the First Time

I finally got the opportunity to fly on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on a recent flight from Hyderabad to London. Hyderabad is currently the only station in India that British Airways operates the Dreamliner on and British Airways flies a total of six destinations globally using the Dreamliner with plans to add eighteen more destinations.

This also meant I got to try out British Airways' revamped Club World cabin for the Dreamliner.

I was really excited to see if the Dreamliner lives up to its name especially after all the marketing hype around it. Check-in was a breeze and the Plaza Premium Lounge has just bumped itself up even higher. For breakfast earlier, at the live counter, one only had the choice of a variety eggs and omelettes but one now has the added options of a choice of pancakes (plain, choc-chip or raisin), choice of fresh sandwiches and fresh baked beans on toast. The garlic glazed baby-corn and carrot dish was amazing.

On getting seated in the Dreamliner, the first thing you will notice is that the windows no longer have shutters, something which even Airbus' latest A380 does. What you find instead is this nifty little button:

The windows are now the largest of any commercial airliner (up to 60% larger depending on which aircraft you compare it to) with higher eye levels so one can maintain a view of the horizon. Instead of pulling shades up and down, one can adjust the brightness of the window using the above button. Using an electrochromic dimming system, the windows turn from fully transparent to completely dimmed in gradual steps. Want to watch a movie but don't like the glare from outside yet want some sunlight? That is now possible. Put the window on 80% dim mode in flight and a dark glow from outside almost makes you feel that you are floating in space.

Below is an example of me setting my window to no dimming, 50% dim and 80% dim:

The air quality is much superior as well. Internal cabin pressure is increased to the equivalent of 6,000 feet altitude instead of the 8,000 feet standard on other aircraft. That means reduced jet lag for you.

Additionally, the cabin uses LED lighting adjustments to help one gradually acclimatize when crossing time zones.

Take off was effortless and the statement that the aircraft is 60% more silent is true. British Airways' Club World seating is unique such that near the window seats, a pair of seats face each other in a diagonally opposite direction. So if two people are travelling, they can see and converse with each other throughout the flight or raise the privacy shutter up at the flick of a button. One major disadvantage of this arrangement though is that if you are a window passenger and the next window passenger decides to completely flatten his six-foot flat-bed, then you have no way to access the aisle except jumping over the passenger. Below pics refers to the design flaw which can turn out to be a pain on long distance flights:

On the other hand, if you have a rear facing seat - coupled with the large windows - the front facing view of the engine and wing flex of the 787, makes it one of the most unique and best views in the world.

For the germo-phobics out there, you will love the new aircraft bathrooms. You don’t have to touch anything but the door. To lift the toilet seat up and down, there is a nifty little foot overlap. The flush and sink are on sensors.

The seat itself is fantastic. A foot drawer allows you to put your shoes away, there is a reading light with adjustable light intensity, in-seat laptop power ports and two USB sockets. The personal 10.4in flat screen and noise-cancelling headphones are a big step-up compared to the old system in Club World with far superior display quality. There is a nice leg rest if you want to sit up-right but stretch out your legs in a 180 degree flat angle. The seat tray is extremely wide. Shockingly, there are no storage compartments within a reachable distance. So if you want to lets say store your spectacles, tablet etc and take a nap, you can't conveniently store them anywhere.

I received welcome packs from Elemis which Britain's leading luxury spa and skincare brand. The men's pack contained:

- Elemis Skin Soothe Shave Gel formulated with soothing aloe vera amd cooling peppermint to provide the smoothest shave for even the most sensitive skin

- Elemis' hero anti-ageing Pro-Collagen Marine Cream clinically proven to hydrate and winner of over 20 beauty awards

- Elemis Ultra conditioning lip balm

- Other stuff such as ear plugs, eye shades, shaving razor, toothpaste etc.

For breakfast, the vegetarian choices were:

- Chilled fruit juice, an energising smoothie of mango, fresh seasonal fruit, dry fruit muesli, a selection of warm breads and breakfast pastries.

- Cheese omelette with potato wedges, sauteed mushrooms and cherry tomato

- Vegetable rawa upma with uttapam, sambhar and aloo bonda (Semolina with onions, carrots and coriander pancake with potato dumplings)

The lunch menu contained:

- Aloo paneer with spinach fritters and tamarind sauce

- Fresh seasonal salad served with vinaigrette

- Jalfrezi corn paneer with cumin rice and dhaba dal (paneer and corn, mixed vegetables, rice and mixed lentil dal)

- Chocolate and strawberry layer cake with vanilla sauce

- A selection of cheese

- British chocolates

In champagne, the choices were Champagne Taittinger Brut Reserve NV and Champagne de Castelnau Brut Rose NV and a couple of champagne cocktails, for white wine one could choose from Chablis 2012, Domaine Sainte Claire, Burgundy, France and Oldenburg Chenin Blanc 2013, Stellenbosch, South Africa and in red wine Chateau La Gorce 2010, Cru Bourgeois Medoc, Bordeaux, France and Laureat 2011, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

There was also a great choice in liquers and digestifs such as Otard VSOP Cognac, Cointreau, Kahlua, Baileys, Southern Comfort, Drambuie 15-year-old Speyside Malt Liquer, Glenlivet 15-year old malt and Warre's 1999 Colheita Tawny Port.

In apertifs and spirits, one could choose from Gordon's Gin, Tanqueray, Smirnoff Blue, Johnnie Walker Black, Jack Daniel's Bacardi and Martini Dry.

Oh and did I mention that the Dreamliner is now the most fuel efficient inter-continental aircraft out there and is billed as the world’s most environmentally-friendly passenger plane?

The Dreamliner experience having ended, the British Airways Galleries Lounge at was a delight with coffee stations, wide menu, lots of beverages and more. One gripe however is that the Elemis lounge where one is supposed to get complimentary spa treatments is always booked and one gets appointments 6-8 hours away which is unrealistic.

The onward flight was a British Airways 747 and the jumbo jet immediately looked aged given that I had just come from the spanking new Dreamliner. However the best part of the flight was the galley. British Airways has an always open galley in Club World where passengers can go pick up whatever they want. While the flights to London have the normal fare, as this flight was from London, I was in for some unique treats such as fresh fruit from the Waitrose foundation in Africa, nuts imported from Africa, deliciously creamy yoghurts, Beckleberry's fine artisan pastries, and ice cream from The Ice Cream Union. I had the Dulce de Leche (Argentinian Toffee) flavour which was very tasty.

The wine list had also changed and the choices were:

- Sancerre 2013, Chateau de Thauvenay, Loire Valley, France

- Clos Pegase Chardonnay 2012, Mitsuko's Vineyard, Carneros, Napa Valley, California

- Barbera d'Asti Superiore 2011, DOCG, "La Luna e l Falo," Piedmont, Italy

- Cartlidge & Browne Pinot Noir 2012, North Coast, California

For lunch, I had salad of watermelon infused with basil, feta, cucumber, red onion and mint and tortigiloni pasta with creamy garlic and herb sauce, button mushrooms and spinach.

Overall, a great trip on the Dreamliner and kudos to British Airways for bringing in a whole new era of brand new hi-tech aircraft on routes that often don't see aircraft quite as nice.

The Birthplace of Democracy: Visiting the Capital of the Hellenic Republic

Hello All,

I got the opportunity to visit Athens - the capital of the Hellenic Republic (Greece's official name) - regarded as the birthplace of democracy for a vacation.

Day 1

Post landing we headed to the hotel. If you think cars in India are a generation older than the rest of the world, wait till you see the cars in Athens. They are from a generation older than India and for some reason most of the cars moving on the road are dusty and unwashed. We landed during the day on a Saturday and even then most of the stores were closed and the whole atmosphere from the airport to the hotel seemed to show signs of a struggling economy. Traffic is like India as I saw lots of vehicles jump red lights, take turns from wrong lanes etc. The city is very clean and systematic.

We stayed at the InterContinental Athenaeum which was a good hotel. All necessary amenities with frills were present in the room. Room was extremely spacious.

I then proceeded to visit the Acropolis Museum. I did find it strange that they had chosen to build the museum on an existing archaeological excavation but the ground floor of the building has a glass floor which means you can see the excavations below you as walk through the museum which is pretty cool.

I then proceeded to visit the Acropolis of Athens which is Athens' landmark attraction site. The Acropolis contains several buildings such as the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Erechtheion and the Athena Nike. I also got to see the Theatre of Dionysus where a theatre group was doing a rehearsal when we visited. The theatre is used till date for plays.

Day 2

The day was spent on a full-day cruise to three of Greece's most famous islands. At first I thought the islands were close to the mainland but they turned out to be pretty far and hence the need for the full-day cruise. The weather was lovely and the scenic beauty enchanting. The water is clean and a beautiful dark blue.

The first island that we visited was the island of Hydra. The unique part of the island is that they offer donkey rides for tourists. I didn't take one personally as I love donkeys and they are one of my favourite animals. Also, the donkeys here look a lot different from what you see in India. Extremely healthy and well-built and one can almost mistake them for midget horses. There were a lot of restaurants and shops selling knick-knacks on the island such as Greek necklaces with real volcanic stone embedded in it (forget what it signifies in Greek culture), various items symbolising Greek culture such as necklaces that reflect the cycle of life etc. The items were indeed very unique and not something you would find elsewhere in the world which made going through the stores a lot of fun. I got to try some Greek coffee and pizza and the meal was lovely.

Next was the island of Poros. Once again it is just a beautiful island filled with traditional Greek houses and a sight to behold. Wikipedia has some wonderful snaps.

The final island was the island of Aegina which is a historic island and contains many monuments such as the Temple of Aphaea and the ruins of the temple of Apollo. One can also take a speed boat and go to a much smaller island called Moni island beach which has no human habitation. We went there and it was a lovely island where one can just sit back and enjoy the sun and sand or go for a swim. The island has peacocks in abundance and you can walk right up to the peacocks up close and they don't fear humans at all. In one snap alone I was able to capture four peacocks. I was also able so spot Chamois which is a goat-antelope species. The island is also said to have seals around it but I couldn't catch sight of any.

I would definitely recommend visiting this island for a relaxed day.

Also, all the above islands have mini B&Bs' if you wish to stay there and the people are lovely.

Day 3

The day started by going on a hop-on/hop-off toy train near the city centre to visit many monuments. I saw the Hellenic Parliament and the Constitution Square. The Hellenic Parliament is guarded by Evzones outside which are similar to the standing guards at Buckingham Palace. They have a change of guard every hour. You will also find these guards posted at various important government installations such as the Tomb of the Unknown Solider, the Presidential Palace etc. Unlike the standing guards at Buckingham Palace, one is not separated by fences from the guards. You can go and stand right next to the guards which was allowed at Buckingham Palace once upon a time. You could be walking down a street near the Parliament and an Evzone is standing right there guarding an important building.

Next on the list was the Panathenaic Stadium followed by the Temple of Zeus and the Hadrian Arch. I also visited the Ancient Roman Market in Monastiraki which has such buildings as the Hadrian's Library. The next impressive structure I got to visit was the Stoa of Attalos. The Temple of Hephaestus was next.

I then walked down Ermou Street which is Athens' most popular shopping street containing many brand stores. However, the street I liked even more was right next to Ermou called Plaka which is the old historical neighbourhood of Athens. This was simply lovely filled with shops selling everything that is 'Made in Greek' from towels sewn with Greek designs and made of Greek cotton to olives in a variety of flavours such as spiced olives, olives tailored for specific food etc. The street was filled with street cafes and one can just spend the whole day here.

In the evening I headed to Cape Sounion. The journey takes you through the Greek Riveria and the scenery through the ride was breathtaking. At the very end, is the Temple of Poseidon standing tall on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea and the view from there is magnificent.

Day 4

The day started with a visit to the National Archaeological Museum of Athens which houses some of the most important Greek artifacts. I liked the temporary exhibit showcasing the Antikythera wreck. The showcase made use of the NFC technology in which you get an Android-powered (what else?) Samsung Galaxy phone and one can use NFC technology to get more in-depth info of the articles as you view them. It was nice to see NFC technology put to use as you don't generally see much of it in India. Also, I don't think visitors at the museum use this often for the showcase as when I asked for the device, the attendant got all confused on the procedure and four-five museum reps came and went before I got the phone.

I particularly loved the showcase of the Antikythera mechanism which is considered the first known analog computer. It was fascinating to see how researchers recovered the same from the shipwreck and put together all the pieces and fragments and figured out what it was. No mean feat.

I then headed back to the Plaka to enjoy some amazing Greek delicacies. Greek food is very favourable to vegetarians and one must try all the vegetarian Greek food. I recommend visiting the restaurant Estia at the Plaka.

In Summary

Overall it was a great trip and I loved visiting modern and ancient Greece. It is indeed a lovely country with a lot of beauty and charm and there is much more to see such as Delphi etc. It is definitely worth a single visit. However, note that most of the monuments pertaining to ancient Greece have been severely damaged. So one can't go into the temples, see inscriptions etc unlike Egypt where you can go into the tombs, see stories carved on the walls, feel like you are living and breathing history and no matter how many monuments you visit, each one has a different tale. In Athens however, once you see the popular ones, the rest of the monuments start to feel the same leaving little to see in the second visit. Therefore, if you are a history buff, Athens is not a city I would look forward to visiting twice unlike other historic sites in the world. I am curious to explore other parts of the country such as the the island of Mykonos given the beauty of Greece.

The Travel

We flew Etihad Airways from Hyderabad to Athens via Abu Dhabi. The onward journey was uneventful but the return journey was terrible. The flight from Athens to Abu Dhabi had very friendly staff which was great. On landing at Abu Dhabi, we proceeded to board our flight to Hyderabad. We reached the gate before boarding even began. Once boarding began, at the gate check, we were told our names are not on the flight despite having the boarding passes in our hand! The airline rep offered no explanation and quite rudely asked us to proceed to the transfer desk and just kept saying no name. On insisting that we meet the supervisor, the supervisor came and checked and told us we had been re-booked from Abu Dhabi to Bangalore on Etihad and then onwards to Hyderabad on an Air India flight which extended our travel time by close to 15 hours (no idea why the first airline rep failed to inform us of this thereby wasting a good 15-20mins). This made no sense. Staff was extremely unhelpful and this with a travelling party that contained senior citizens, women, children, Jet Privilege Platinum and Silver members. They finally asked us to board the Bangalore bound flight but we were refused boarding when we reached the Bangalore gate. They also tried to play the divide and rule game by stating that they will make some of us board the original flight and sending others to the Bangalore gate then rejecting us at the Bangalore gate and lying to the people at the Hyderabad gate that we can't board you here, the Bangalore flight is waiting for you, go there.

Then at the transfer desk, they put us on a Bangalore flight leaving next day afternoon despite the fact that there were two flights going to Bombay in a few hours and a 10:45 AM flight to Hyderabad next day. The lady rep refused to put us on any of these flights stating there were no seats available though a quick check on my mobile for fares showed that check fares were still being offered for the Hyderabad bound flight which meant the flight was still relatively empty. Thankfully the lady left and finally we came across a friendly agent at the transfer desk who put us onto the 10:45 AM Jet Airways direct flight to Hyderabad next day.

To top it all, when I went to the transfer desk the next morning to ensure our luggage gets loaded on the correct flight, their system showed that we had not even checked-in despite us having boarding passes issued just the night before (apparently boarding pass was issued in terminal 3 and flight was in terminal 1 and there is some system error so the same was not recorded). Really Etihad? The airline rep was however very helpful and got everything sorted out and we were able to successfully get on board.

Update (June 22, 2014): Etihad initially denied any lapse on their part and refused to acknowledge what happened when feedback of our experience was sent to them. We were then compelled to take certain steps to escalate the issue and it was only then that Etihad finally rendered an apology.

It was such a pleasure to back on a Jet Airways flight and the service on the flight was wonderful.

The City of Medicine: Attending the 2014 Brand Management & Marketing Diversity Forum

Hello All,

Last week, I was able to visit Durham in North Carolina, USA. Durham is also known as the 'Bull City' and the 'City of Medicine.'

The Bull City

During the civil war, as Durham was neutral during the truce, a small tobacco factory owned by J. R. Green (a tobacco peddler) was ransacked of its entire contents by both sides, and Green thought he was ruined. When the thousands of soldiers returned to their homes all across the United States, they wrote to Durham’s Station for more tobacco, and Green—and Durham’s—tobacco boom was off and running. When all the orders came pouring in, Green realized he needed a specific name and trademark for his product and the Bull Durham Smoking Tobacco was therefore born and with it the name of the city.

The City of Medicine

Today, healthcare is a major industry in Durham including more than 300 medical and health-related companies and medical practices with a combined payroll that exceeds $1.2 billion annually which is why it is now known as USA's 'City of Medicine.'

The Travel

I was happy to see that I could visit Durham via a one-stop transit from Bombay via London using British Airways (BA). I am beginning to grow fond of BA solely due to their increasingly excellent connections from India with nearly perfect transit times. Their service levels still have a long way to go. I reached Bombay airport and was shocked to see that there was not a single trolley available. I had to walk till the end of the terminal to be finally able to find a stray trolley. No wonder the airport has not made it into the world's 100 best airports list (Hyderabad ranks 68). Once inside however, I really liked the fact that post check-in, they had an exclusive security queue for oneworld Sapphire members which is missing at the Hyderabad airport. Time to board. Unfortunately, BA still uses it's older generation Boeing 777-200 fleet from Bombay where as their flights from Hyderabad now use the slick new Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner fleet. The flight from London to Durham was a oneworld code share with American Airlines (AA) and AA was using a real antiquated Boeing 767-300 which had no personal in-flight entertainment and this was a 8hrs 40min flight!

I stayed at the Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club which turned out to be a lovely hotel. The room had bath and body products from Gilchrist & Soames London!

Purpose of the Visit

I was in Durham to attend the JumpStart 2014 Brand Management & Marketing Diversity Forum. MBA JumpStart is a targeted forum through which marketing, consulting and financial services firms can identify, educate and recruit diverse talent at top-tier MBA programs. The forum is today considered the premier annual experience in the USA focused on providing exceptional MBA students entering their first year of MBA in the USA with the tools, resources, insights and access to be successful in these highly competitive fields.

I was elated to know that in its 10 year history, I am the first ever Babson student to be selected for the Diversity Forum!

For the 2014 Forum, approximately 95 students were selected overall and students from the following business schools made it through: Anderson (UCLA), Austin, Babson, Booth (Univ. of Chicago), Carey (John Hopkins), Columbia, Darden (Univ. of Virginia), Freeman (Tulane), Fuqua (Duke), Goizueta (Emory), Haas (UC Berkeley), Harvard, Johnson (Cornell), Kelley (Indiana), Kellogg, Kenan-Flagler (Univ. of North Carolina), Kranhert (Purdue), Olin (Washington Univ. St. Louis), Pepperdine, Ross (Univ. of Michigan), Simon (Univ. of Rochester), Sloan (MIT), Stern (NYU), Tuck (Darthmouth), Univ. of Illinois, Univ. of Miami, Univ. of Wisconsin, USC, Wharton and Yale.

Day 1

The day began with a Brand Management 101 session from Johnson & Johnson (J&J). Given that the J&J family today contains at least 230 subsidiaries from ASP to Vistakon and innumerable products from Acuvue to Zyrtec, we could not have had a better brand management session. We studied the business challenges of brand management in large conglomerates such as J&J along with how to execute strategies while leveraging cross-functional teams. Next was a case study from ConAgra in which we studied how Reddi-wip has increased its market share through the years and how it adapted to various challenges, changing times and habits. The case study was primarily focused on how marketing was used to increase market share, influence and change consumer behaviour. Post this we had a competitive advantage workshop. It was great that each session contained team exercises and team brainstorming sessions which enabled us to get in touch with each other. We also had a session with Procter and Gamble (P&G).

Dinner was hosted by Scott Creighton who is a VP at J&J followed by the kick-off reception.

Oh and we got goodie bags from J&J and Sephora! The J&J bag had Listerine PocketPaks Breath Strips, Aveena daily mosturizing lotions, Flexible fabric Band-Aids, Visine Redness Relief drops, Essential First-Aid Kit and Neosporin antibiotic pain-relief ointment where as the Sephora bag had Eshu Skin Assist Face Wash for men and for the women, Formula X Press Pods and three other products and I have no clue what they are.

Day 2 and Day 3

The day began with a working breakfast in which Walmart made us go through a case study around big data and exposed us to the business challenges and opportunities of understanding and leveraging big data. This was followed by a store visit to Walgreens and Costco where we studied product placement, consumer behaviour and the relationship between a retailer and the brand manager. The store visits were fun as a couple of times we were studying product placements and a customer would come by to shop from the aisle and then like five of us along with the store manager and company rep would be observing them to see what they behaviour looks like and what they end up picking up and whether our studies come through and when the customer finally went to pick up an item and we wait and watched with bated breath and the customer would go like ok did I do something wrong? We also got a goodie bag from Walgreens.

We then headed to the Fuqua School of Business for a case study hosted by P&G in which we studied how P&G was losing business for their brands' unit dose laundry detergents to a competitor and how it won back its market share while ensuring their marketing does not cannibalize into the company's other liquid based laundry detergents.

The fun part was for all the case studies, we were given the problem with backgrounds on the financial situation, R&D situation etc, asked to work out the solution on our own and we then studied how the company handled the same in reality.

We than had a session with Baxter which was focused on healthcare marketing and the changing landscape of healthcare followed by a 'Brand Manager for a Day' session in which we went through real life scenarios of a J&J brand manager and worked on presentations for the scenarios presented to us. The day ended with a networking social.

The final day we had a recruiting session in which all the companies shared their best practices, criteria for decision making etc.

The Experience

The sessions above were fantastic and showed what a dynamic industry marketing and brand management is which made me appreciate the digital advertising offerings and in specific Google's advertising offerings even more. For every case study, I was thinking how Google's/DoubleClick's/LinkedIn's etc solutions fit into the larger ecosystem and how Google could have effectively helped each of the brands achieve their desired objectives in the case studies above. Through my conversations with the company reps and better understanding their digital marketing strategy, I realized that both the companies and Google were missing out on ample opportunity and that each could learn from the other and create a symbiotic relationship to bring about even more innovations in advertising and this makes me very positive about the future of our industry.

I really enjoyed the networking events and the different people I got to meet. From an Armed Forces veteran who has seen action in Afghanistan to a Victoria's Secret marketing manager, from Anderson to Yale, students from different B-Schools with different perspectives. I would say that meeting fellow students was the most invigorating part of the event and this makes me excited about the new world I am about to enter and the opportunity that lies before me to turn mirrors into windows.

To interesting times ahead!

150th Birth Anniversary of Motilal Nehru (1861-2011)

For high-resolution images, click on the images above.

To commemorate the 150th Birth Anniversary of Motilal Nehru, the Government of India decided to have a special commemorative coin set issue and opened bookings for the same for a period of two months in November, 2013. Received my ordered set from the India Government Mint in April, 2014.

Motilal Nehru (6 May 1861 – 6 February 1931) was an Indian lawyer, an activist of the Indian National Movement and an important leader of the Indian National Congress, who also served as the Congress President twice, 1919–1920 and 1928–1929. He was the founder patriarch of India's most powerful political family, the Nehru-Gandhi family.

150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda (1863-2013)

For high-resolution images, click on the images above.

To commemorate the 150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, the Government of India decided to have a special commemorative coin set issue and opened bookings for the same for a period of two months in April, 2013. Received my ordered set from the India Government Mint in March, 2014.

Swami Vivekananda was a key figure in the introduction of the Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world and is credited with raising interfaith awareness, bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion during the late 19th century. He was a major force in the revival of Hinduism in India, and contributed to the concept of nationalism in colonial India. Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. He is perhaps best known for his inspiring speech which began, "Sisters and brothers of America ...," in which he introduced Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893.

In India, Vivekananda is regarded as a patriotic saint and his birthday is celebrated as National Youth Day in India.

Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Birth Centenary Commemorative Coin (1901-2001)

To view high-resolution images, click on the images above.

Originally issued in 2001, the India Government Mint decided to have a re-issue of this special commemorative coin set and opened bookings for the same for a period of two months in April, 2013. Received my ordered set from the mint in January, 2014.

Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee was an Indian politician, who served as Minister for Industry and Supply in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet. After his falling out with Jawaharlal Nehru due to Mukherjee's opposition to the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir, Mookerjee quit the Indian National Congress party.

He termed the arrangement under Article 370 as Balkanisation of India and three nation theory of Shaikh Abdullah. He launched a massive Satyagraha to have the pernicious provisions removed. Mookerjee went to visit Kashmir in 1953 and was arrested on May 11, 1953. He died in custody under suspicious circumstances on June 23, 1953, termed the 'Nehru conspiracy' by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India's 10th prime minister.

It was Mookherjee's martyrdom, which later compelled, Nehru to remove the infamous Permit system, the post of Sadar-e-Riayasat and the post of Prime Minister of Jammu & Kashmir.

Legacy

On 22 April 2010, Municipal Corporation of Delhi's newly constructed Rs. 650-crore building (the tallest building in Delhi) was named 'Doctor Syama Prasad Mookerjee Civic Centre.' Delhi also has a major road named after Dr. S. P. Mookerjee.

On 27 August 1998, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation named a bridge after Mookerjee.

A BEST bus junction near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Museum (formerly the Prince of Wales Museum) and Regal Cinema in Mumbai (Bombay) is named as "Syama Prasad Mookerjee Chowk" in his honour.

In 2001, the main research funding institute of the Government of India, CSIR instituted a new fellowship named after him. The Syama Prasad Mookerjee Fellowship is the most prestigious fellowship given in India for doing PhD. Only the top 20% students who clear the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF CSIR/UGC) are eligible to sit for this examination.

On 15 January 2012, Mathikere flyover under Bangalore City Limits was inaugurated and named 'Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Flyover.'

Lal Bahadur Shastri Birth Centenary Commemorative Coin (1904-2004)

To view high-resolution images, click on the images above.

Originally issued in 2004, I was fortunate enough that the India Government Mint decided to have a re-issue of this special commemorative coin set and opened bookings for the same for a period of two months in April, 2013. Received my ordered set from the mint in January, 2014.

The second prime minister of India, the man who gave us the slogan, 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan,' the man who led the Republic of India to victory in the 1965 Indo-Pak War and the man who saved the Kutch Peninsula from falling into Pakistani hands.

Sant Tukaram Commemorative Coin

To view high-resolution images, click on the images above

Originally issued in 2002, the India Government Mint decided to have a re-issue of this special commemorative coin set and opened bookings for the same for a period of two months in April, 2013. Received my ordered set from the mint in January, 2014.

Sant Tukaram (1577–1650) was a prominent Varkari Sant and spiritual poet of the Bhakti. He is often referred to with an honorific, Sant Tukaram. Sant Tukaram was a devotee of Vitthala or Vithoba, a form of God Vishnu.