The birth of the country's foremost scientific research institute – the Indian Institute of Science – can be traced to a chance encounter between two of the leading lights of 19th century India. The "Empress of India" was sailing from Yokohama in Japan to Vancouver in Canada in 1893.

Aboard the vessel were Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata and Swami Vivekananda, the eminent philosopher: both were headed to Chicago. The former to attend the World's Columbian Exposition (also called Chicago World's Fair), to mark the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus, and the latter to participate in the World's Parliament of Religions, where he made his historic speech...   more »