The portly Maharajah, long seen as the human face of Air India’s service fit for royalty, first made his appearance on an in-flight memo pad in the mid-1940s. He was conceived by SK (Bobby) Kooka, who was then Commercial Director with Air India, and sketched by Umesh Rao, an artist at J Walter Thompson in Bombay.

The Maharajah became part of the airline’s campaign to distinguish itself from its peer set in the 1950s.

He came dressed in various garbs, but his trademark moustache and his roly-poly stature remained — until last year, when he lost of a bit of his flab.

Kooka once said, “We can call him the Maharajah for want of a better description. But his blood isn’t blue. He may look like royalty, but he isn’t royal. He is capable of entertaining the Queen of England and splitting a beer with her butler. He is a man of many parts: lover boy, sumo wrestler, pavement artist, vendor of naughty post cards, Capuchin monk, Arab, Chinese…”

Memorable service In the years when JRD Tata headed Tata Airlines (which later became Air India), there are many who remember his keen eye for detail. Tim Clark, currently President of Dubai-based Emirates, recalls how travelling as a child on Air India in the 1960s, he would be pampered with sweets, colas and other goodies.

That legacy of royal service lived on for years after JRD’s time in the airline. Christian Klick, vice-president, Corporate at Star Alliance, recalls how after a Frankfurt-London Air India flight in 1980, his parents were floored. Klick, who was then working with Lufthansa in London, told BusinessLine : “Initially, they did not know what to expect. But when they got off at London they said, ‘This is the way to travel’.”

There are many such stories of satisfied customers — and staff members. SP Dutt, who worked in Air India for close to three decades, recalls that in the 1960s, it was fun to travel Air India because it made several stops en route to London, which allowed passengers to hop off and bargain for deals in duty-free shops!

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