Air India’s mascot The Maharajah gets a makeover

The iconic long red sherwani of the Air India Maharajah has masked bulges as efficiently, if not as stylishly, as some pregnant fashionistas’ clothes manage to. His loose vestments certainly had their advantages back in the day, as they helped him cloak his avoirdupois from critical eyes and defer all attempts to cut flab for several decades. Air India getting its bashful badshah to step out in his new wardrobe that displays his newly-toned torso and arms should, therefore, be seen as evidence of the lumbering airline’s earnestness to embark on a radical weight reduction exercise, if not bariatric surgery, just yet.

While his debut ensemble may not be exactly age-appropriate — Air India’s mascot was born in 1946, after all — an overall pared-down silhouette would certainly make the famously tubby aristocrat far more healthy and could even result in a few extra years of flying friendly skies for the airline he symbolises. Crash diets are obvious no-nos for high-flyers, and any serious dieter will acknowledge that corpulence can come back double quick without a sustained and strict maintenance regimen. So, the Maharaja will hopefully not get carried away by short-term body sculpting options and persevere with a slow, steady but inexorable shedding of weight all round instead.