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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

AI’s Maharaja smiles joyfully

All 30 grounded aircrafts now fly Mumbai : Air India’s Maharaja is all pleased as punch at 80. After years of huge costs and efforts, the last of the grounded 30 aircraft – inherited by the Tata Group during the privatization in Jan. 2022 – is now resurrected fully and took to the skies gracefully on Monday.   The aircraft is the gleaming VT-ALL, a Boeing 777-300ER, that was gathering grime since February 2020, and becomes the final among the two-and-half dozen aircraft that have been revved...

AI’s Maharaja smiles joyfully

All 30 grounded aircrafts now fly Mumbai : Air India’s Maharaja is all pleased as punch at 80. After years of huge costs and efforts, the last of the grounded 30 aircraft – inherited by the Tata Group during the privatization in Jan. 2022 – is now resurrected fully and took to the skies gracefully on Monday.   The aircraft is the gleaming VT-ALL, a Boeing 777-300ER, that was gathering grime since February 2020, and becomes the final among the two-and-half dozen aircraft that have been revved up and revived in the past few years, AI official sources said.   It marked a symbolic milestone for Air India itself - founded in 1932 by the legendary Bharat Ratna J. R. R. Tata - which once ruled the roost and was India’s pride in the global skies.   Once renowned for its royal service with the iconic Maharaja welcoming fliers on board, in 1953 it was taken over by the government of India. After years of piling losses, ageing aircraft, decline in operations and standards – almost like a Maharaja turning a pauper - it returned to the Tata Group four years ago.   This time it was not just the aircraft, the brand and the deflated Maharaja coming into the large-hearted Tata Group stables, but a formidable challenge to ensure that the airline could regain its old glory and glitter. Of the total around 190 aircraft in its fleet were 30 – or 15 pc – that had been grounded and neglected for years.   At that time, the late Ratan N. Tata had directed that all these valuable aircraft must be revived as far as possible and join the fleet. Accordingly, the VT-ALL, languishing at Nagpur for nearly five years, was ‘hospitalized’ at the Air India Engineering Service Ltd., its MRO facility in May 2025.   New Avatar Then started a thorough, painstaking nose-to-tail restoration of an unprecedented scale, in which over 3000 critical components were replaced, over 4,000 maintenance tasks executed, besides key structural upgrades like the longeron modification, engines, auxiliary power units, avionics, hydraulics, landing gears and almost every vital system was rebuilt or replaced.   After the repairs, the old aircraft was reborn, under the gaze of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and technical assistance from Boeing, and the new ‘avatar’ jetliner emerged with the highest global safety standards.   The aircraft cleared all the rigorous checks, a successful test flight, earned the mandatory Airworthiness Review Certificate and then made its maiden commercial flight from Monday, March 16 – after a wait of six years.   Sturdy Fliers Created in 1946 to become an instant global icon, the Air India’s mascot Maharaja now sports a youthful and chic look, a welcome with folded hands, closed eyes, featuring a bejewelled turban, stylish jootis, and a textured kurta in Air India’s new colours. He is prominently visible at various touch-points in a flyer’s journey, such as First Class, exclusive lounges, and luxury products.   Today, he commands a mix fleet of around 190 narrow and wide-body Airbus and Boeing aircraft like : A319, A320, A320neo, A321, A321neo, A350-900 and B787-8, B787-9, B7770200LR, B-777-300ER. With the merger of Vistara and agreements signed for 10 A350 and 90 A320 aircraft, the Maharaja’s fleet is slated to soar to some 570 in the near future.

The Hidden Price of Privacy

There comes a point in a founder’s journey when success stops feeling celebratory and starts feeling weighty. The business is stable, the numbers are respectable, and the world sees achievement. Yet privately, many founders feel an unspoken exhaustion — the quiet awareness of what it took to get here. Years consumed by work. Relationships that adjusted without consent. Personal milestones postponed indefinitely. For some, this reality creates a strong instinct to retreat rather than reveal.


“I don’t want the world to know my story,” a founder once said. Not out of secrecy, but self-preservation. His journey was hard-won. The sacrifices were deeply personal. And he believed that speaking about them would either invite judgement or reduce the seriousness with which he was taken. The company could be marketed. The individual, he felt, should remain in the background. This belief is far more common than it appears.


Across industries, many accomplished entrepreneurs still operate on an older framework of branding promote the company, protect the person. Let the organisation speak. Let the results do the talking. Personal narratives, they believe, blur authority or invite unnecessary scrutiny. In an age where oversharing has become a currency, their resistance feels sensible. But personal branding today is not about exposure. It is about precision.


There is a crucial difference between being an open book and being intentional with one’s story. Personal branding does not require founders to relive their hardships publicly or convert sacrifice into spectacle. It requires discernment — the ability to decide what adds context and what remains private.


The problem begins when founders confuse discretion with disappearance.


In today’s business landscape, people are no longer convinced by outcomes alone. They want to understand the thinking behind decisions, the values behind leadership, and the temperament behind authority. When that context is missing, credibility remains intact — but connection weakens. The brand becomes functional, not magnetic.


This is where many founders unknowingly stall their influence. They are respected, but not deeply sought out. Trusted, but not emotionally anchored. Successful, but not truly differentiated.


Personal branding, when done right, bridges this gap. It allows founders to communicate who they are without surrendering who they protect. It shifts the focus from “what I endured” to “how I think.” From personal pain to professional perspective. From biography to belief system. This distinction matters.


Founders who remain completely silent often find themselves misunderstood. Their restraint is interpreted as distance. Their privacy reads as opacity. Over time, this affects how teams engage, how partners relate, and how markets respond. Growth continues, but influence plateaus.


Ironically, strategic personal branding often benefits founders internally before it does externally.


When leaders consciously shape their narrative, they reclaim authorship over their identity. They are no longer defined solely by numbers or outcomes. They begin to articulate their journey in a way that feels dignified, contained, and aligned. This brings clarity — and often relief. A sense that their years of sacrifice have meaning beyond financial success.


For organisations, the impact is equally powerful. A founder with a clear personal brand strengthens trust at every level. Teams align faster. Clients commit sooner. Conversations move beyond transactions into long-term relationships. The business gains not just visibility, but credibility with depth.


The need of the hour is not more storytelling. It is responsible storytelling. Founders must learn where to draw the line — what to share, what to shield, and what to shape deliberately. Personal branding today is not about being visible everywhere. It is about being understood in the right places.


Those who will lead the next phase of business growth will not be the loudest voices in the room. They will be the most intentional. The ones who understand that keeping everything private may feel safe, but sharing nothing at all quietly limits relevance.


Because in business, people don’t need to know your entire story. They need to know enough to trust your judgment, your leadership, and your intent. That balance — between privacy and presence — is where modern personal branding truly begins.


And if that is what is missing in your journey now, you can reach out to me and we shall work on this together. Book your free consultation call with me on https://www.sprect.com/pro/divyaaadvaani


(The author is a personal branding expert. She has clients from 14+ countries. Views personal.)

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