New Delhi, April 2 -- When the covid-19 pandemic's first wave hit India early in 2020, locking people at home, no one expected it to last long. But it did.

Two suitcase makers from Mumbai, among the three largest in the country, watched their revenue nosedive; profits vanished into ether. Revenue from operations shrank to a third for VIP Industries in 2020-21 and that of rival Safari Industries by less than half.

As the world moved on from that black swan moment, almost no one saw how different the post-pandemic trajectories of the two luggage makers would be. Six years and eight weeks after the first covid-19 virus case was reported in India, the country's domestic and international travel industries are back in health, and have boomed...