What a horrific story.

Not that I intend to anytime soon, but if I had to fly Air India (or any other airline that is prone to delays or had a multi-multi-stop routing), the first thing I would do is buy travel insurance that covers delayed flights and delayed baggage. A colleague of mine once told me he would fly from NYC to Colombia via Miami on American Airlines and his checked bags were more times than not delayed. He didn't know about travel insurance at the time, but he now almost hopes for a delay on his annual flight home. The odds are pretty good to recoup your insurance premium in these situations.