On May 31, when doctors at Max Hospital in Saket, Delhi, told chartered accountant Vivek Agarwal that his father’s condition was critical and the family should prepare for the worst, the 45-year-old immediately called his eldest daughter, Jeevisha, in Bengaluru.
Radhe Shyam (77), the head of the family, had his organs failing, his oxygen levels dropped, and doctors put him on BiPAP support. The message from father to daughter was simple: “Go home.”
20-year-old Jeevisha, who had just started her first year at PES University in Bengaluru, boarded the first available flight and reached Delhi on June 2 around 4 pm. The family wanted to be together. Three days later, Vivek, his wife Tarjani, his daughters Jeevisha and Varia, his mother Prem Lata and three relatives from Rajasthan died in a devastating fire that swept through the Flourish Stays B&B, where they had moved to be closer to the hospital.
Six days after the fire, Radhe Shyam himself died in the intensive care unit, unaware that his entire world had already disappeared.
Behind this tragedy are two quintessential Indian stories. The first concerns a family whose journey mirrored that of countless middle-class families across India – families who have spent decades building homes, educating children, caring for aging parents, and dreaming of a better future. The second is how relative wealth is no insurance against the unpredictability and devaluation of life in India, where safety often receives little attention.
This is the first story.
From Ajmer to Delhi, and beyond
Radhe Shyam and his wife Prem Lata left Ajmer, Rajasthan, and moved to Delhi in 1978 with their newborn son Vivek. The young family settled in Kotla Mubarakpur in south Delhi, occupying the first floor of a four-storey ancestral building where several cousins grew up together.
Radhe Shyam joined the family auto parts business, which had been in business since 1974. Over time, he branched out into real estate construction and interior decorating, establishing himself in the business in 1995 before eventually retiring a decade ago.
Mahendra Agarwal, Vivek’s cousin who now lives in Noida, said: “Uncle worked hard all his life. Once Vivek started doing well at the professional level, he gradually stepped back and left all the decisions to him.”
Relatives describe Vivek as a brilliant student. He studied from Manav Stali School in Delhi, graduated from the school in 1996, and then enrolled for a commerce degree even while preparing for his CA exam. According to another cousin, Deepak Agarwal, Vivek became one of the youngest CAs in the Delhi region in 1999. He was 21 at that time. “It was among the top five in Delhi and among the top 30 in the country.”
His career began abroad. Mrinal Aggarwal, Vivek’s nephew, said his first job was with an Oman-based company. He stayed abroad for about five years. “He went to Singapore and then to Nigeria before returning to India in 2004.”
In his home country, Vivek has held senior positions in several leading companies. He worked with AiRtel between 2004 and 2006, joined Genpact where he worked until 2012, moved to HCL, and later worked with Info Edge, eventually joining InsuranceDekho as CFO in August 2024. Weeks before his death, he traveled to Hong Kong to collect an award from his company.
Family moving
Vivek married Tarjani in 2005 in an arranged marriage. Family members said the couple complemented each other perfectly. “Vivek was very clear in his decisions and goals, while Tarjani was very creative. She loved to organize things and took responsibility for every family function,” Mahindra said.
According to her relatives, Tarjani recently launched her own event management company. “She played the role of an exemplary wife and daughter-in-law. She raised the two daughters with strong family values,” Mahindra added. The couple had a large social circle and often hosted relatives and friends.
The greatest pride of the Aggarwals was their daughters. Jeevisha took admission in PES University to attend Computer Science Engineering course. Her 16-year-old younger sister Faria studied in Class XI in DPS Gurugram. Family members said the sisters are ambitious and are already planning to study abroad. Faria recently returned from Germany after participating in a student exchange program.
Perhaps nothing represents the family’s success more than their sprawling three-storey duplex-style home in Sector 46, Gurugram. They moved there only in December 2025. Vivek Aggarwal bought the 500 square yard plot in 2015 as an investment. But after he started working in Gurugram, he decided to build his dream house on it,” Mahindra said.
Construction began in 2018. The father-son duo invested nearly as much $4-5 crores, largely from their savings, in it. Despite undergoing major heart surgery in 2019 and living with only 35% heart function, Radhe Shyam personally oversaw the construction process. “Since his uncle had decades of experience, he decided to monitor the work himself,” Mahindra said. “He would spend the whole day on site. He would eat lunch in his car and would not return home until the evening.”
This routine continued until December, when the house was finally completed. The family moved out of their rented apartment in Noida and organized a grand house-warming party attended by relatives, friends and colleagues. Two cars, including Vivek’s beloved white Mercedes C-Class, occupied the hallway. The family has finally achieved what they have worked for generations.
According to his relatives, Vivek received the Mercedes from HCL as a surprise gift on Diwali in 2015 after successfully completing a $800 crore project. “He loved the car so much,” family members said. For days after the fire, the Mercedes remained parked outside Flourish Stays – abandoned and ownerless.
A father fighting for life
In 2024, Radhe Shyam was diagnosed with interstitial lung disease. His health was steadily deteriorating. According to Vivek’s cousin, Vikram Agarwal, family members gathered at his Gurugram residence on May 20 after his condition deteriorated. He was admitted to Max in Gurugram on May 9 and discharged two days later. After another brief stint elsewhere, he was finally transferred to Max Sackett on May 31. Doctors put him on BiPAP support as oxygen levels dropped and organs began to fail.
On June 2, Vivek, his wife Tarjani, daughters Jeevisha and Faria and mother Prem Lata moved from their house in Sector 46 to Flourish Stays, opposite Max Saket. The reason was practical. Frequent flights between Gurugram and the hospital consume nearly three hours daily. They have booked three rooms in $3500 each. The establishment, which has a 4.6-star rating on Google, received reviews that praised its cleanliness, staff, and food.
On the night of June 2 and early morning of June 3, more relatives arrived from Ajmer. They included Vivek Agarwal’s cousin, Ashok Agarwal, 64, and his uncle and aunt, Gauri Lal Agarwal, 73, and Kamla Agarwal, 68. They came to support the family through difficult times.
Fire
Three days later, tragedy struck. A massive fire swept through the B&B. The family members trapped inside called their relatives, asked for help and desperately tried to survive. Mahindra received a phone call from Vivek Agarwal at 8.50 am. The family immediately rushed from Kotla. “We kept calling the fire department. We saw a fire engine and followed it to reach the spot by 9.15 am,” Mahindra said.
Swati Aggarwal, wife of Vikram, Vivek’s cousin, said firefighters initially focused on controlling the fire. “We kept screaming, ‘F-fuck,’” she recalls Our family is trapped in the basement and on the fourth floor. Rescuers then prepared a cutting torch and opened a locked emergency exit connected to the basement.”
Vivek and Ashok were the first to be evicted. “We tried to perform CPR on the road but there was no response,” Swati said. All eight members of the Agarwal clan died in the fire.
Back at Max Hospital, Radhe Shyam remains unaware. “He kept asking about Vivek and everyone else, but we decided to tell him only after he was shifted from the ICU,” Swati said.
That moment never came. He died on June 9. “He died without giving us the opportunity to tell him anything,” she said.
Today, the relatives living in the house in Sector 46 are unable to even think about legal and financial matters. “We have to first learn to live with this pain,” Mahindra said. “The country will forget this one day, but this pain will stay with us until we die.”
“This happened due to deep-rooted corruption and negligence,” Mahindra said. “Vivek and his entire family were kidnapped from us.”
Today, the beautiful home built over six years remains largely silent. The dreams of three generations are frozen within its walls. And the family that did everything right – studied hard, worked honestly, cared for the elderly and invested in building a better future – and was living the Indian dream, perished in a tragedy that had been predicted many times over.
