The photograph captures a haunting symbol of a family’s final journey.A dust-covered white Mercedes sits quietly outside the gutted structure of Flourish Stay Bed and Breakfast in Delhi’s Hauz Rani, silently telling a story words can hardly narrate.

NEW DELHI: The photograph captures a haunting symbol of a family’s final journey.A dust-covered white Mercedes sits quietly outside the gutted structure of Flourish Stay Bed and Breakfast in Delhi’s Hauz Rani, silently telling a story words can hardly narrate.The car had brought the Aggarwal family from Gurgaon to Delhi to be by the side of an ailing patriarch. On Wednesday, eight members of the family perished in the blaze that tore through the building.As police secure the charred site in the background, the abandoned vehicle remains a heartbreaking relic of a trip that ended in unimaginable loss.

On Thursday, five ambulances carrying the bodies arrived in the sombre Gurgaon neighbourhood as residents watched from their balconies in silence, while relatives and friends gathered to receive the dead and support the bereaved family.Relatives recalled that doctors had recently informed the family that Radheshyam did not have much time left.“The family had booked rooms nearby so they could spend as much time as possible with him,” one relative said.However, the car remained in Hauz Rani, perhaps frozen in that moment forever.

Its windows are shut, its seats empty, and a thin layer of dust now covers the vehicle that once carried three generations of a family.Passers-by slow down as they approach the cordoned-off lane, their eyes moving from the charred remains of the hotel to the car standing quietly in front.

For many, it is difficult to separate the vehicle from the tragedy itself.The Mercedes remains untouched — a silent witness to one of the deadliest hotel fires in Delhi in years.

Three generations wiped out in fire

What began as a family’s effort to stay close to a loved one battling illness ended in a devastating loss that wiped out nearly an entire branch of the Aggarwal family.The family had travelled to Delhi to be with 75-year-old Radheshyam Aggarwal, who is undergoing treatment for a lung infection at Max Hospital in Saket, and had checked into a nearby hotel to remain close to him.

Among those killed were Radheshyam’s wife, Premlata (70); their son, Vivek (47); daughter-in-law, Tarjani (42); and granddaughter Varya, affectionately known as Pearl (16), all residents of Gurgaon. Vivek’s elder daughter, Jivisha, known to family members as Angel (20), had arrived from Bengaluru only hours before the blaze engulfed the building.The tragedy also claimed the lives of Premlata’s sister, Kamla (52); brother, Ashok (56); and brother-in-law, Jhaveri, who had travelled from Kishangarh in Rajasthan’s Ajmer district. According to relatives, the trio had initially planned to return home earlier but decided to extend their stay after being persuaded by family members to spend more time together.

Family members remembered the victims as accomplished individuals with promising futures. Vivek served as the chief financial officer of a private insurtech company, while Tarjani, a former beauty pageant title-holder, worked for an event management firm.Angel was pursuing a BTech degree, and Pearl was a Class 12 student at DPS Gurgaon.Their deaths have left relatives and neighbours struggling to come to terms with the scale of the loss.