New Delhi: In another eight weeks, Pankaj Nayyar (34) was supposed to cradle his second child.A BBA graduate who spent the last decade transforming his father’s 25-year-old garment shop into a thriving business in Chandni Chowk, Pankaj was at the peak of his personal and professional life.Instead, his house was shrouded in grief on Monday after a dispute over parking ended in his murder, leaving his seven-month-pregnant wife, Divya, to navigate a future he had meticulously planned but will never get to be a part of.While driving from his Noida house to the Preet Vihar residence of Paras, his elder brother, to diffuse the parking row, Pankaj remained on the line with his wife, calmly reassuring her that he would make sure Paras was safe.“He kept on updating me over the row, telling me not to worry,” Divya told TOI. “When he stopped taking my calls, I assumed he was in the lift. By the fourth attempt, it was Paras who answered the call and told me that Pankaj had been shot.”Pankaj was the “backbone” of the Nayyar family, which moved from Shahdara to Preet Vihar in 2012. Though Pankaj shifted with his wife and five-year-old child to Sector 121 in Noida two years ago, his life remained firmly anchored in the bustling lanes of Katra Neel and Kabil Attar in Old Delhi, where Paras and he worked side by side running Sonia Dupatta House, the garment business of their father, Jeevan Nayyar (73).Paras has two sisters, one based in Delhi and the other in US.Their parents were at a wedding near Jim Corbett National Park when they got the tragic news. They rushed back to Delhi. “I had happily handed over my business to my sons. We started very small, and over the past decade, Pankaj expanded it and gave it a strong vision. Growing up, he was always protective of his siblings,” his father said. “If I had been there, maybe they (the attackers) would have stopped, considering my age.”At the Preet Vihar residence, Divya sat beside Pankaj’s mother, Shakuntala (68), the two holding on to each other in shock and disbelief. Around them were relatives, neighbours and shopkeepers from Chandni Chowk, where the family is well known. They all remembered Pankaj as a quiet, hardworking man devoted to his family and business.In another corner sat Paras, his face bruised from the assault that preceded the shooting. “My brother came to help me, to make sure I was safe,” he said. “Even though he was younger, he was more mature. He handled most of our finances. He was the backbone of our family.”
