India, June 19 -- On May 31, when doctors at the Max Hospital in Saket, Delhi, told chartered accountant Vivek Aggarwal that his father's condition was critical and that the family should prepare for the worst, the 45-year-old immediately called his elder daughter, Jivisha, in Bengaluru.

The organs of Radhe Shyam (77), the family patriarch, were failing, his oxygen levels were dropping, and doctors had put him on BiPAP support. The message from father to daughter was simple: "Come home."

20-year-old Jivisha, who had just begun her first year at PES University in Bengaluru, boarded the first available flight and reached Delhi on June 2 around 4pm. The family wanted to be together. Three days later, Vivek, his wife Tarjani, daughters Jivi...