After shuttling between Ahmedabad and Vadodara for the last two months on every holiday, Modi wanted to stay with his wife and children. On Saturday, the couple finalised an accommodation in Kalupura locality of Ahmedabad and came to stay in Shakunt Hotel at night . The next morning, he became a victim of the hotel collapse.

"Mayuri came to help Modi with his house hunting on the weekend, while his children were in Vadodara with their grandparents," said Pritam Patel, Modi's neighbour at the Jay Satyanarayan Society in Gorwa locality of the city.

"On Sunday morning, they were supposed to come back to Vadodara and take his mother to see the new house along with the children," Patel added.

Modi wanted his mother to stay with them in Ahmedabad, as both of his younger brothers worked in Mehsana district. After his father passed away a few years back, Modi being the eldest in the family shouldered the responsibility along with his mother and took care of his brothers.

While the Modis left for Ahmedabad to perform the last rites and take care of their daughter-in-law, the neighbours in Vadodara were too shocked to react. A pall of gloom has descended over the Jay Satyanarayan society, where he has grown up.