Friends, Relatives Remember Young Indian American Entrepreneur Who Met With Fiery Death on Long Island
- Tanya Bathija, 32, Died on Dec. 14, as the cottage behind her parents’ home engulfed in flames.
Friends, relatives, well-wishers and members of the community gathered on Dec. 18 at Maloney’s Lake Funeral Home in Lake Ronkonkoma in New York to pay final respects to 32-year-old Tanya Bathija who died last week in a fire. She is survived by her parents, Gobind and Sonia Bathija, sister Dr. Jessica Bathija and brother-in-law Ameed Sonny. The Indian American entrepreneur was trapped inside her cottage behind her parents’ home in Dix Hills on Dec. 14, according to a Newsday report quoting Lt. Kevin Beyrer, head of Suffolk County Police Department homicide squad.
The police were alerted by Bhatia’s father, Gobind Bathija, who first spotted the fire, a Newsday report said. He ran outside to the cottage and tried to get their daughter out, but it was fully engulfed,” the Newsday report said, citing police. “More than 60 firefighters and rescue workers were roped in for an aggressive attack on the blaze,” Dix Hills Fire Department’s spokesperson told Newsday. Some officers were sent to Stony Brook University Hospital “for smoke inhalation,” the report added.
A beauty pageant participant, Bathija, co-owner of the Montauk Dunkin’ Group, opened a Dunkin’ Donuts franchise in Bellport this April, and had another in the works for Blue Point, a Newsday report said. She was also involved in both the Bellport and Patchogue chambers of commerce and worked with the Boys and Girls Club and Long Island Head Start.
In an April 2022 interview with greaterlongisland.com, after the inauguration of her Bellport Dunkin Donuts, Bathija said she knew she wanted to follow her father’s footsteps and one day become “a real estate and franchising tycoon.” Her father, Gobind Bathija, who worked in the garment industry in New York City for over 20 years, opened his first Dunkin’ Donuts in 2022. “I want to be an entrepreneur, now I understood the word, what it means to be an entrepreneur and what that consists of — it’s a jack of all trades,” she said. Describing herself as “an ambitious person,” she told greaterlongisland.com that she accomplishes whatever she puts her mind to.
Bathija finished high school and college in just six years, “getting a jump on college courses during high school,” the portal said. For her undergraduate education, she attended the Fashion Institute of Technology and studied international business and fashion design. After earning an MBA, “she jumped into her quest to become the ‘female version’ of her dad,” said said.