Gill said that while he expects to make $300 less per day over the summer, he feels that summer-school students will provide enough business to keep the eatery open.

An immigrant from the Western Indian state of Punjab, Gill has been living in Boston for 20 years. He used to own a Hancock Street eatery called New England Daily, New York Style.

But Iftikhar is not planning to sell his convenience store, which he says is doing “good business.”

Iftikhar, who came to America 12 years ago from Lahore, Pakistan said he has been working since then with a particular goal—that his children can come and study at Harvard after completing their high school education in Pakistan.

“I have no savings or any kind of insurance,” Iftikhar said. “I don’t want to buy a Mercedes or a Rolls Royce, I just want to work hard and get my children a good education.”

Shuja, who is still around the pizzeria teaching the new owners how to manage it, said he might have to go back to Pakistan if he cannot find a new job in America. Shuja said he used to run a daily newspaper in Lahore called Sadakat, but was forced to leave the country after General Pervez Musharraf staged a coup in 1999 and effectively took control of every national newspaper.

—Staff writer Ravi P. Agrawal can be reached at agrawal@fas.harvard.edu.