KOCHI: “Hello, Sreeraj, you’ve won 7 million dirhams.” When that call cascaded into his mobile on Sunday, Sreeraj Krishnan Kopparembil, a Malayali based in Abu Dhabi, had every reason to take it for a prank. After all, he had purchased several lotteries during his nine-year stint at the UAE capital.
But a quick check on the Big Ticket lottery website drove home the reality. He’s a big money man with approximately `12 crore in his account.
A shipping coordinator, who till now earned 6,000 dirhams (just over `1 lakh) per month, Sreeraj immediately rang up his wife Aswathy, an administrative assistant at a private firm, to inform about the rush of fortune. He had to send the screen shot of the lottery website to convince her. Sreeraj, a native of Palakkad, married Aswathy two years ago.
Ticket number 044698 worth 500 dirhams brought the 33-year-old luck in the raffle draw held at the Abu Dhabi International Airport.
The unexpected arrival of `12 crore can transform anybody’s brain into a hub of ideas. Buy a luxury car. Call the most posh realtor in the city to check about a super luxury flat. Or what about a family trip to an exotic location? Suddenly, you have the power to turn your most cherished dreams into reality.
But Sreeraj and Aswathy have rather modest aims. “I just went blank when I got a call from the Big Ticket. My first priority is to settle my housing loan. Aswathy too wants to me do so,” said Sreeraj.
So, will he now return to Kerala? “No. I will stay and work in the country where we got lucky,” he said. But he will not buy another lottery ticket.