NEW DELHI: A 40-year-old UAE-based Indian expat recently won big when he picked the winning lottery numbers for a 15 million dirhams (around Rs 33 crore) raffle draw. Rajeev Arikkatt, an Indian immigrant hailing from Kerala, made a life-changing decision when he and his wife picked tickets with the numbers 13 and 7, the birth dates of his two young children, aged five and eight. Moreover, the winning ticket, number 037130, was a freebie he had been given during a raffle draw. 

As he explained to the Khaleej Times, Arikkatt had some expectations for victory when he received four more tickets upon purchasing two though he noted that the win was still a surprise given that he had been purchasing tickets for three years before he finally won the lottery. 

Sharing the wealth  

While the lottery triumph is indeed the win of a lifetime, Arikkatt has no intentions of keeping the wealth all to himself and his family. As he said in his interview with the Khaleej Times, he intends to share his winnings with 19 others. 

“We have two groups of 10 members each. We jointly paid for two tickets and got other four tickets for free through the special offer. And it’s a paid ticket each for a group. Since we won with a free ticket, the amount will be shared equally. It’s a blessing,” said Arikkatt who works in the UAE as an architectural draftsman. 

Rajeev said that many of the members of his group hail from relatively modest backgrounds and some have even lost their jobs recently. Thus, this win is a much-needed windfall for the group. 

He concluded by saying that not much would change in his life after this win and he would even continue buying tickets in the future.