Abu Dhabi: An Indian expat living in Abu Dhabi was announced as the winner for the monthly Big Ticket Series on Wednesday, scooping up Dh 5 million in the raffle draw.
Thangaraj Nagarajan, 52, had the lucky winning ticket No. 066002 selected by last month’s winner Nishita Radhakrishna Pillai, who herself won a massive Dh10 million in April’s draw.
Nagarajan becomes the 179th winner for the Big Ticket raffle draw, and in turn like so many before him, has attained a multimillionaire status over night.
“I am very happy and so surprised that I have won,” Nagarajan, who works as a project manager, told Gulf News.
First time lucky: Expat bags $1million raffle
“I found out that I was the winner through the website because I actually forgot my mobile phone at home so I wasn’t able to receive the phone call from the organisers.
"When I saw my name on the screen, I had to look at it more than once to make sure that this was real,” he added describing the moment he found out that he won Dh5 million.
Education fund
Nagarajan said he bought three different tickets for this month’s raffle draw. The project manager said he was planning to use the money for his children’s education.
“I have two sons, one is 22 years old and the other is 12. I want to use the winning money as an investment for their education, to make sure they complete their studies, and to receive the best education.
“After that I want to give some money to charity, and to build a house in my home city Chennai,” he added on other spending plans.
Nagarajan said that he was still taking in the big news, but for now was planning to stick to his daily routines, and keep his longstanding job.
“I want to keep my job and live the same, I don’t really want to change. I have been working with the same company for 18 years now, and this year I am starting my 19th year, so I am very close with my company and they are like family to so I want to obviously continue my work.
“I am still in shock, it will take some time for me to take this all in and get used to it, I still can’t believe that this is real and so I have to keep my feet grounded,” he added.
