The lady luck smiled on them when three youngsters hailing from Kerala were about to pull down shutters of their ailing automobile garage which they started a few months back. They won the first prize of the Abu Dhabi duty-free big ticket pocketing Rs 41.50 crore (Dirham 20 million).
Jijesh Korth, a native of Kannur in north Kerala, was working as a driver and later graduated as a mechanic and now owns a small garage, had taken a ticket two months back online sharing the cost with his two friends, Shanoj and Shahjehan. Reeling under crisis one of after another, he forgot about the big ticket till he got a call from duty-free authorities.
“I took the lottery carrying the no 041779. Somebody called me the other day asking me about the same number. Initially I thought somebody is playing pranks with me. But it wasn’t,” he said. His wife Sujisha and his seven-year-old daughter were with him when the call came. He said he will share prize money equally with his friends and revive the business.
“I have been living in Ras Al Kaimah for 15 years. Last few months were really tough due to oil meltdown and pandemic. I was even planning to send the family back home unable to foot rent and other expenditures. This win is nothing but miracle that changed my life,” he said adding two of his friends were also in deep red.
{{/usCountry}}“I have been living in Ras Al Kaimah for 15 years. Last few months were really tough due to oil meltdown and pandemic. I was even planning to send the family back home unable to foot rent and other expenditures. This win is nothing but miracle that changed my life,” he said adding two of his friends were also in deep red.
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