DUBAI: A 62 year old Keralite who was on the Emirates plane that crash landed last week, just won $1 million lottery in six days after the accident. Perhaps the luckiest man alive, Mohammad Basheer Abdul Khadar's ticket number 0845 was drawn in the Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire at Dubai international airport.
"I have been working in Dubai for 37 years, and I have always felt like this is my country. I live a simple life, and now that it's my time to retire, I feel like God gave me a second life when I survived the plane crash, and blessed me with this money to follow all this up by doing good things," Khadar said. He had purchased the ticket on Eid, on way to Thiruvananthapuram for a vacation with this family. He plans to return to India after his retirement, and find a job that involves helping people in need. "I am blessed and can't wait to share the news with my family. If you ask me about my plans, I obviously want to help the children in Kerala who are less fortunate and need financial help and medical support."
Khadar earns 8,000 Dirham a month, but had to struggle to pay the medical bills of his 21 year old son who was paralysed following an accident. "I had to spend a lot of money on his treatment. Some years back I had to take a loan of Rs 1.8 million for a major surgery for him. I have managed to pay it back."
Khadar said he was thankful for his job that also helped him get his daughter married. “I will continue to work till I can with the company in Dubai as nothing else can give you the satisfaction of your hard-earned money,” he said. In 2007, Indian national Sadanand Raghavan, a mechanic in Sharjah, scooped Dirham 5 million in a Mashreq Bank raffle.
