Life after the novel coronavirus was looking bleak for Navaneeth Sajeevan, a 30-year-old Indian expat from Kerala. Employed in an Abu Dhabi-based company, Sajeevan was among those asked to leave due to a post-Covid financial crunch.
Sajeevan is currently serving his notice period. A father of one, Navaneeth Sajeevan had just got done with a job interview when he received the phone call that was to change his life.
That phone call was from the Dubai Duty-Free (DDF) informing Sajeevan that he had won a prize of USD 1 million at the DDF Millennium Millionaire Draw. He bought the winning raffle ticket online on November 22. Originally from Kasargod in Kerala, Sajeevan lives with his wife and child in Abu Dhabi.
“My wife is still working here. I was planning to head home if I didn’t find a good job. I have loans to the tune of 100,000 dirhams. This win will go towards that,” Sanjeevan told Gulf News.
Navaneeth Sajeevan is the 171st Indian to have won the DDF mega prize.
Interestingly, Indians make up a large chunk of DDF Millennium Millionaire ticket buyers. Navaneeth Sajeevan is the 171st Indian to have won the DDF mega prize.
In April of this year, an Indian expat from Dubai had won USD 1 million in the DDF mega millon dollar raffle. However, the winner, later identified as one Paraparambil George Varghese could not fly down to Dubai until August owing to Covid restrictions.
A sales executive who has been living in Dubai for nearly four decades, Varghese is now waiting for international flights to resume so that he can return to Dubai and claim his million-dollar prize.
Report- Vikas Chandra Agrawal