It was a lucky day for 62-year-old Mohammad Basheer Abdul Khadar when he miraculously survived the crash-landing of Emirates plane in Dubai on Wednesday, escaping death by minutes.
Six days later on Tuesday, the Kerala man struck gold when he won a million dollars (Rs 6.7 crore) in a lottery.
The Dubai expatriate’s lucky ticket number 0845 was drawn in the Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire at Concourse A at Dubai International Airport, winning him USD 1 million (Dirham 3.67 million), Gulf News reported.
Khadar, was among the 300 people on board the Emirates flight EK521 which crash landed and burst into flames at the Dubai airport last Wednesday.
He had purchased the ticket on Eid on his way for a vacation with his family in Thiruvananthapuram.
A fleet administrator with a car dealer group in Dubai, Khadar had made it a habit to purchase a raffle ticket whenever he travelled to his home country.
Khadar became a millionaire after purchasing his 17th ticket, just four months before he was due to retire in December, he told the daily.
"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.
Khadar said he plans to return to India after his retirement to find a job that involves helping people in need.
He wants to help children in Kerala who are in need of financial help and medical support.
"I am blessed to have finally won with Dubai Duty Free 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 than others and need some financial help and medical support," he said.
Khadar, a grandfather, earns Dirham 8,000 (Rs 1,45,212) a month. However, he had to struggle a lot for the treatment of his 21-year-old son who became paralysed after an accidental fall just 13 days after birth.
"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," said Khadar.
He said he was thankful for his job that also helped him get his daughter married.
"I will continue to work till I can. 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.
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