Sunil Kumar reveals how he and his anonymous friend struck luck by participating in the Wednesday draw.
Abu Dhabi: Sunil Kumar Sadasivan, the Indian expat who became the second winner of The UAE Lottery’s Dh30 million Grand Prize in the Lucky Day Draw, has revealed that he plans to quit his job and return to Kerala permanently.
The 52-year-old secured the life-changing win in the Lucky Day Draw held on Wednesday, July 1, after matching all seven winning numbers to claim the Dh30 million jackpot.
A maintenance technician in Abu Dhabi, Sunil Kumar has revealed that he plans to share half of his winnings with the friend who jointly purchased the winning ticket and return to Kerala permanently.
Time to rest
Sunil Kumar said the life-changing win has transformed his plans for the future. “I have been working since I was very young, and I feel this is the right time to finally step back and take some rest,” he said.
“I plan to return home and spend more time with my family, something that years of hard work rarely allowed me to do. Thanks to the UAE Lottery, I have now been given the rare opportunity to choose my path, and I intend to use it wisely,” Sunil Kumar said.
Originally from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, Sunil Kumar revealed that he first moved abroad at the age of 18 and has spent much of his adult life working to support his family.
Sunil Kumar married in 2006 and moved to the UAE that same year. He later returned to India for a brief period before financial challenges brought him back to the UAE once again.
Wednesday’s luck
The Dh30 million prize will be shared. The winning ticket was purchased jointly with a friend who lives in the room next to him, and the two plan to divide the winnings equally.
The friend, who has chosen to remain anonymous, had only recently started playing the Wednesday draw with Sunil Kumar, separate from the regular Saturday group they used to participate in together.
“It was my friends here who had been playing for some time and encouraged me to join them. Some days, five of us would play together every Saturday. It was only recently that a friend and I started playing separately on Wednesdays as well, never imagining it would lead to something this significant,” Sunil Kumar said.
Numbers with meaning
Although Sunil Kumar had been playing for years without paying much attention to the numbers he selected, this time he chose numbers that held personal significance.
“Earlier, I played without giving much thought to the numbers I picked. It was only this time that I decided to choose numbers that were personally meaningful to me, though I cannot say for certain whether that made the difference,” he said.
The numbers he selected were linked to the birthdays of the three people closest to him — beginning with his daughter’s birthday, followed by his own and then his wife’s.
Sunil Kumar also explained how the winning ticket came to be. “When we bought our first Wednesday ticket, it won a small Dh100 prize. The following Wednesday, we added another Dh50 and bought one more ticket, and that was the one that brought the big win,” he said.
The moment it hit
Sunil Kumar was relaxing with friends after his shift when he discovered that his ticket had won.
“I was with friends after our shift, just relaxing, and around 9:45, I checked my mobile phone and saw that all the numbers I had selected had matched. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing or understand what had happened. I was completely shocked,” he recalled.
He first turned to the friend who had purchased the ticket with him.
“Then I showed it to my friend, since the two of us had bought the ticket together. He stays in the room next to mine. At first, he was only checking whether we had won the Dh100 prize, as that was what he usually looked for. But when he saw the actual result, he was just as shocked as I was,” Sunil Kumar recalled.
After the win was confirmed, he called his wife, making her the first person in his family to hear the news.
“That moment is something I will never forget,” he said.
Building for others
Sunil Kumar’s plans extend beyond securing his own family’s future. One of his priorities is to build homes for those less fortunate, while also completing work on his own family house.
“We have always made decisions together as a family, whether it was about building a house or helping someone. For something as significant as this, I want to sit down with them and decide what comes next. We have long-standing goals, including completing work on our family home and buying a vehicle,” he said.
“Beyond that, I want to take my time and think carefully, because this win through The UAE Lottery is not just about today; it is about creating a stable and secure future for my family,” he said.
Advice for hopefuls
Amid the excitement surrounding his life-changing win, Sunil Kumar shared a simple message for others who continue to try their luck.
“My advice to others is simple: don’t lose hope, even if nothing happens for a long time. I played lotteries for years without a major win, and then suddenly, everything changed in a single draw. You never know when your moment will come, so it is always worth trying,” he said.
