At 18, Sunil Kumar Sadasivan left India with nothing but hope, as he later put it. For years he worked to help marry off his six sisters before he thought of building his own life. He married in 2006, moved to the UAE seeking better opportunities, returned to India as a tile contractor, then came back to the Gulf when finances grew tight. For the past two years he had been working as a maintenance technician. Then, on a Wednesday night, he checked his UAE Lottery ticket — bought using the birthdays of his daughter, his wife and himself — expecting at best a small prize.

Instead he had matched enough numbers to win the Dh30 million Grand Prize. His story was published in the local press on Sunday 2 August, a day after the weekly Lucky Day draw failed to produce a jackpot winner. In that Saturday draw, one participant took Dh100,000 for matching five numbers plus the Lucky Month number; three others won Dh50,000 each through the guaranteed Lucky Chance raffle, their IDs announced as BV4662400, DL8812832 and CP6677185. The Dh30 million and Dh5 million prizes both rolled over to the next draw on Wednesday 5 August.

For Sadasivan, the money was not the point, he told Khaleej Times. For 12 years he and his wife had struggled to have a child, spending much of their savings on fertility treatments. “Without question, it was the toughest period of our lives,” he said. “But it also taught me never to stop believing, no matter how long the wait. When our daughter finally arrived, she brought so much happiness into our lives.” He said his wife had been the one constant through every challenge: “She has always been the one I turn to before making any decision.”

The jackpot gave him something he valued more than wealth, he explained: time. “I never said that out loud because it felt impossible,” he said of the dream of being present for ordinary moments with his daughter and wife, far from the work that had kept him away. His plans are simple: finish the family home, spend time with them, help underprivileged children. “I want people to look back and see my finished home, my daughter getting a good education, and maybe a few families with roofs over their heads,” he said.

What lingers is the quiet way he said it. A man who had spent most of his life putting others first — sisters, then wife and daughter — now able to turn that instinct into something more lasting. He hopes to be remembered not for winning Dh30 million, but for what he chose to do with it.