Memoirs Of A Lucky Indian Lottery Winner
CHAPTER 11 - The Next Step
It soon was 11 -30 and I was waiting like a hawk for the door bell to ring. The finance people from the lottery company arrived on the dot. There was this man in a black suit and a lady who appeared to be in her 50s at the door. They introduced themselves and showed their ID. I gladly welcomed them into my house. I tidied up the house so it looked very clean and in proper order.
I told them that I never ever was so eager to wait for someone and they probably will be the best guests I ever received. I offer them a seat and asked them for a drink. They both said they were fine and wanted to see the ticket.
I took the ticked from my shrine, from the zip-lock bag and handed it over to them. They checked and verified the numbers and other details from the tickets. They confirmed it to be genuine and congratulated me once again.
The lady was the financial advisor who was appointment to me by the lottery company and she was there to help me through the process. First they asked me if I still stood by my decision to keep this a secret and I told them my situation and said I might divulge this to my parents later but for now, it is just myself.
They then told me the process, they would be transferring the entire funds to a private bank account of my choice. Since it is a huge sum, I will have to open a private bank account as normal accounts will not be able to hold soo much money. There was loads of paper work and my account was opened in the bank of my choice with a personal access to a manager who looks after my account.
The financial guy initiated the transfer of the funds and gave me several logins and passwords. He mentioned that the money would be with me within the next 24-48 hours and my bank account manager would send all the access details.
It was then passed over to the financial advisor, she told me that there would be a panel of advisors who can advise me about what to do with the money and how I should handle things so it will last a long time. I choose the option and she fixed up a meeting after a week. I was soo keen to ask about how much interest my money will be making and she said based on various options, the minimum would be somewhere from 3% and it will depend on what kind of bonds I opt for and the duration I would keep the money for.
I asked her what other lottery winners with same amount have done. She says the most popular option was to keep about 2-3 million pounds on easy access and keep the rest as fixed for at least 2-3 years. That would fetch me an interest of 4%. (I worked this out later, if I keep 20 million pounds on fixed for 3 years, I would earn about 35,000 pounds per month as interest, this is after deducting the heavy 40% tax from UK government)
The two really amazing things about UK lottery are first, they have the option to remain anonymous and not make your win public. Second, there is no tax on winning. So yes, I will get all of the 22 million pounds and have to pay nothing in tax. However, I will have to pay about 40% tax on the interest it generates. But still, compared to US Powerball lottery winners, UK lottery offers amazing options.
I then asked the ultimate question, can I quit work and never return again. She laughed and said 22 millions pounds will go a very long way unless I start buying castles. Even at the very least, I would be earning around 12,000 pounds as interest. She asked me to make a decision based on that but she also asked me to consider taking some kind of job or hobby that will pay a little, so that I am not totally out of touch. (Now you know why I am writing this book!)
The moment I heard 12,000 pounds interest a month, I already started composing my resignation letter in my head. All my life, as far as I can remember, my dream was not to own castles or mansions or flashy cars, it always was to do my heart wanted. I never had a choice, I was led by my parents, family and the society and things were always dictated to me. “Oh you have to study well and fair better than your cousins… Computer Science is the way to go, look at your uncles… Biology is not your subject, you need to study for years to become a doctor and looking at your results, I don’t think it is a good idea.. now that your finished studies, try and find a very good job” I can close my eyes and feel these sentences constantly being repeated by various people in my life!
Even now when I became a Project Manager, they keep saying, “Everyone is married and they also have kids at your age, what are you doing?? … Is UK the right place, are you in the right job??” GOD!! I really want to hold my middle finger up high onto their faces now! I finally am catching a break. I can really care a damn for all those now and can do what my heart wants! I was always a fan of writing, at school I won awards for several short stories which I wrote and even whilst growing up, when I wrote detailed reviews about something, they generated good response from most of the readers. So here’s me, trying my hand at writing a short novel and what better story to tell besides my own crazy life!! Hope you guys are having a good time reading all this and not finding it stupid or boring!!
Sorry I digress, coming back to the meeting with Lottery financial team, the lady gave me very good and helpful advice about how to be protected and make the right choices, etc. And then we chitchatted for a little while, they asked me if I had a positive feeling that I would win and I told them about my haunting tale of the number 22. I told them it really sounds stupid and they replied that I would be surprised to know how many people told that they had help from the unknown! Like this one person played the numbers which displayed on his calculator when his chicken ran all over it or this other person, whose departed grandmother came into his dream and told him to buy a lottery ticket.
Now, listening to all this, I leave the judgement down to you and if I could suggest one thing, I would say in the words of our beloved Disney, “Believe!!”
I wanted to keep on talking with the finance team. I even said that I will take them out for lunch but they settled for some coffee and biscuits. We spoke some more about all the best things in life and it soon was time for them to depart. The lady gave me her direct contact number and said she will be available anytime to guide/help me. I told them that a simple thanks will not suffice and I didn’t know what else I could say or do to show how grateful I was. They said not to thank them, but thank the twenty second guardian angel. A wave of awe swept through my body and hair on my arms stood still! With teary eyes I replied, I will do that and hugged them goodbye.
I went back into my sitting room to look at all the stuff which they gave me. I went back and thanked the gods again and blew flying kisses in the air to that guardian angel and told out loud never to leave me and always be with me!!
I got my laptop out and wanted to login to this special account. It was already opened and had a 4 step security check to login. I could see a transfer request so my money was still on its way. I knew I had to go out and celebrate, sadly I didn’t have anybody with me. I thought how it would have been if Pooja was still with me. Still no regrets, especially after this, it wasn’t the time to feel sad, this was a new beginning, a new birth and in the words of the famous film Titanic, “I am the king of the world!! WooHooo!!”
I wanted to go out and celebrate. First, I went to the church close by to me place as there were no Hindu temples in Oxfordshire. Well I always believed god is god, whether it is Christ, Ram or Allah! I did go to Church several times in my life and loved how peaceful it usually is. This one in Oxfordshire was gorgeous, so I went there and offer my sincere thanks to the lord. Then I went to an Italian restaurant all by myself and ate my favourite pasta.
I wanted to shop a little but still, wanted to hold off and not do anything stupid. My bank account had £1000 extra plus my pay, which at that time was £2,500 after tax. Plus I had a savings account with 5000 pounds in it. I wanted to buy some decent clothes
for the meeting with the finance team. So I went to the high street for shopping and whilst I was browsing though, I couldn’t help but think that I do not have to care about the price tags anymore. It all felt soo surreal. I still wanted to keep my head over my shoulders and not splash out crazy, but still managed by buy clothes worth £500 pounds. There was this one T-Shirt which cost 40 pounds, I saw that a week before and liked it a lot, but I didn’t want to spend 40 on it. Now, I just blindly picked it up.
I really want to say one thing, I know its crazy and it will only get crazier from here. Winning soo much money without any hard work is really the craziest thing. But again, I quote Karma, I really might have done something amazing in my previous life to win this big! I mean what are the chances of matching 5 + 2 numbers out of a combination?? Most of the times I played, I couldn’t even match one single number and all of a sudden I got all of them right!! Even to think about it, it sounds as a setup, almost as if someone told me the numbers, or someone picked my numbers on purpose.
So, do I believe I absolutely deserve it, the answer is a big NO!! I mean how can I even begin to comprehend, there are people in this world who are starving and do not have food to feed their children. I know there are farmers in India who are committing suicide because they cannot see their children starving!! Compare that to my state, I am a guy with a full time job, education, food and a roof above my head, plus I won these millions of pounds on top of this! I really cannot explain. But at least, I have my senses and I do feel for all those less fortunate. I already made a promise to myself that I will help the less fortunate and that is exactly what I am doing. So, whilst I mention about my crazy money-fuelled adventure, I also will note down the people I helped and I say this with all my heart that even driving the fastest car on this planet did not provide the satisfaction which I got from feeding a little kid at this orphanage in India! And I seriously pray that everyone who is reading this gets an opportunity to experience something like this in their lifetimes. After all, if we over-look the chemical composition, we all are made up of dreams and there is nothing like seeing them come true with our own eyes!!
Now coming back to the craziness, I wanted to wait until the money is in my account before splashing it off. So I quietly went back home. I wanted to put a leave of absence from work for personal reason, the lottery advisors suggested the same, not to quit yet, but take it slow, know how things are and then quit if all seems suitable. I drafted an email to my HR requesting time-off for personal reasons, but I stopped myself from sending until I got the money in my bank. 24 hours passed very slowly but it was around 11AM the next working day I saw the account debited with money. The figure showed like this - £22,000,000.00
I never saw soo many zeros after a number in my life, even during studies, mathematical calculation never ended in millions! I think 0 is my new favourite number after 22!! I couldn’t help but cry, streams of tears flew from my eyes! Couldn’t stop until the phone rang, it was my new bank’s account manager. He called up to confirm the transfer and congratulated me. He told me that they can appoint a panel of financial advisors and I told them that I was already meeting the advisors from the lottery company. He discussed about further details and provided more options and support.
I wanted to know how can I spend it and what access do I have. He said there will be limits and I could transfer about £50,000 at once into external current accounts. My current account is the same bank as well so it would take about one hour for the transfer. Regarding access, they wanted me to come to the bank personally so they can welcome me and hand over my access cards. I scheduled this the next day at the branch in high street. There also was the option to visit at my residence, but I wanted to go to the bank.
They also said an emergency debit card can be made available at the branch in an hour which will have the limit of 100,000 pounds. I took that option and said I will pick the temporary card at the branch in an hour.
After the call, I access the account through my iPad and transferred £50,000 into my current account. My current account never saw soo much money. I got ready for the first big splurge of my life and head out!!