KOVALAM: Only a few hours are needed to change a man’s life. Till Saturday morning, Shaji, a taxi driver and a native of Chovara, was finding difficult to make both ends meet. Saturday evening Lady Luck smiled on him and he was announced the winner of Karunya's Rs one crore lottery.

He had only Rs 50 Saturday morning. Shaji has the habit of taking lottery tickets if it has numbers 9 and 12. He bought the lottery ticket numbered KD 841039 Saturday morning at 9.30 am. By evening, he got the information that he had won Rs one crore lottery.

Shaji is a singer of the choir team of St Sebastians Church in Cheruvettucaud. He told his friend Santhosh, a kapyar of the church, on Friday that he will buy a new music system for the church if he wins the lottery. The next day Lady Luck blessed him.

He wants to take back his wife Anju’s gold pledged in the bank, wants to build a house, wants to help his in-laws, a share for his sister Shiny, wants to buy an auto for his friend Santhosh and an amount should be deposited in his son Dany’s name.