{"id":2407,"date":"2016-03-09T23:03:43","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T17:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2407"},"modified":"2016-03-09T23:03:43","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T17:33:43","slug":"lottery-tickets-dreams-common-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=2407","title":{"rendered":"A Life Measured Out in Tickets: The Story of a Lottery Addict"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

O<\/span><\/p><\/div>

pposite Jambori Maidan, Worli, stands a four-storey building. It\u2019s grey and brown, like countless other buildings in the city that have been denied a paint job for years. With a silent prayer that the roof doesn\u2019t collapse over me, I walk through the rusty gate to be greeted by a wooden board on the lobby<\/a> wall that lists the names of the residents \u2013 a study in Mumbai\u2019s diversity. There\u2019s a D\u2019souza, a Qureshi, a Godbole, a Shah, and even an Arora. But the name I\u2019m looking for is Champaklal M Patel.\n\nInside his dingy home, Patel is seated as if in a trance, on a small divan beside the door<\/a>. I ring the bell and introduce myself again, and his wife has to tap him on the thigh to pull him out of his thoughts. At first, he is unable to recognise me, even though we met at noon. At 71, Patel finds it difficult to gather his thoughts.\n\nEarlier that day, I was scouting Chembur\u2019s crowded back-alleys<\/a> looking for a local paper lottery stall \u2013 located under some bridge, where else? That\u2019s where I met Patel, studying an array of gaudily coloured lottery tickets placed in equally spaced rows on a rickety table. He was there to buy five Surbhi Shukra tickets, each with a reward of \u20b910,000, bought at a price of \u20b910. The Shukra in Surbhi Shukra stood for Shukravaar, the day when the lottery\u2019s results would be printed in the papers.\n\nPatel has been buying lottery tickets since he was 15 years old. That\u2019s an entire lifetime to expend, waiting for the capricious Lady Luck to smile at you. That\u2019s hundreds of tickets, and thousands of gambles, playing hide and seek with chance. What drives him to do it?\n\n

The entire lottery business is based on one life-altering factor. Luck. If you\u2019re lucky enough, a single lottery ticket could change your life forever.\n<\/p><\/blockquote> \n\nAn old friend introduced him to the concept in the early 1970s. Back then, one could acquire a few tickets for a few coins<\/a> and wait for results to come out that very day. The 100-rupee windfall that his friend had experienced earlier encouraged him to try his own luck.\n\nPatel\u2019s family then lived in a chawl in Goregaon\u2019s Jawahar Nagar, surviving on the meagre income of his father, who worked as a low-level government servant<\/a>. When Champaklal was 19, his ageing father purchased a Maharashtra Lakshmi ticket and asked his son to check the results in the newspaper.\n\nThe entire lottery business<\/a> is based on one life-altering factor. Luck. If you\u2019re lucky enough, a single lottery ticket could change your life forever.\n\nOn that fateful day when his father asked Champaklal to read out the results, luck sided with his family. As his eyes flitted from the page to the ticket while cross-checking the numbers, he realised his father had won a sum of \u20b91,000. It was more money than the family had ever seen at once up to that point, and it reinforced the young Champaklal\u2019s growing obsession with the lottery. Thoughts about what he could do with a hefty sum that he might win flooded his mind.\n\nFrom that point on, Patel has purchased tickets on a monthly basis.\n\nHis job as a peon<\/a> left him with a crisp \u20b9500 note at the end of each month. Most of this would be handed over to his parents, while the rest would be spent on alcohol and lottery tickets. Over time, the lottery became an obsession. His colleagues at the government office would often speak of him running a fool\u2019s errand. Despite being surrounded by naysayers, Champaklal\u2019s habit wouldn\u2019t die \u2013 the textbook definition of addiction.\n\nYears passed, he hadn\u2019t won a single lottery. But he still believed fate had something different planned for him.\n\nIn the early years of his marriage<\/a> to Jamnabai, Patel managed to curb his habit and reduce his purchases. It was a difficult time in life, because his paltry salary was barely enough to purchase food and other amenities \u2013 that in turn fed his need to keep buying. As soon as he received a promotion and subsequent increment in his salary, Champaklal could focus on his life\u2019s dream. He wanted to win a bumper lottery.\n\nThe bumper lottery scheme finds its roots in the festive season. From the Diwali Bumper, to the Navratri Bumper, these lotteries bear prize money between \u20b92.5-5 crore. Naturally, there is a massive demand for the tickets. Patel would save up each month and blow it on expensive bumper tickets during Diwali<\/a>. \u201cAn auspicious occasion has the potential to turn your fate around,\u201d he tells me, \u201cif you want it bad enough.\u201d He wanted it bad enough and he firmly believed in it.\n\nTwo children and four decades later, his belief hasn\u2019t lost its strength, even though Patel has no evidence. I suppose that is the bedrock of faith in the lottery \u2013 or any faith. Patel\u2019s god just happens to be the lottery prize.\n\nWhen his passion<\/a> for winning the bumper lottery faded, he and his wife clung to the hope that winning the lottery would help them buy them a house in their hometown, Surat<\/a>. Over the years, he has continued to purchase hundreds of tickets. Today, as he sits before me in his cramped Worli flat, retired and with failing eyesight, he is yet to win a single lottery.\n\nHis hands shiver with age as he pulls out the same tickets he had purchased that afternoon. He places them in my palm and hopes that the printed numbers change his life. The wrinkles around his eyes<\/a> seem to soften with hope. \u201cBeta zara number padhkar sunaoge? Main chote akshar theek se dekh nahi paata,\u201d he asks me with a smile.\n\nIt doesn\u2019t matter that the results are not out yet. Patel just wants the reassurance of numbers. He only wants to be soothed by the idea that he still has a chance to hit paydirt. As I exit the old structure, I wonder if Patel\u2019s faith will ever pay off; whether he\u2019ll ever have the joy of holding the keys to his Surat house. I hope he does.\n\nThat afternoon, as a little tribute to Champaklal\u2019s dreams, I decide to pick up a lottery ticket on my way to the station. In the bustle of the crowd, a bubble of hopeful-looking individuals marks out where the tickets are being sold. The men selling lottery tickets are looked upon as dream merchants. With those gaudy tickets, they offer all the heart could desire. The price of the dream? A mere \u20b910.\n\nWith the crumpled note in my hand, I see Champaklal Patels all around me. Maybe they just want to see a distant dream come alive. Maybe we all do.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hope and faith are the bedrock of lottery. Champaklal Patel has been buying bumper lottery tickets for the last 56 years, hoping to build a house in Surat \u2013 even though the retired peon with failing eyesight is yet to win a single prize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":2408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[4588,4884,4885,4886,4887,4888,4889,4890,4891,4892,4496,4893,4894,4895],"class_list":["post-2407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-belief","tag-bumpers","tag-common-man","tag-dreams","tag-faith","tag-fate","tag-hopes","tag-lottery","tag-luck","tag-lucky-winners","tag-money","tag-prizes","tag-rupees","tag-tickets"],"yoast_head":"\nA Life Measured Out in Tickets: The Story of a Lottery Addict<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hope and faith are the bedrock of lottery. 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