A millionaire at 12

PUNE, DEC 20: Not all tidings brought in the middle of the night are ominous. Some, as Swapnila was to learn, can bring glory and 31 lakhs...

PUNE, DEC 20: Not all tidings brought in the middle of the night are ominous. Some, as Swapnila was to learn, can bring glory and 31 lakhs in gold.

Flashback, Swapnila Ghoman age 12 goes to Princess Garment Store on Kumthekar Road, along with her family, to buy a saree for her aunt. There her name along with those of five other members of the family are put down for a lucky draw scheme organised by the Garments and Textile Sanstha (GATS). The purchase made, which incidentally was for Rs 1,675, the family forgot about the whole episode.

Cut to the night of December 18. Around 12 am, Dnyaneshwar Ghoman, Swapnila’s father, working with Bajaj Auto, returns home from working third shift to find his family wide awake and awaiting his return. He fears the worst but is quickly told that Swapnila has won Rs 31 lakh in a lucky draw scheme. “For the first half an hour, I thought it was all a dream,” says a by-now-composed Dnyaneshwar. Since then the Ghoman household has been a bee-hive of activity, with a steady stream of neighbours and relatives pouring in to congratulate a bewildered 12-year-old.

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Does she realise how much she has won? “No,” pat comes the simple reply. “I didn’t expect to win. But it has made me happy seeing my family members so happy,” she says.

A class VII student at the Bharati Vidaypeeth High School, Swapnila doesn’t have any desires that she would like fulfilled. She just wants to “grow up and be educated.” “The money will be used to educate her,” says her father. “We will support her in whatever she wishes to do with her life,” he adds.

Swapnila knows what Kaun Banega Crorepatiis about, but has seen it only once. “We haven’t got cable TV, because it interferes with her studies,” her father says.

Today Swapnila didn’t go to school. She may not even tomorrow. But soon for Swapnila, it will be back to science, maths and the “everydayness.” Maybe this event will change her life forever, maybe it won’t. But chances are she will remember this “golden”’ moment for a long time, when one cold, wintry mid-night, there was a knock on her door.