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LIVING: TV MILLIONAIRES
Sangeeta Nagi 31, Nurse,
Railway Hospital kolkata
Rs 25 lakh KBC
She loves trivia but
hates publicity.
The first helped her with her KBC win, the second is irrelevant now. "KBC
didi's house? Up ahead, on the left," says the rickshawpuller in
this crowded neighbourhood just off Bengal's arterial Grand Trunk Road.
The day Sangeeta Nagi's episode was aired on television, 18 or 20 relatives
and friends crammed into the family's small living room to watch the show.
The local cable operator says at least 20,000 homes tuned in to watch.
Quick to spot a crowd-puller when he saw one, he taped the episode, did
an impromptu interview of the family and beamed the package on Sunday-evening
prime-time slots. After five telecasts, Nagi had to tell the man to stop:
too many people were calling up seeking "help".
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REALITY CHEQUE: Sangeeta shelved travel plans for father's treatment
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On the show, Nagi said she would buy a small
plane and "fly around the world" if she won a crore. After considerable
tax bites, there's hardly enough left over for such wanderlust. The family
has taken a much-needed vacation to Ooty and Bangalore with a part of
the remaining Rs 13 lakh, and squeezed in a trip to Vaishnodevi "to
thank the goddess". Nagi would love to spend the rest of the money
travelling around the country, but she has debts to pay off. Like money
spent on her father's treatment for cancer in Mumbai and for her younger
sister's wedding.
This large family which came over from Rawalpindi
(now in Pakistan) at Partition values every paisa that has come with Sangeeta's
win. "I had to blow up Rs 20,000 on a lavish eight-course lunch for
my colleagues," says Nagi, "but the rest is being invested."
At any rate, the prize isn't enough to change their lifestyle. Sister
Kanta, a teacher who went along to Mumbai for the recording of the show,
still takes the bus to school. "The conductor asks me every day why
I haven't bought a car," she laughs. "We're very proud of her,"
says brother S.K. Nagpal. "But we would like her to invest the money
and use it to help the family only if she wants." Inspired by their
aunt, Sangeeta's nieces and nephews are still trying to get a crack at
KBC. There's plenty of advice close at hand.
-Labonita Ghosh
S. Ghosh 38, Traffic Supt,
Indian Airlines, RANCHI
Rs 25 lakh KBC
As a college student
in Ranchi,
Soubhik Ghosh often dreamt of shaking hands with his screen idol-Amitabh
Bachchan. It took 20 years for it to turn into reality, when "Ma
Kali responded to my prayers" and the traffic superintendent at Indian
Airlines was invited by the mega-star to take the hot seat on KBC. He
ended up winning Rs 25 lakh and returned to the equivalent of a ticker
tape reception in the capital of Jharkhand. When he had flown to Mumbai
for the KBC recording, life looked tough. Ghosh was caught in a typically
middle-class debt trap. Now, a quarter of the way to a crore later, he
has no loans against his name, has bought his wife Mahua the microwave
oven she wanted and rewarded his son Pallav with a computer.
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| DREAM COME TRUE: Ghosh plans a Europe tour |
Despite the Rs 11.67-lakh tax burden, Ghosh was
quite happy to part with Rs 51,000 for earthquake victims in Gujarat.
"Look how a few hours in the company of a great man have changed
my life," he grins. "I used to exhaust my salary by the middle
of the month and had to take loans from friends. Now the tension has been
wiped out."
His wife shares every ounce of his joy. "I
was thrilled to see my husband winning and receiving the cheque from Amitabh
Bachchan. I still feel excited when I think that lakh of people must have
watched Soubhik in the company of Amitabhji."
Two years from now, when Pallav is 10 and "old
enough", Ghosh plans to take his family on a holiday to Europe. "I
want my son to see the world and learn about famous places," he says.
That's the KBC dividend: converting plain capital into intellectual capital.
-Sanjay Kumar Jha
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