Gurmit The Hermit Puzzle

Gurmit Burmit is a hermit - he lives all on his own on a lonely desert island. There is sand all around him: in front of him, behind him and on both sides, as far as Gurmit can see. In fact all he ever eats is sandwiches.

One day Gurmit decided to count the grains of sand. He started off by scooping up two handfuls of sand from the ground. "THERE MUST BE A BILLION GRAINS HERE IN MY HANDS" he thought to himself.

Was he close? Would his hands hold a billion grains of sand, or more, or less?