A wealthy Indian businessman had intended to celebrate his daughter's wedding by throwing her the extravagant party she had been planning, but then he had a better idea.
Instead of paying for the marriage ceremony, Ajay Munot, a cloth and wheat trader based in the Aurangabad district of eastern India, spent the Rs 7 million to 8 million he had saved for the wedding on building homes for the poor, the Free Press Journal reports.
Munot's savings, worth around £93,000, were spent on constructing 90 houses across two acres of land. Each home was 240 square feet, had two windows and doors and had access to filtered drinking water but before giving them away, the businessman carefully selected the residents under three conditions; they needed to be poor, living in a slum and not suffering from an addiction.
The new homeowners are already said to benefiting, and Munot is hopeful his idea will inspire others to support their communities.
"This is the new chapter in history and I hope that the same concept will be followed by the other rich communities," Munot told the Indian Express. "We have some responsibilities towards our society and we tried to comply with it," he added.
For his newly-married daughter, it was the ultimate wedding present. "I am very happy with the decision and will consider it as my marriage gift," she said.
It's a heart-warming story, and it's one that might make you think twice about some of these insanely expensive nuptials.
