You could say he barges into weddings, but it's all for a good cause. Santosh Bajpai turns up uninvited at Uttar Pradesh wedding ceremoies to make the bride, the groom and their relatives plant saplings and join his mission to make the planet a little greener!
Bajpai, a government official and native of Mankapur town in Gonda district, some 150 km from Lucknow, has got around 8,000 saplings planted in the nearly 1,000 marriages he has attended as an uninvited guest since 2001.
"I am quite happy that I have included thousands of people to join my mission of spreading greenery. I just want more and more people across Uttar Pradesh to join me in making the planet greener," Bajpai, a senior technical assistant (STA) of an Industrial Training Institute (ITI), told IANS on telephone.
"I believe we can counter the ill-effects of pollution and climate to a considerable extent just by planting saplings in our houses and nearby places. Environmental conditions would surely improve if we realise our responsibility towards our mother earth," added 42-year-old Bajpai. This man has crashed almost 1,000 weddings
