In a heartening display of community spirit, an egg donated to support the construction of a mosque in Malpore village, Sopore, in north Kashmir's Baramulla district, has fetched a staggering Rs 2.26 lakh in an auction, declared the mosque's managing committee.
The initiative to raise funds for the mosque's construction was launched by the local mosque committee, which began collecting donations both in cash and in kind from the community.
An anonymous elderly woman from the village made a unique contribution by donating a freshly laid egg from her chicken. The egg, along with other donations in kind, was put up for auction by the committee.
Residents of the village actively participated in the auction, bidding on the egg over a span of three days. After each round of bidding, the successful bidder paid the bid amount and generously returned the egg to the committee to continue raising funds.
On the concluding day of the auction, a young businessman named Danish Ahmad from the neighbouring Warpora area emerged as the highest bidder, purchasing the egg for an impressive Rs 70,000.
Expressing his motivation behind the significant contribution, Ahmad said, "We are very eager to complete the construction of this mosque at the earliest. As the mosque is planned to be big, the funds needed are also rather large." He further added, "I am not a rich man but it was just my passion and emotion towards the sacred space."
Ahmad revealed that the collective funds raised from multiple rounds of bidding on the egg amounted to an impressive Rs 2,26,350.