Watching the devastation unfold on television was enough to push 22-year-old Sree Vighneshvar off his chair and into his car. He and a couple of his friends, Sudhan and Niranjan, took off for Kerala immediately.

“We were travelling in a SUV, but some of the roads were really challenging to drive through. It took us hours to reach our destination. In some areas, the return journey was even tougher as flood waters had badly damaged the roads,” said Vighneshvar.

The entrepreneur, who runs a media company in Chennai, said that they travelled through Thrissur, and towns like Vadakencherry and Chalakudy right upto the Aluva border. “We took several food items and relief materials in our car like biscuits, rice, napkins, etc. and distributed it at the camps. The people there thanked us profusely,” he said.

Vighneshvar added that the people there are in desperate need of more relief material. “Even the army members and the rescue teams from Tamil Nadu that we met, had little food with them. So, it’s not just the flood-affected people, but even the rescuers who need help,” he said.

Speaking about the challenges they faced, Vighneshvar said, “When we were driving across a steep slope in Chalakudy, our car got caught in the slush. What’s worse, there was a steep drop next to where the vehicle was stuck, and we panicked.”

“But thankfully, others noticed that we needed help and pushed our car to safety. It was then that we realised how many vehicles would have suffered the same fate,” the 22-year-old said.

He added that it was the children and the elderly who were the worst affected. “People who are around 20 to 40 years have been able to manage somehow. But, the kids are really struggling. Their houses are flooded while they are stuck at relief camps. What we saw on television was bad but what we witnessed on the ground shocked us,” said Vighneshvar.

Narrating a particularly touching incident, he said, “The anguish there was palpable. Many wept inconsolably while telling us how the houses that they had painstakingly built, were utterly destroyed.”

“One elderly man told us about how he lost several lakhs in the deluge and his family was in ruins. Another set of parents spoke about how it was their dream to make their kids enrol for higher education but now, they are clueless about their future.”

“They don’t even have a house to live in now. We can’t even imagine ourselves in their shoes,” said Vighneshvar.

Planning to continue with the help, Vighneshvar and his friends have been asking sources and family members for funds. “Thanks to WhatsApp, we had some extremely generous donors from Singapore and Dubai who trusted our legitimacy and sent us money. We also went live on Facebook to show our friends on social media how the people here need a lot more help,” he said.