Mumbai witnessed one of its most chaotic evenings on 29th August 2017, as torrential rain disrupted transportation, strong winds uprooted trees and high tide prevented natural drainage of water.

Generous citizens started offering help across the city. This generosity was even seen online on Twitter and Facebook. Those who could offer a place of shelter, started posting their address with the hashtag #rainhosts. Soon, it started trending with more and more people offering help.

However, amidst chaos, it may not be easy for someone to find the information required to get help. South Mumbai resident and 32-year old MehulVed realized this early enough. Being a self-proclaimed geek, he used his skills by doing something to help people in need. He realized that there was little time to make something new and promote it. Hence, it would be best to make use of all media available then.

And as soon as Mehul shared this premise with the others, the team got to work – they put together a code that collated data of people offering help on Twitter and organized it into a spreadsheet. They started at 1:45pm and by 8:25pm had a database of over 2,000 entries of hosts.

A website called mumbairains.org was created and shared online in super-quick time. You only had to tweet #RainHosts and the Location – the tweet would automatically get added to the list.

“We faced challenges at various stages but thanks to so many people chipping in, we could pull it through. It was a team-effort with help coming in even from Chennai!” Mehul is prompt in pointing out the effort of others in the process: Dharamraj Solanki, JayakrishnanNambiar, BhumilHaria, Aditya Sengupta and Gaurav Chaturvedi, KarthikBalakrishnan, Sandhya Ramesh and SowmyaRao.What’s surprising is that Mehul has no formal training in software or engineering. He has a conventional commerce education, but with his curiosity and support from friends in the building (GeetaGriha, Mumbai) he managed to be better at it. His first job offer was to manage a Linux Lab and has not looked back after. He currently handles systems and processes for a software company.

On his 30th birthday, he ran a 100km marathon from Gateway of India in Mumbai to Lonavla – to raise funds for an NGO (Magic Bus) that supports education of underprivileged children. He has also been a volunteer with Teach For India where he taught Mathematics to children