For Utpal Boruah, a Dubai-based insurance professional who grew up on the river island of Majuli, floods were a recurring, manageable part of life. However, the recent catastrophic flooding in Assam, which claimed over 100 lives and displaced thousands in previously safe districts, was unlike anything he had ever witnessed. Watching the tragedy unfold from the UAE, Boruah felt a deep sense of helplessness. Along with friends Sumon Bordoloi and Prateek Talukdar, he launched a grassroots fundraising drive among the tight-knit Assamese community in the Emirates. In a remarkable show of solidarity, the small community raised Dh35,000 in just 10 days to support those whose homes and livelihoods had been swept away.

Driven by a desire to provide direct aid, Boruah and Bordoloi traveled to the worst-hit areas of upper Assam, carrying essential supplies ranging from hygiene kits and pressure cookers to school stationery for children whose classrooms were destroyed. Seeing the wreckage firsthand—where entire homes had been wiped away and families were left living in makeshift tents—the volunteers were struck by the sheer scale of the disaster, which Boruah described as feeling more like a tsunami than a seasonal flood. Despite the immense challenges and the slow road to recovery, the volunteers were moved by the resilience of the survivors and the spirit of ordinary citizens who, despite losing everything, continued to support one another through the crisis.