How my phone took a bath three days ago
Phones that belong to me lead a very rough life. They are constantly falling, getting hit, without battery charge for days, and yep, they sometimes get to enjoy a bath too. My recent phone is Mi A1 which may not be too fancy compared to some of those currently available in the market. However, it serves me perfectly. It doesn’t need that ‘Handle with Care’; it has an excellent battery which lasts for two days under my moderate to little use; it doesn’t mind that it hasn’t seen a day without being hit on the floor or by a wall. All was going well with us until three days ago, something happened.
Due to my perfect handling, it fell in a tub full of water. I retrieved it instantly and shut it down. I then let it dry for some hours. In the evening, we were going for a movie and so, I tried to switch it on. It once started and I was happy that all was well. But then it shut down again and kept on restarting without ever reaching the initial welcome screen. And this happened until the battery died out. Somewhere along the way, I remembered how my brother had managed to save his Macbook Air half-submerged in water for around 10–15 minutes by keeping it in rice for a few days.
So, I took a bowl of rice and put the phone in it, completely covering it from all sides. Even when I had put it under rice, it continued to restart. And somewhere along the night, the battery must have died. Because in the morning, the phone was perfectly still. I let it be there for two days and then I put it to charge. After charging I again put it in the rice just to be sure as I love my phone and didn’t want to lose it to some stupid tub bath. Then I switched it on today morning and voila, it was up. It restarted one time but since then it is up and running. Rice became the knight in shining armor for my Mi A1. There were two things that came in my mind during my phoneless period.
First was Thank God I own a touchscreen phone in the times when the touchscreen phones don’t come with the ‘Fragile’ tag. I remember the initial years of these phones when a single fall used to make the phone screen useless. At that time, I owned a sturdy Nokia. There was no way anyone could have convinced me to buy a touchscreen phone and maybe vice-versa (the phones might have been equally terrified of me).
Second, was how burdenless it felt. I enjoyed not having to remind myself to take the phone with me wherever I went. I had so much time that I saved from not watching useless Facebook and Youtube videos. I loved the experience of being phoneless and was back in the time when phones used to be a luxury and not a necessity.
So people, if your phone hits the pool or is stuck in a flood, don’t worry there’s nothing that a bowl of rice can’t fix. Of course, your phone should be able to reach the rice before its chip blows off. Lastly, hats off to my brave and strong Mi A1.
