The Day(s) my Phone Decided to Die

It was one of those college M n C (milk and cookies) times. As much as I love snacks, I could never miss a healthy one. As soon as the time in my laptop said 9.30 PM, I grabbed my “hugs and kisses” mug and of course my phone. It may sound crazy but I take my phone everywhere with me, even in the shower. With a full mug of milk and phone in one hand and some chocolate chip cookies in my other hand, I was walking back to my room. Just when I leaned forward to open the door to my room, my phone slipped into the milk as if it did not want to be with me anymore. After almost a year of relationship with me, it wanted to leave me and that too by such cheap attempt? But I would not let it happen; I could not give up on it yet. I am a committed person and I would do anything to save my relationship.

I washed my phone with water immediately (I know it seems a crazy thing to do...washing it with water after it was already soaked in milk but I could not let my phone stay dirty and sticky from the milk. After washing and cleaning, I dried my phone with soft hand tissues and then dried it with my hair dryer. Since the hair dryer made the phone real hot, I let it cool for a while and then left it to rest for hours. After a good rest, I switched it back and to my surprise the phone started working. It did not give up on me. My love proved to be powerful.

Almost after a year of the incident I came to Thailand. It took some adjusting for us to reinvent our relationship with a new surrounding and of course the new network and sim card. We seemed to be doing well until one morning when I was really sleepy and moved reluctantly out of my bed. In the process, my phone fell into the garbage bin. I had not been feeling that well the previous night and the bin was full of cough...(I know! Yewww). Although it was disgusting, I could not let my phone drown in it so I picked it up and bathed it for the second time, only praying to God that he would do miracle again. But this time, I was getting late for work so I took it to work with me and kept giving it a jerk as if to make it vomit out all the water that it had swallowed. But still the phone was making sounds as if it was in great pain and the screen kept flashing. I even gave it mouth to mouth which I had learned recently at one of the UN training.

After about an hour of work, I could no longer bear to see my phone suffer and hence I went off to find a hair dresser. I asked the hairdresser for a hair dryer and she looked at me as if i was crazy. Instead she suggested that I took it and handed it over to a phone mechanic. But I had full trust in my phone and I did not want to hand it over to some stranger. So I offered to pay for electricity but she lent me a hair dryer and for free. Then she went off about her work, giving some private time to me and my phone. I dried my phone again and let it rest for few hours. Then with much love and prayer, I switched it on during lunch break and to my surprise, it was working again. I could not believe my luck. I felt an unnatural connection with my phone. We were meant to be together for longer than this.

It is perhaps not healthy to be attached to technology this way and one day it will probably stop working. But hey, just because there is an ending to every story does not mean we do not enjoy the ride, right?

An Ode to a Friend!

I am very excited about this post for three reasons. First, it has been more than two months since I last did one (I had taken time off for my graduate applications). Second, it is my first post of this New Year 2012. Third and most importantly, this is dedicated to all my friends in my life, wherever they are. I went to live in a hostel when I was nine years old since Kathmandu was (and still is) the hub for quality education. I have been living away from my family for over fifteen years now and FRIENDS have played vital role in my growing up. They have been family, friends, relatives and my home.

Of course I am always thankful for the company of my friends but now that I am in Bangkok, away from all my friends from school and college, I realize how blessed I have been all my life. In school, I had friends whose parents used to visit often as they were from the city but my parents lived twelve hours away so I only got to see them twice a year during holidays. But whenever my friends’ parents visited, they would also bring gifts and other things for me, making me feel much loved. I remember one particular incident that I want to share here (I hope you will forgive me for sharing this publicly). One of my close friends’ mother used to work in the school library. Although outside food was strictly prohibited on campus, she was allowed to bring snacks as she was a staff . Being one of the greatest cooks I have met in my life, I used to love her cooking and pickles that she made. My friend always took me with her and we used to sit in reference section and share the food brought by her mother.

I spent my high school in the UK, far away from home, where I was lucky to find some really close friends who were always there for any kinds of support that I needed. For college, I moved even further to the US, where I was able to find many friends. College became so much fun because of friends. Then I moved to Bangkok, and ironically it is very close to home but I did not know anyone here. Luckily, I found couple people who were affiliated to my previous academic institutions and a friend’s close relatives. I have been lucky to have found both friends and family here.

With Christmas and New years on their way, I was missing my family and friends back “home” dearly. And then came the best times of my stay in BKK. A friend visited Thailand over his winter break and I got to spend both new years and Christmas with him and his family. Fortunately, I had long weekends during both of those celebrations and we had so much fun with family meals, shopping and looking around the city. Although I had done these things before, they were not as much fun before. I even took some time off to go to an Island (with local friends) about 4.5 hours away from the city and the place was serene. There were fireworks and live music by the beach and it was just like a fairytale.

My friend is now back to the US and my life has taken its usual course (with work and lazy weekends) but I will always cherish the days we spent together. Thank you so much for making Thailand special for me. I will live by those memories until I come back to the US and reunite with all my loved ones. I dedicate my happy days to my friends all over the world who have created such beautiful pages in the book of my life. Sometimes we tend to take things for granted but I hope that deep inside we are all grateful to such beautiful lives we have been given.

Love,

A Lucky Friend