UoH student's phone explodes after online classes

Hyderabad: M. Akhil Gopi, a second-year Masters student in University of Hyderabad's department of Telugu, was already dealing with network issues and limited data packs while attending his online classes. Now, he has had to deal with an exploding phone.

After attending his Adhunika Bhashasasthram (modern linguistic) class online on 21 September, Akhil Gopi put his phone on charge. It exploded a few minutes later. Luckily, Akhil was not injured in the incident.

Akhil Gopi, a resident of Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh, is one of the thousands of students from the university who now has to attend online classes after the university decided to conduct classes through the digital mode for the university students from 20 August.

“My phone heat up during the online class. I somehow managed but by the time the class ended the phone was dead. I put the phone on charge and went out of my room. My friend called me on my phone. When I reached out to pick up the call, the phone caught fire and exploded,” said Akhil Gopi.

Akhil was using an old model Videocon phone that was once owned by his friend. The latter had bought it three years ago. “I gave my phone for repair because it used to heat up during the classes. A few minutes after using it, it would automatically switch off. So, I had borrowed a phone from my friend and was using it for the online classes,” said Akhil.

Akhil is now using his brother's phone for the classes. “He also needs the phone to attend his classes, but we are somehow managing with one phone. I just hope that it should not happen to other students,” added Akhil.

He added, “I daily have to attend five classes. Sometimes there is no signal and sometimes I cannot hear the teacher's voice. Some days my daily data usage limit gets over and the phone always heats up. These are the problems we face while attending online classes and now my phone has exploded. Luckily, I did not get injured.”

The University of Hyderabad Alumni Association after hearing about Akhil's plight said they will help him by providing him a new phone. The association will buy the phone using the funds they had collected during a recent fundraiser to help needy students.