NEW DELHI: A video showing the challenges of walking on Indian footpaths, especially for parents and pedestrians, has gone viral on social media. The 32-second clip, posted on Thursday by Canadian content creator and podcaster Caleb Friesen, shows him navigating a baby stroller along a footpath and highlighted the reality of being a pedestrian parent in India.In the video, Friesen struggles to manoeuvre the stroller around obstacles including electrical poles, power junction boxes and other common footpath obstructions.
Sharing the video on X, he sarcastically listed the “descending order of importance” for things found on Indian footpaths, placing pedestrians and parents with strollers at the bottom. The list goes as:
- Power junction boxes
- Electrical poles
- Hoardings
- Food stalls
- Darshini overflow
- Parked vehicles
- Trees
- Potted plants
- Pedestrians
- Parents with strollers/differently-abled in wheelchairs
Friesen confirmed that the location was a footpath on 100 Feet Road in Bangalore. Explaining the issue further, he told one user that the problem was not the bollards, which prevent two-wheelers from entering the footpath, but the massive power junction boxes occupying half the space.The post has drawn widespread attention, garnering over 230K views. Many users empathised with Friesen’s experience, sharing their own struggles navigating uneven or blocked footpaths in Indian cities.One user wrote, “It’s brave of you to do this experiment. Last week in Pune, my father tried to roll a suitcase on the footpath and slipped because it got stuck in a pothole. Tier-1 cities don’t even provide a seamless 100m path.” Another user cautioned him, “For your kid’s safety, please avoid walking on the footpath. Better safe than sorry.”This is not Friesen’s first post highlighting footpath hazards. Last month, he shared a video of his 2.4 km walk from Majestic bus stand to a nearby Starbucks, pointing out obstacles such as tunnel juice, barbed wire, desire paths, bushwhacking, pavement pudding and a stairwell into a drain.Despite his wry commentary, he emphasised that his intention is not to criticise India but to raise awareness. He said: “I don’t just want to criticise India, I care deeply about this country.”
