At a time when many Indians are chasing goals abroad, Caleb Friesen took the alternative route. In his early twenties, the Canadian content material creator and father packed his baggage and made Bengaluru his house. His causes weren’t rooted in ambition or technique — however in a quiet, radical pursuit of interior development. Now, after eight years in India, a video of Friesen reflecting on his unconventional transfer goes viral.
The video begins with a query Friesen is used to listening to: why depart Canada for India when so many Indians are heading within the different course? His reply is sudden. “To change into harder,” he says — not by means of exterior battle, however inside change.
He shares a pivotal second from his youth: a 40-day quick throughout which he consumed solely water and air. He dropped 18 kilogrammes, however what he gained was a deeper lesson. “If you commit, development can occur — even with out motion,” he says.
Friesen calls this “passive development” — the form of transformation that takes place not by means of planning, however by shifting your environment. “It’s the form of development that doesn’t require a plan. It simply occurs if you change your atmosphere,” he explains.
That’s what led him to India. He wished to problem himself, to be mentally and emotionally stretched in methods he couldn’t orchestrate. “I wished to be in a spot the place development was unavoidable,” he says. And India — with its complexities and contradictions — grew to become that crucible.
His perception in passive development additionally shapes how he views parenthood. Changing into a father, he says, is one other expertise that forces development, just by being. “My son continues to exist, and so does my development,” he displays.
Via local weather shocks, cultural shifts, and the day by day unpredictabilities of Indian life, Friesen discovered what he was on the lookout for: not consolation, however transformation.
