Canadian Creator Explains Why He Has Been Living In India For Last 8 Years

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His decision wasn't based on career goals or strategy but on a quiet, radical pursuit of inner growth.
In a world where many Indians aspire to move abroad for better opportunities, a Canadian content creator is grabbing headlines for choosing a different path. Eight years ago, Caleb Friesen, a Canadian content creator and father, left Canada and moved to Bengaluru, driven by a desire for 'passive growth."
His decision wasn't based on career goals or strategy but on a quiet, radical pursuit of inner growth. Now, a video of Friesen reflecting on the unconventional move that he made in his early twenties is going viral.
The now-viral Instagram video starts with a question Friesen is used to hearing: why leave Canada for India when so many Indians are going the opposite way? His response was unexpected. 'To become tougher," he says, referring to internal change rather than exterior struggle.
'The answer is simple: growth. It's not the kind of growth, though, that you chase with effort and strategy. I call this passive growth. It's growth that happens just by changing your environment. And when I was in my early twenties, I wanted to become tougher. I wanted to become a more capable version of myself. I wanted to become more resilient. And I knew that I needed to be in a place where growth was just unavoidable. And so for me, that place was India," he said.
Watch the video here:
He recalls a critical incident from his youth when he was on a 40-day fast when he just drank water and breathed air. Friesen said, 'And I lost 18 kilos, but the thing that I gained was proof that I could do something that most people consider to be impossible. And that experience taught me that I can pretty much follow through on anything that I commit to, and yet, I didn't do anything, right, in the conventional sense. I just sat there and didn't eat anything."
He encourages others, especially young people, to place themselves in environments that demand change. 'So with all of that said, my encouragement to you, especially if you're young, if you're in your late teens, early twenties, is to find an environment or put yourself in an environment that shapes you without a lot of effort. A space where you grow passively just by default. Right? That's why I moved to India. The reason was that it just wasn't happening to me as quickly as I wanted it to in Canada," he said.
In another incident, a man from Delhi who migrated to Canada shared his regrets, describing the entire experience as misleading. On Reddit, he wrote, 'I regret moving to Canada. I see people in India dreaming of moving abroad, believing there are better opportunities. But let me give you a reality check. It is not what it seems."
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