A funny video of a guy wearing a space suit went viral, revealing a lot about road conditions in India
The video starts off with a man in space suit attire, making his way through what it seems like to be the moon.
He’s walking steadily across moon craters in a typical ‘slow motion’ fashion towards an unseen, maybe a bit distant goal.
However, when the viewers are almost convinced they are witnessing some mind-blowing, space footage from NASA, the camera angle suddenly changes and reveals this is actually all happening on Earth- in Bengaluru, India to be exact.
Bengaluru, we have a problem…
But why did it go viral?
Well, mainly because of two key circumstances.
Firstly, because the man behind the video idea is Badal Nanjundaswamy, a very popular Indian street artist who is known for his ‘creative initiatives’ to urge the government to improve the looks and quality of Indian roads.
And secondly, yes, the shock factor of the terrible road conditions in India which are in desperate need of attention. As you can imagine, the abovementioned ‘moon craters’ are actually potholes in the roads. However, if they managed to trick you into believing the actor in the video is indeed in outer space, then you would understand why it is such a big issue for local residents.
Filmed on August 31st on Tunganagar Main Road, the ‘astronaut’ video displays a form of protest, seeking to draw the attention of the BBMP (the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) which is the administrative body ‘responsible for civic amenities and some infrastructural assets of the Greater Bangalore metropolitan area’.
Residents of the area report that they have continually urged the local government to resolve the issue of ‘tough to navigate’ roads. Unfortunately, their attempts have failed to achieve anything of substance for the past two years. Moreover, the BBMP has also been accused of being reluctant to repair broken street lights, leaving a large number of roads to be a safety hazard.
Therefore, as a consequence of the aforementioned issues, Nanjundaswamy, his team and local residents managed to ‘enhance’ the potholes, making them more similar to the surface of the moon.
Hence, the idea of the artistic video is to put a strong emphasis on this dangerous infrastructure-related issue. This is, in fact, one of the many initiatives done by Nanjundaswamy in recent times.
All of his artworks are based on his attempts to garner government attention and action towards to improvement of the roads in Bengaluru, India.
And it seems it has worked out for the better.
As per a recent Facebook post from Nanjundaswamy himself, it is evidenced that governmental action in the streets of Bengaluru has indeed started to take place.
