Walking 10,000 steps sounds simple enough, until the pavement itself starts throwing obstacles your way. Soha Ali Khan’s latest Instagram video takes a humorous but pointed look at what trying to complete that daily walk can actually feel like on Mumbai’s streets.
Soha Ali Khan takes on 10,000 step challenge
On September 10, Soha shared a video documenting her attempt to get her daily steps in around her residential area. She kicked things off with a straightforward goal, saying, “Today, I am going to get my 10k steps in.”
She even began on an upbeat note, joking about Mumbai’s “nice, pollution-free air” and suggesting that stepping outside for a walk was a great idea.
The optimism, however, did not last very long. As Soha continued walking, the footpath presented one hurdle after another. She first spotted dog poop in her path and chose to walk around it. Soon after came an open drain, complete with a pipe releasing water into it. Looking at the obstruction, she remarked sarcastically, “Someone seems to have left this open.”
The walk continued with Soha encountering a man sleeping on the footpath. Instead of stopping, she joked, “Okay, can negotiate around this too…” Then came what she described as a ‘murder of crows’, adding another unexpected interruption to her route.
Her journey eventually featured even more roadblocks, including a crane, construction material left along the road and a group of men emptying cartons filled with wires directly onto the footpath meant for pedestrians.
By the end, the 10K-step mission appeared to have met its match. Soha captioned the video, “I really try to get my 10k steps every day, but after 2,467 obstacles, I give up 🤦🏻♀️ #willtryagaintomorrow.”
India's walkability problem
While Soha’s video uses humour to make its point, the larger issue of pedestrian infrastructure is not unique to Mumbai. A 2011 study examining walkability in six Indian cities found significant problems with pedestrian infrastructure, describing conditions as “poor and unsafe.”
The Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia) report assessed pedestrian infrastructure in Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Indore, Pune, Rajkot and Surat, highlighting broader shortcomings in urban planning.
The six cities recorded a median walkability score of 47 out of 100. Pune ranked highest among them at 54, but that figure still fell well below Hong Kong’s score of 70.
