Lifeline of Dhaka
Rising costs are wreaking havoc around the whole country, syndicates are benefitting the most, while the very common "mango people" suffer in the middle with their average income and salaries. We do live in a third world country, but nowadays the daily and much necessary costs over here are nothing less compared to any of the first world countries.
I remember when a 2 to 3 kilometer rickshaw ride used to cost 15 to 20 taka, I'm talking about the early 2000s. Back then taking a rickshaw from my house to my school would cost nothing more than 20 taka. Even back in 2014/15 it was about 30 taka maximum. All of a sudden though, the costs have doubled, and it will now cost you at least 70 taka for the same exact route.
Keeping the costs aside, back then it only used to take 15 minutes or so to cover 2 to 3 kilometers on a rickshaw. Now with all the cars, bikes, pedestrians, and unnecessary detours, it will at least take you 25 to 30 minutes to cover the same route and distance lol.
My income isn't doubling, but I'll still comply in paying what I have to, what I won't comply with and can't understand is all this unnecessary traffic, for which the city dwellers have to give up their precious, and very limited time.
Once upon a time rickshaws used to be affordable, for the poor and the rich, it was and somehow still is the lifeline of this city.
Sometimes rickshaws turn out to be a faster means of transport, compared to buses, and even cars.
You could make your way through the narrowest streets, saving some time and money. But nowadays even a rickshaw ride costs almost as much as an auto rickshaw or taxi, nor do they save much time, thanks to the rapidly growing number of private cars and bikes around every damn street.
Of course, the number of rickshaws have increased too, but these people are doing it in hopes of putting some food on their table.
Whereas most of the private car users and bikers in the city just need an excuse to go on a long drive or an impulsive shopping spree whenever they can, creating unnecessary traffic. They really should get some "homely hobbies", stay at home a bit more, save some gas. They should also know that absolutely no one is interested in seeing their reconditioned shit mobiles on these congested streets, not every DAMN day at least.
Don't get me wrong now, I'm not against private car owners or bikers, I'm just against inefficiency. I've had my fair share of long drives and unnecessary city explorations with my car too, but that stopped when I saw that having a car as a daily driver in this city is totally inefficient.
That is why after 2016 I stopped driving, the same for my family members too. A bus ride would cost much less and would take you the same amount of time to travel from A to B, you wouldn't even have to worry about the lack of parking spots. A rickshaw to cover 4 to 5 kilometers was very much favorable and wouldn't cost much either, even though it's a whole different scenario now.
Nowadays, a bicycle or walking seems like the best option, and if you can, then try and set up your life and lifestyle within a 2 to 5 kilometer radius, I'm surely working on that. Even though our office is closed and downsized heavily, we are somehow operating from home these days. Office visits are only needed for meetings and when there's a need to pull some files.
For now if you wanna survive here, then you better start setting up your life and lifestyle in and around your home, or you'll end up wasting half of your day and life pushing traffic. That's how I've seen my father and uncles spend their day, even though the traffic wasn't as bad back then, they'd still have to push 2 to 3 hours of traffic daily, covering at least 20 kilometers up and down, 6 fucking days a week.
That's the reason why I barely got to see my father at home in my younger days, he worked really hard, worked 6 days a week. Even though he could take his Saturdays off, he never did. Till his 60s he worked his ass off. His routine back then would be to leave at 7AM, drop me off at school, head towards his office which was exactly 25 kilometers up and down. He would come back home at around 8/9PM, after pushing countless hours of traffic daily.
The other day I saw a post on social media, a was man trying to get home from his office, the distance was just 4 kilometers, but it took him 2 hours to cover that distance haha. WOW! He was fasting all day, and couldn't even properly break his fast, he had to wait 2 extra hours. He was all suited and booted, so he couldn't walk either, and surely he was tired after long day of work while fasting, so I can't blame him, but who should we blame though?
I surely can't live my life like that, I won't live my life like that. Maybe I'm not much of a handworker compared to my old man or anyone of his age, maybe I'm a coward, or maybe I just don't wanna waste my time behind a broken system and a flawed city structure?
