Before coming back to his homeland, after living for ten long years in the USA, Parvez never believed what he was told regarding the parking hazards of Dhaka City. "There must be designated car parking at necessary areas if not everywhere," he always argued.

But he realised he was wrong when his car was at Satmasjid Road among some other vehicles vying for a place to park. It was a multistoried shopping mall at Satmasjid road that he opted to drop by. The small parking lot was already full leaving a large number of cars scattered at different angles on the road. Half the road in front of the mall was occupied by them.

He was desperate to buy a birthday gift for his little daughter. He wondered if he could leave his car in the middle of road and sprint to nearest shop. But his car may be towed away by the traffic authority for not parking in a designated car park. Then again he remembered the wise words of his fellows---- "Never leave your car unattended or else you will be left with only the four wheels when you return."

Parvez's plight is the most familiar one for the city dwellers. For a motorist, driving on road number two of Dhanmondi to Rifle Square, and then especially on Satmasjid road has turned into a nightmare. Either a shopping complex or a clinic has propped up a few meters apart.

Each of these commercial organisations claims they have proper parking places enough for number of customers visiting. However, in reality those parking places can house only four or five cars. Moreover, some of the shopping malls have turned the parking place into playgrounds for kids where customers leave their children while shopping.

Inconvenience of a motorist does not end with parking plight. In most of the places on these roads, commercials buildings have been erected in front of U-turn points. The traffic authority was left with no other choice but to closing the points since scattered cars in front of commercials building and vehicles trying to take a U-turn clogged the entire length of the road. The result is, a motorist needs to drive a good stretch of road to take a U-turn leading to more loss of time and, of course, fuel.

People have accepted the trouble on roads as inevitable for them. They became accustomed to the common combat for parking space. Parvez followed their strategy and finally after an hour of agonised waiting and continuous honking, he managed to park the car on the slope in front of the shopping complex and rush inside.