Dhaka traffic has literally stolen years of my life

I calculated it once. I spend an average of 3 hours a day in traffic in Dhaka. That is 90 hours a month. Over 10 years of working life, that is 10,800 hours — 450 full days — just sitting in a CNG or bus going nowhere. I am not even angry anymore. I am just tired. Tired of watching my life pass by through a dusty window on Mirpur Road. The worst part is not the time. It is the mental exhaustion. You arrive at work already drained. You come home too tired to talk to your family. The traffic does not just steal your hours — it steals your energy, your patience, your mood. I have colleagues in Chittagong who laugh at us Dhaka people. They say we have forgotten what it feels like to arrive somewhere relaxed. They are right. I do not know what the solution is. Metro rail helps a little. But until we fix the fundamental chaos of this city — the random parking, the footpaths turned into markets, the buses with no schedule — nothing will really change. Does anyone else feel like Dhaka is slowly consuming you?