Eking out a living with discounted parking cards

Dubai: As the sun sinks steadily behind the maze of concrete buildings in Karama, Narendra Yadav, a Nepalese watchman, hurriedly makes his way towards one of the paid parking meters.

There he takes out three parking cards from his wallet. He lingers around, his eyes fixed on those approaching the meter with a dirham to purchase a parking ticket.

As they are about to put the dirham coin into the slot, Yadav says with a polite smile: "If you give me the coin, I will get you the ticket with my parking card."

Gulf News met Yadav one evening and discovered that he was not alone in this small profit-making business. "There are a lot of other watchmen in the area who do what I do in the evening. We all have our parking meters and areas marked," he said.

"The cost of living has soared [so much] that people like me are looking for other avenues to earn that little extra," he said. Yadav purchases the parking cards from gas stations.

"There is a discount. For example, I get a Dh100 parking card for Dh85. A Dh30 card is sold for Dh25 and a Dh50 card comes for Dh42.50. If I buy 100 cards, each worth Dh100 - I only have to pay Dh75 per card. But I don't have enough money to buy 100 parking cards. Each day I finish off two to three parking cards in a couple of hours. The profit takes care of my food and grocery costs."

As to how he manages to go unnoticed by inspectors, Yadav said: "So far they have not stopped me. I am not charging anything extra."