Drivers Code

Sakawpzarvar is not the Mizo name of an animal, despite it starting with Sa. Nor has a Fun Bell got anything to do with either fun or bells.

These are just things you know if you’re a Mizo who drives. It’s a weird thing but grounds of commonality are invariably accompanied by a shared language. Language is a very deliberate act. You learn it. Sometimes you unwittingly develop a dialect or specific jargon but it is definitely learned.

I didn’t learn driving in a driving school so I don’t know how much they teach you as far as rougher driving is concerned – your off-roads and slippery, mud-caked roads, for example. But I can offer you this 3-part advice from senior drivers. One: don’t panic. It is very solid advice. The second bit is whatever you do, do not apply your brakes or you will skid. Three: don’t fight the mud, try to regain control of your wheels but respect it because the steel and rubber will win. Be gentle but firm. Like they tell you when you learn D-Key in guitar!

If you drive in Mizoram, sometimes you blink your headlights to tell someone you’re continuing to drive on so please wait. If someone doesn’t understand this or ignores it, you have the right to be PO’d and people will also blame the other guy.

If you’re a woman who drives and someone exclaims: wow the driver dude is a girl, you cannot be offended. Indeed, being a woman driver is a double-edged sword; sometimes people let you off the hook because they assume as a girl, you can’t be that good a driver. So on the one hand you avoid a lot of fights, accusations and sometimes challans, but at a cost. Is it worth it? My wallet says yes; my pride sometimes doesn’t agree.

When you take turns or about to merge into traffic, you are supposed to indicate your intended direction using your blinkers. It is very simple. If you want to turn right, you blink right. But it is common practise for a lot of drivers to blink to indicate the side for YOU to pass them. This is potentially confusing but it is just something you accept! Very weird. I’m thinking it might have been learned from truckers with bigger vehicles who can’t always depend on lights on the sides of the vehicles. Of course, some trucks have a million plus one tiny lights on them so depending on a tiny blinking light may not be second nature to them. And we all just go along with it even though we may drive a Maruti 800 or a scooter. Drivers code!

Speaking of, if you’re driving downhill and you meet someone driving uphill, it is common courtesy for the one driving downhill to have waited a bit for the one uphill to pass. Meanwhile, when the road is tiny and it is imperative that someone needs to reverse, it is also decency for the one driving uphill to move back downhill.

Again, these are things you just know if you drive in Mizoram. Like how you know to pump the accelerator if someone tells you to “rez” it. I still don’t know what the OG word for this is. At least I know shock absorbers and fan belts. It might be something to do with the Exkleitor, I don’t know for sure.

The accelerator, to the uninitiated. But of course.