English as used by non-native speakers (Pakistan)

 

Just heard an Afghan man being interviewed on Radio 4, talking about his hiding somewhere “on the backside” of some place.

I’ve more than once heard people from the Indian sub-continent using the word “backside” for “the back of / behind” somewhere.

The 37-day 1988 film shoot in China ended in Xinjiang, so we flew back to London from Islamabad.  We’d driven through the Pamir Mountains and down the Karakoram Highway into Pakistan, with the plan being to stay the first night in Gilgit.  A landslide somewhere along the route made the road impassable, so we had to backtrack and stay somewhere else for the night.

The next day, we started off once again at the crack of dawn.  At least the road was now being cleared, albeit very slowly.  We got in the long queue and waited.  

At one point during the long wait (five hours), the driver said to the director, “Memsahib, you know the water you were drinking at dinner last night?  It comes out of the backside of this mountain.”

In British English, “backside” = buttocks (/ bottom).

(Pakistan, 1988)