BACKSIDE!!? Ahem…

by Sharmila Gautama

My aunt is a social butterfly. She mingles with ‘high society’ and usually shares some funny anecdotes that give us a tummy ache because of laughing so much.

Once she came back from a kitty party with this story. Her friend had served some yummy salad and when my aunt asked her from where she had picked up the fresh lettuce, her friend answered, ‘it grows in my backside!’ My aunt lost her appetite!

‘Backside’, in India, is a versatile word. It is used to mean behind, rear, back, the rear seat in the car, the pillion seat on a bike, a backyard and anything that is not in front.

How does a trainer correct this in a class without sounding gross? I tell my blissfully unaware participants that ‘backside’ is what they are sitting on and to mean anything else they better say the correct word.
If you are one of those happy people who haven’t yet been corrected, please read this. If you know someone who needs to know this, please share this post.

Ahem!

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