pillion

Salman Rushdieの "Midnight's Children" から最後の引用です。

When Shiva grasped Parvati by the wrist, I was with Picture Singh at an emergency conference of the city's many red cells, discussing the ins and outs of the national railway strike; when Parvati, without demurring, took her place on the pillion of a hero's Honda, I was busily denouncing the government's arrests of union leaders.

"pillion" の意味を調べます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: A seat for a passenger behind a motorcyclist.: Motorcyclists and pillion passengers must wear helmets at all times and motorists must wear safety belts.

・Collins Dictionary: If someone rides pillion on a motorcycle or bicycle, they sit behind the person who is controlling it.: She rode pillion on her son's motorbike.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: a seat or place behind the person riding a motorcycle where a passenger can sit: Perched precariously on the pillion, her arms around his waist, she giggled with delight

語源が気になり色々と調べるとWikipediaに次の説明がありました。
A pillion is a secondary pad, cushion, or seat behind the main seat or saddle on a horse, motorcycle, bicycle or moped. A passenger in this seat is said to "ride pillion". The word is derived from the Scottish Gaelic for "little rug", pillean, from the Latin pellis, "animal skin". One or more pelts often were used as a secondary seat on horseback; the usage has carried over to motorcycles.