Girding Loins and Tightening belts

Ankit Kumar of BN College Patna wants to know whether ‘tightening one’s belt’ was the same as ‘kamar kasna’ in Hindi.


The phrase kamar kasna in Hindi refers to the action used by wrestlers and warriors when they got ready for a fight. They tightened the cloths around the lower parts of their body, partly to protect themselves from injury to the groin, and to ensure that loose clothing wouldn’t cause them bodily harm by getting entangled.

The English equivalent is to gird one’s loins [also girding up one’s loins]. Okay, boys, this is going to be a tough game, better gird your loins and get down to it!
This idiom is slightly out-of-date, but it does come in useful. Careful : don’t confuse loins with lions!

When we tighten our belts we are actually constricting our stomachs so that we can deal with being hungry. If we have been too extravagant and have over-spent money, we must tighten our belts in order to balance our budget. When we need to cut expenses, economise, adopt austerity measures, then, well, it’s time to tighten our belts.

Indian journalists often confuse kamar kasna with tightening their belts. If the army has to tighten its belt before a fight, it means that it’s facing problems with its supplies!