BELT Dear friends Today my posting is about belt. I have referred the oxford dictionary.

It has given three meanings. All of them has been detailed in an interesting manner in this posting. Sincerely Gopala Krishnan 24-2-2011. 1. Waist belt. The first meaning given for belt is a strip of material worn around the waist to support the cloth or carry weapons. I started wearing belt with ready made satin pants I purchased in 64's to hold it in position. These ready made pants on satin had belt in satin itself provided along with. Before that I had worn the grey colour cotton belt supplied with NCC Uniform. Later when I started stitching cotton pants I purchased belt made of leather or sponge leather (processed leather) I have never seen my father wearing belt. For him well tied dhothi itself was OK. The leather belt used to be of either black or brown in colour. These belts worn with pants had almost uniform width of about ". 1a. Waist belt of Muslims There was a provision shop at my native run by one Musthappa. When I know he would have been about 45. He used to wear a wider belt green in colour with some pockets over the Lunki. Musthappa was well built and with his beard appeared some what rough but he used to talk soft to children. Immediately on seeing me he used to ask- "Entha kunjae vendathu?" (What you child require?) He knew my father well and occasionally we used to purchase things from his shop mostly on loan. Muslims used to wear belt and in the pockets they used to keep miscellaneous things like money, small pen knife, papers for reference etc. These types of belts are now used by many during Sabarimala pilgrimage since felt convenient to keep many things. 1b. Uthareeyam I have seen our elders with slightly more belly used to tie uthareeyam firmly over the veshti as a sort of bent. This I could specially see when they do cooking for sadya. Wearing belt over the dhothi was not common on those days. Now most wear belt over dhothi in the waist especially when it is worn as pancha kachham during functions and with an overlap of cloth cover it. This include me. During sraadha, I used to wear dhothi in ordinary manner, but to hold it, I used to wear the belt and cover it with dhothi end. 1c. Children belt Whether purpose is there or not children belt started appear later. This used to be in plastic also in addition and with different colours. 1d. Belt holes

The belt has in general a buckle at one end and a few holes in the other end. Once it was particular to wear belt of exact size. Later people start to wear belt of any sizes. The tying was done by inserting the buckle pin through the hole and then inserting the belt end through buckle. The size and appearance of buckle was important and it was ensured the buckle was exactly in middle. 1e. Insertion Mostly while the shirt is inserted in side pant, the belt passed through loops in the pant gave an excellent appearance. While shirt is inserted, if the belt misses to pass through a loop, it could give a very bad appearance. Hence double check is made that belt is passed through all the pant loops. Now a day the missing is common with old age people and not much seen to. 1f. Belt adjustment The holes in the end is for adjusting belt tightness. If the belt is made tight after morning break fast, by afternoon in most it will become loose. During meals it is preferable to keep the belt slightly loose, so that after meals it is OK. The belt is very convenient to hold the pant especially with ready made now commonly worn by most. The belt has only one replacement another belt when worn out and it may break at any hole at any time. 1g. Belt cost. While the platform belts cost from Rs 75-00, belt in bata shops may cost 600-700. In belt shops a good belt may cost about Rs 175-200. 1h Goorkha and police belt The goorkhas used to keep the knife and police their revolver in an attachment to the belt. Though ladies wear pants I have not seen belt along with so far. 2. The mechanical belt The second meaning given for belt is that it is a continuous band in machinery that transforms motion from one wheel to other. These belts are very thicker and made of cotton, fibre and rubber together or reinforced rubber. 2a. Flour mill and Hydro projects. Mostly we can see the cotton reinforcement in these rubber belts. While one machine is hulling, another will be extracting oil and a third will be grinding our masala. All these machines have shafts and wheels and they are interconnected through belt. The advantage is saving a lot of power. The excess power from one machine is transferred to other. When voltage is less we can see grind mill people removing belts. Hydro projects uses the belts in motor for production of current itself. 2b. Kitchen application In the kitchen, the wet grinder make use of a belt to transfer the motion from motor to grinder. Very often when the belt become loose the grinder get heated since rotating for much more time.

It is always better to inform the mechanic to come with a belt. He will replace in one minute and solve the problem when dhow is hot on using the grinder. Mixies too use belt to transfer the motion. Our VCRs employ belt for mechanical movements. 3. Belted area. The third is a belted encircling area. Here the belting is identified with a colour normally read. Belt need not be there. It can be any strip of material. When work is done on the high way a belt is made with red polythene fibre belt. This give the caution. In factories where complicated works are done, the areas are earmarked with red striped belt. It is dangerous to go further more. 4. Emergency use A leather belt can be used to blow opponents in case of emergency 5. My broken belt I conclude this posting with remark of my broken belt. My wife used to open the loft covers using my lengthy belt putting through the door handle. In spite of my warning about the cost of belt, the action still continued. One fine day the belt broke due to pulling with extra strength to open the door. Fortunately it broke in to one lengthier piece and one smaller. The broken belt is now readily available to open the loft cover for my wife though she complain the length is not sufficient to pull the handle!!!.