BELMAR BEACH,NEW JERSEY,USA

                                       

                                        

 

BELMAR BEACH,  NEW  JERSEY

 

Belmar happens to be one amongst some finest and well maintained beaches in New Jersey ( also known as Garden State ) ,State .Belmar is about 60 km by road from Manhattan or Jersey city. One can travel to Belmar by car, train or other modes of  public transport. On 19th June ,2022, we travelled to the beach by car .

 Belmar is a small borough ( administrative unit ) situated on the Atlantic shore. It falls in  the Monmouth County ( district ) of New Jersey ,State. The beach is open in summer season from April to September. Belmar beach town has a population of about 6000. A good number of houses face the beach  and are located on what is known as oceanfront.

 

 The beach is a fun and relaxing place for children and adults of any age. One can swim, surf, fish and sail in the sparkling Atlantic Ocean or sit back and relax with a good book. One can also shop at various stores selling attractive items for tourists of all tastes. One can go for continental food and drinks at numerous eateries and taverns. The beach has neat and clean restrooms or toilets  which are maintained by the  beach management officials . An entry fee of 10 dollars collected from every visitor is used for making improvements to the  facilities at the beach apart from beautifying the 1.4 mile beautiful Boardwalk ( more than 15 feet wide wooden walkway ) on the beach. The Boardwalk has been completely rebuilt with a composite material made of wood and plastic fibers that eliminates the possibility of getting a splinter. It’s a wonderful place to walk, jog or just relax and enjoy the ocean views. Every visitor is given a beach tag which is to be tied to the wrist to enter the beach through various avenues .One can also buy Belmar beach tags costing  $70.00 for the  full season ( April to September ) .

 The coast of Atlantic Ocean in New Jersey ,State is home to dolphins ( bottlenose variety ) . These dolphins can be more seen along Atlantic shore than the continental shelf . Accordingly, during daytime one can see dolphins in  groups moving along the Belmar beach .One can book a whale watching tour in Belmar, New Jersey to see whales and other marine animals in the blue waters of  the Atlantic Ocean. In this three hour tour, one can also get a stunning view of the New York city Skyline in the background.

 

Pets ,bicycles alcohol and glass containers are not allowed on the beach and the Boardwalk .Grilling and bonfires are not permitted on the beach. Actor Tom McGowan (born 1956), and artist Jay Alders ( b1973 ) are notable residents of Belmar.

 On our return from Belmar beach , we visited Red Bank town and had our evening dinner over there. The Lenape tribe of the indigenous people lived here for thousands of years before the British arrived in  the early 17^th  century and colonised it. Located on the Navesink river and just five miles from the Atlantic Ocean, the town is a busy stop for visitors to some beautiful beaches of New Jersey, State . Located midway between Belmar and Jersey city, this beautiful town is about 45 miles from Jersey city and approachable by train, Atlantic ferry and other modes of public transport. The town has more than 100 restaurants serving variety in food. Always crowded with tourists,  its permanent resident population is about 12000. Like Pahalgham in Kashmir , the business activity in this beautiful town comes to halt in winter season due to heavy snowfall and freezing winds from nearby Atlantic Ocean. 

                                                     ( Red Bank Town market )

                 ( Red Bank Town market )

                                                    ( Red Bank Town market )

                                                      ( Red Bank Town market )

                                                               ( Red Bank Town market )

                                                      ( Red Bank Town market )

                                                           ( Red Bank Town market )

                                                       ( Red Bank Town market )

 

                                                              ( Red Bank Town market )

                                                         ( Red Bank Town market )

                                                          ( Red Bank Town market )

                                                       ( Red Bank Town market )

Music and arts are hallmarks of this small town. You can see the ‘Count Basie Theater’ presenting live music and the ‘Two River Theater Company’ performing plays . There are some aesthetically inspiring art installations in the town . The town has book shops ,delicious ice cream shops ,trendy stores, coffee shops and a small brewery. The shops close at 8.30 pm as people over here start their dinner by 7 pm . I was told that many residents move to warm regions during winter season.

                                         

At Red Bank town ,looking at  many happy faces, I was reminded of some lines of Ali Sardar Jafri's Urdu  poem 'Me aur meri tanhaayi'.I quote:-

 

"Ye phool se chehre hain hanste huve guldaste

Koyi bhi nahin apnaa begaane hain sab raste 

Raahen hain tamaashaayi rahi bhi tamaashaayi   

Mein   aur meri tanhaayi..." 

.

( Avtar Mota) 

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART(HIMALAYAN) , MANHATTAN, NEW YORK..

                                          

RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART(HIMALAYAN) , MANHATTAN, NEW YORK..

Dedicated to the art and culture of the Himalayan region, the Rubin Museum was founded by the philanthropists and art collectors Donald Rubin and his wife Shelley Rubin . The couple donated all their collections of Himalayan art, and in 2004 opened the museum in a former Barney's department store downtown Manhattan. The couple also provided the museum with a $75m sustaining fund.The Rubins had started collecting art in the early 1980s and amassed a large and significant collection of Himalayan Art.

The Rubin Museum of Art is located on the 17th Street between 6th and 5th Avenue in Manhattan, New York. Visited the museum on 10th June 2022. We went by Path train across the Hudson river and got down at 14th Street. It is two minutes walk therefrom.The Museum has some of the finest collections of Buddhist art ; 

paintings, metal and clay sculptures and a meditation prayer room . The Museum is spread on six floors. The fourth floor has the dimly lit Tibetan Buddhist prayer room where paintings and murals are kept and Buddhists chant music is played to create a special aura.The healing practices space is located on the top floor . There is a Mandala Lab on 3rd floor .The fifth floor and 2nd floor are full of Himalayan art that covers Buddhist paintings ,sculptures and Bodhisattvas from Nepal, Kashmir , Tibet and Mangolia.I also saw a sculpture of Goddess Kashmira and Goddess Tara from Kashmir. The Kashmiri art practices have not only travelled to Tibet, Western Himalayas and Ladakh but more prominently to central Asia .Kashmiri sages, savants and artists carried these practices and Dharma and gave this world the Bodhi script. This gets fully confirmed after you visit The Rubin Museum. I saw Buddhist art of Mangolia alongwith some manuscript on display. Came to know deep Buddhist links of Kashmir and Mangolia.

In the healing room on top floor ,every visitor is free to write his opinion about how healing begins in the body ,mind and ultimately soul. Separate paper slips and pencils are kept for this purpose and the opinion so written is hung on a wall so that others can also read it. I noticed some wonderful opinions written by visitors.A visitor had written this:-

' Healing begins if you accept a person as he is '.

 

The museum allows photography without flash .

The restrooms of the museum have wheelchair accessibility. Apart from this, the museum  provides access to internet through its free WiFi.The CAFE SERAi  ,a restaurant on the  first floor serves coffee. tea, snacks and limited wine to visitors at reasonable rates. Self guided audio tours are also available on The Rubin , the museum 's app. The museum is closed for three days from Monday to Wednesday but remains open on all other days including Sunday. The museum timings are from 11 am to 5 pm except Friday,a day when it remains open till 10 pm.

( Avtar Mota) 

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

GOOD BYE PANDIT BHAJAN. SOPORI

                                                

Bhajan Sopori..(1948-2022)

I feel sad to know that Bhajan Ji , the well known Santoor  maestro is no more. Sometime back my friend , Jugal Kaul wanted to host him for his show' Sheetalnath Conversations' and inspite of being unwell, Bhajan Ji agreed to join but unfortunately, at the last moment he had to be hospitalized due to some medical emergency. 

Kashmir and anything connected with Kashmir remained close to his heart. I saw him last in Jammu when he joined 'Udhyamo Bhairava' festival held at Abhinav theatre .For that festival, he played his own created ' Raag Lalleshwari ' on Santoor . It was an amazing performance. He has created two more new Ragas (Patwanti and Nirmal Ranjani ) and made Hindustani classical music richer by three new Ragas that he added. 

Not many of us know that Bhajan Ji was a postgraduate in English apart from getting training in western classical music from Washington University.

As music in charge of Radio Kashmir Srinagar, Bhajan Ji revolutionised the Kashmiri music by adding Indian classical instrumentation while retaining the soul and sweetness of age-old style . These songs attained enormous popularity in the entire length and breadth of the Kashmir valley. Popularity also visited Shameema Dev, Kailash Mehra, Vijay Malla, Aarti Tikoo Kaul, Ghulam Nabi Sheikh and many more singers who sang these songs. Unfortunately , some of the music that he created for the posterity has been destroyed by vandals. That in no way belittles his contribution. Those who know music know his contribution.To many in the valley, he taught the 

amazing dimensions of the music that a Santoor could create. 

                                           

                        ( With Birju Maharaj )

Bhajan Ji belonged to a well known music Gharana from Kashmir; 'the Sopori ' . His grandfather and father, did establish themselves as musicians of name and fame. His father, Pandit Shambhoo Nath Sopori taught music to more than three generations in Kashmir and almost every singer or musician from Kashmir has learnt something from the Sopori Gharana. With more than four thousand songs that he set to tune ,Bhajan Ji was awarded Padamshri and the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi award. I am told that he even set tunes for some Arabic songs . He also established SaMaPa (Sopori Academy for Music and Performing Arts), which is actively involved in promoting Indian classical music.

He was humble, simple, honest to the core. Bhajan Ji was helpful to one and all.He helped many persons without ever talking about it. It was easy to meet him anytime at any place . Not only the doors of his house but his heart and mind were both open to any visitor . Exile and violence in his valley had disturbed him. He felt pained to see the plight of his community after being driven out from the land of their ancestors . He was always ready to put in his contribution in any shape and manner to see peace and Pandits returning to his valley 

Today Santoor is orphaned. Bhajan Ji hurried to join Shiv Kumar Sharma possibly to play music to the celestial connoisseurs up above in their Swarg-Dhaam .The world of music , his family and friends shall miss him. They will surely miss him for a long-time.

My heartfelt condolences to his family .  

Saara aalam goshe bar awaaz hai

Aaj kin haathon mein dil ka saaz hai

Chhup gaye vo saaz e hasti chhed kar

Ab to bus awaaz hi awaaz hai...

( Avtar Mota)

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.