Trying to Glimpse Oprah in Jaipur, India

JANUARY 22, 2012, 2:46 PM

Oprah Winfrey, right, with news anchor Barkha Dutt, left, during a session at the Jaipur Literature Festival, Jaipur, Jan. 22.

I’ve been expecting talk show queen Oprah Winfrey to land up in India for almost three years, ever since she mentioned the words “Taj Mahal” in connection with her new show, “Oprah’s Next Chapter.”

Judging by the events of Sunday morning at the Jaipur Literature Festival, it was a pretty eagerly awaited visit. By 11 a.m., the road leading to the Diggi Palace hotel, where Oprah was scheduled to speak 15 minutes later was sealed off, with a crowd pleading to get in. Half a kilometer down, there was another barricade. The front lawns, where she was to speak, had also been sealed off and people stood at every possible spot around the venue, with masses at the closed entry points. Soon, it was clear Oprah was finally on the stage, because of the extremely loud cheers and clapping.

Perhaps I could write a very short post, I thought. “Oprah came; I couldn’t get in.” Hmm, maybe not. I considered my options.

Associated Press

Oprah Winfrey dressed in a traditional Indian sari in Jaipur, Jan. 20.

A hefty gentleman who seemed to be in some position of authority and to have an eye on me, kept trying to persuade me to cease and desist from entering the venue and go watch it on television instead. I decided I was not above hopping a fence when work obligations called for it, especially since the sound was inaudible from outside. Just as I found a bit of wall where a quick visual forensic examination of the broken flowerpots on the other side revealed others had probably found their path to Oprah this way, the man next to me turned around – it was Hefty. “What are you doing?” he barked. “Er nothing, just standing here, listening,” I said meekly.

Moments later, he allowed a blond woman to jump over, telling the crowd she had a “family emergency.”

The organizers then suddenly opened the doors to allow those who had got their glimpse of Oprah and were done to leave, and let others in. I got my first look at Oprah, clad in a mustard kurta and pink chunni — on the Blackberry of a young girl who had photographed her on the large TV screens on either side of the lawn, and who claimed that Oprah was the only “good personality” on the entire festival schedule. Picture taken, she was trying to leave. Another young woman was trying to get in, but in the heaving crowd, had lost a shoe.

I made my way to a slightly emptier side of the lawn, and found the sound was still muffled, largely by the chatter of the audience. Many were engaged in cellphone conversations telling their friends outside the venue that they were inside the venue.

From the stage I heard these phrases waft, “To allow…woman of color…personal space…fantastic.”

Yes, it was Oprah.

Eventually I squeezed over to the other side of the lawn, where the terrace was relatively empty and the sound was better, people having completed their triumphant phone calls. A security officer was standing by two empty chairs and I sidled up to him. “Free?” I asked and optimistically though he said yes, but as I made to sit down he pulled the chair out from under me.

“My commanding officer is sitting here,” he said. Tut-tutting from a nearby woman persuaded him to relent.

So, what did Oprah think of India? Pretty much what you’d expect.

“India is a paradox,” she said, describing her trip as “the greatest life experience I’ve ever had.”

“You feel like you’re in the center of something greater and bigger than yourself,” she said, to applause. “Your humanity is being expanded in a way you just don’t feel or I haven’t felt in other places.”

She also made the observations that there were “a lot of Indians in India” and “My life is in the Taj Mahal.” Or perhaps she said “wife.” Or “knife.”

She told the audience that unlike the women of India, she was not the “marrying kind.”

“That would be very hard for me if someone were to arrange a marriage for me, although I think I’m too old,” she said. “Don’t you pass a point where nobody’s arranging anything for you?”

Much of the conversation with NDTV journalist Barkha Dutt centered around her childhood, growing up in poverty, her television show, and the school she set up in South Africa.

She told the audience she does intend to come back to India again, after some news reports suggested she had said this was “my first visit here and my last visit too” because of scuffles between her bodyguards and the crowd in Vrindavan.

Towards the end, she offered a little driving advice.

“You cannot text and drive in India when the people don’t obey the red lights,” she said. “Oh my gosh, it’s insane.”