Traffic strikes awe in Oprah
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: 22/01/2012

All the hype over the absence of writer Salman Rushdie went for a toss today when American talk show host Oprah Winfrey made an appearance on the third day of the Jaipur Literature festival

The audience laughed and cheered as she talked about love life and everything in between including the feeling of being left "awestruck" by traffic manners in India

ldquoAre the red lights here just for your entertainment?rdquo she asked the 5000strong audience at Jaipur's Diggi Palace

She went on to add a word of caution to Indiarsquos unruly drivers ldquoDo not text and drive."

As television journalist Barkha Dutt posed questions to her Winfrey mdash dressed in an ochre green and offwhite salwar kurta with a pink stole mdash kept the audience enthralled with her comments on what she called the "paradox" of India

How can people who take care of their parents and grandparents leave their widows in Vrindavan she wondered

ldquoI couldnrsquot understand this paradox that a country where families who have so much love for their elders could discard their women just because they did not have husbandsrdquo she said

Winfrey had visited a slum and an ashram for widows in Vrindavan soon after partying with the bold and the beautiful in Mumbai She got a glimpse of the two extremes of India she said but would rather portray the country as a whole than ldquojust the filthrdquo

ldquoIt was important to go to slums but not necessary to show the worst of the worst what I wanted to portray is that there is poverty but there is still a sense of hoperdquo she said

The India visit was long overdue Winfrey said after she was done with her mission to get Barack Obama to the White House she had put up a picture of a woman riding a camel on her pinboard ldquoCome to Indiardquo it said

ldquoAnd it took me three years to fulfil this visionrdquo she told the cheering crowd at the festival being touted as one of the five best literary events in the world

The buzz of her visit had kept the pink city on its toes with people queuing up right up to the road leading to the venue since the morning The day closed with 20000 people visiting the event

Winfrey made an instant connect with the audience when she declared ldquopeople donrsquot talk religion they live it hererdquo

When Dutt asked her why she hadnrsquot married pat came the reply ldquoItrsquos a good question for the women of India The culture of my country allows me to have a choice I really am my own womanrdquo

Asked if she wanted a Taj Mahal to be dedicated to her she said ldquoMy life is a Taj Mahalrdquo

After witnessing firsthand the ldquochaos and calmrdquo of India Winfrey said she felt at peace in the country

And she will be back she promised ldquoI am yet to figure out a method to the madness hererdquo she said as the audience tried capturing her on camera before the hourlong session began.