Ms. Winfrey's Desi Yatra

A few years ago, Shabana Azmi had stated in one of her interviews that Americans are ignorant. After watching Oprah’s Next Chapter: India on TLC, I couldn’t have agreed more with Azmi’s statement. For them, India still remains the land of snake charmers. Look at any Hollywood movie on India – right from City Of Joy to Slumdog Millionaire, they just don’t seem to get past the slums here.

Ms. Winfrey was no exception. At the very beginning of the episode, she went to one of Mumbai’s slums with Gregory David Roberts (yeah, the Shantaram guy). There she met a family of five who lived in a hundred square feet area and asked them idiotic questions like how can five of them live in such a small, dingy place, if they were ‘happy and satisfied’, which made the family’s patriarch shed a few tears. She was astonished to see that there was no shower in the bathroom and even more, on learning how their clothes fit into one small shelf. I noticed a mammoth LCD TV in the house, which I suppose Ms. Winfrey chose to ignore so as not to tamper with the emotional quotient of the show.

Next up, she visited a (rich) joint family (where she made a complete fool of herself). She remarked how Indian women have to live with their mother-in-law and their extended families all their life. And the ultimate line came when she was served food (in a silver thali) – “I hear some people in India STILL eat with their hands”. (Ahem. Okay. So how do they eat pizzas, tacos, and nachos in your country Ms. Winfrey?)

In the next episode, Ms.Winfrey plans on visiting the Taj Mahal. How typical for a foreigner (Or even Indians. C’mon! What’s the big deal with that place? Its just an oversized white tomb. Khaiir, chodo). And as much as I want not to see it, I know I’ll end up watching it (!) in the hope that she would probably have to say something more sensible this time.