Some of my best learning's have come out of watching the
Oprah Show. However, most of it would be serendipitously, for the majority of
Oprah’s shows didn’t interest me – from makeovers, the book reading club, some
odd American celebrity that I didn’t know anything about, and then the episodes
which I hated the most – Oprah’s giveaway programs where you just simply hated
everyone lucky enough to be in that audience!.
Clearly it was mostly targeted mainly/ and only to Americans.
But for sure if there is one issue where Oprah can connect
easily with the vast majority of her couch potatoes is on the issue of weight
loss, and that was one which I loved over the years. Her advice has changed over the years as new
discoveries would come about – and in the meantime, however, the battle of the
bulge continues for me.
Anyone who has been a little familiar and ‘open’ to Oprah
would have seen the evolution of her ideas since her show began. Initially a
great deal was sensational discussing everyday newsworthy topics (dating,
appearance, celebrities etc.). This then moved and evolved to helping viewers’
lives better. One of the first shows which I absolutely loved and succeeded in
earmarking this a show to watch out for – was one about kidnapping. An expert helped parents in watching out for
trouble, as well as what to do in these cases, how to train your kids etc.
And around the same time Oprah started to bring in spiritual
leaders, and I think that really transformed her show. Earlier a lot of this
great talent, some exceptionally gifted minds and souls would be on the book
circuit possibly talking to morning shows or news channels or doing a book
signing tour. They would have like a
small segment of around 4 to 5 minutes and little could they do to bring the
essence of their learning's out. Oprah
however changed this.
Not only would Oprah hunt out this spiritual guru, but
devote an entire, sometimes a series of episodes to the topic. The real achievement would be when Oprah
would make this easily digestible ‘soul
food’ (philosophy and spiritual topics are the toughest subjects). A lot of her guru guests would be a little
taken aback by this black girl who seemed so excited about their book, and
seemed to indulge her. But a few minutes into the discussion you could see the
guru wake up as s/he could figure out Oprah knew what she was talking about,
and what this would spark off some of the liveliest discussions. This would result in a lot of ‘light bulb’
A-HA moments when you stumbled upon some great insights and connect you.
Similarly I think the achievement of Oprah really was in
discovering, highlighting and providing a platform through her show for a lot
of great talents. This could be Dr. Oz or Suze Orman or Nate Berkuss, Dr. Phil
and now Dr. Deepak Chopra
I never enjoyed easy access to the Oprah show as my local
stations rarely broadcast her shows, plus this was mostly daytime. When I started watching this with some
regularity when I was on a break, it would surprise me how even the other shows
would be so insightful. For e.g. some celebrity discussions would give you a
new insight on how to cope with problems, or how to raise children etc.
A significant achievement also was how she unified the
people who had suffered in life and helped them cope with their difficulties
much better. This was not limited to
just obesity. One of her best programs was where she interviewed a Doctor who
had lost her children when her estranged deranged husband entered her home and
shot all the children and then himself.
The Doctor was explaining in a plain voice what helped her cope with the
tragedy and how she had moved on. Seems
simple? (well, it was moving but not earth-shatteringly so). So when Oprah did a follow up show after a
few months – where at least five different persons came out to thank this
doctor for saving their lives. Most of
these were planning to end their lives but when they watched this show it
totally inspired them – if the doctor could cope with this loss and move on,
there was hope for all of us. I
remember seeing this episode too and realising how different things that the
doctor had mentioned had connected with me at different levels. By sharing her grief and her story she had
united a lot of us who were going through with our difficulties and showed
there was hope.
As she entered the last year of the show, she had launched a
‘YOUR BEST LIFE’ series where she did a weekly panel discussion to help viewers
plan the year ahead. Every week different topics from weight (of course!) and
health to finance to sex and spirituality were discussed. Each involving the experts (Dr. Oz, Suze
Orman etc.). This was when the global
recession was at its depth and there were a lot of Americans homeless, jobless
and restless. I think her programs
really made some difference in helping folks at least bring some sense to the
troubled world. All her experience and
learnings across the last two decades of doing the show seemed to come out best
in these discussions. I personally felt
she was the best in terms of connecting with and helping viewers – far better
than the other spiritual leaders she had got across in the panel. During troubled times I found her advice more
real, far-reaching and providing some resolution to our troubled minds. (in
fact, surprisingly Suze Orman’s programs in fact were among the most revealing
in terms of spirituality and making life-choices on what really mattered to
us.)
There are a lot of achievements and one of her biggest to me
was how she bridged the gap between the races.
I think Mandela and she are great examples of forgiveness and
conciliation and that is very, very inspiring.
It was also disheartening and heartbreaking to learn she was
to end her show after 25 years. (and
when the announcement came, I did hope to be part of the audience of at least
one show, but just couldn’t make it).
But luckily for us Oprah continues to do her special
show. She carried out one in India which
mostly was lacklustre except for one outstanding discussion with Deepak Chopra
(It seemed ironical that both flew down thousands of miles to a fort in
Rajasthan to have that one hour discussion).
That discussion was one of the best ones with lots of goose-bump moments
and some that simply sucker-punched you with fabulous insights.
I could write and discuss about Oprah forever, and it feels
very frustrating that however much you could write would be inadequate to
describe the life force that Oprah has been in helping us be a better person
and lead a better life.
So this ‘gratitude diary’ is in fact a small tribute to
Oprah who encouraged all of us to start writing gratitude diaries. And gratitude also to her first mentor who
enabled this little African-american girl to join a radio station giving her
first break in media, there was no stopping her after that – for that sir, we are
forever grateful.
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