The story of the man who inspired this foundation, and the family carrying his legacy forward.
Odisha Roots is a nonprofit cultural movement devoted to preserving, promoting, and passing Odia heritage to future generations through food, festivals, language, storytelling, recognition, education, and global community connection.
Shree Chakradhara Mallik Foundation for Odia Culture, publicly known as Odisha Roots, is a nonprofit cultural organization created with one clear purpose: to preserve, promote, and pass Odia culture to future generations in the United States and across the global Odia diaspora.
Odisha Roots is built on the belief that culture survives only when it is practiced, celebrated, taught, and shared. Our work is dedicated to keeping Odia identity alive through food, festivals, language, literature, music, art, storytelling, community recognition, youth engagement, and global cultural connection.
While our Pitha Competition is one of our flagship initiatives, Odisha Roots is not limited to one event. It is a long-term cultural platform created to honor the people, traditions, and everyday practices that keep Odisha alive outside Odisha.
Placeholder portrait of
Shree Chakradhara Mallik
Shree Chakradhara Mallik built a distinguished career in public service in Odisha, rising to serve as Joint Director of the Industries Department of the Government of Odisha. He was an alumnus of Ravenshaw College in Cuttack — one of the oldest and most respected institutions of higher learning in the state — where the foundations of his discipline, intellect, and civic pride were laid.
Throughout his life, he carried an unwavering devotion to Odia identity. Colleagues remembered him as a meticulous, principled administrator. His family remembers him as a man who never let years away from home dim his love for the language, festivals, and flavors of Odisha — the man who insisted no family gathering was complete without a proper spread of pithas, and who told his grandchildren the stories of Odisha’s history and culture at every opportunity he had.
He was, in every sense, a lifelong champion of Odia culture. When he passed, his children resolved that his quiet, steady devotion to their shared heritage should not end with him. In his honor, they established the Shree Chakradhara Mallik Foundation for Odia Culture — carrying his name and his mission into a new generation, and a new continent.
Those who knew him say that no matter where life took him — a government posting, a new city, a busy season — there was always a moment at a festival table where he would insist the family make pitha together. Not buy them. Make them. He believed the act of making was the culture itself — that a recipe shared hand-to-hand in a kitchen carried more of Odisha than any book or broadcast could. That belief is this foundation’s north star.
The volunteers who currently lead the Shree Chakradhara Mallik Foundation now have their own dedicated page — with full profiles, photos, and bios managed from Admin > Leadership Team.
What began as a private tribute — a family wanting to honor their father’s memory — has grown into something larger: a foundation devoted to keeping Odia heritage vibrant for an entire diaspora.
We believe that culture is not preserved in museums or archives alone. It is preserved in kitchens, at festival tables, in the hands of grandmothers teaching grandchildren how to fold a pitha, and in the stories told between courses of a shared meal.
That belief is why the foundation’s flagship program is the Pitha Pratijogita — the annual Pitha Competition held at the Odisha Society of the Americas (OSA) conventions across the USA — and why every initiative we run circles back to food, festivals, and the families who keep them alive.
Our mission is to preserve, promote, and pass Odia culture to future generations by creating meaningful programs, cultural events, educational platforms, and community recognition initiatives that celebrate the richness of Odisha’s heritage.
We aim to bring Odia families together, inspire youth to stay connected to their roots, honor cultural contributors, and build a global network of people who believe that Odia culture must remain alive, visible, respected, and proudly practiced.
Our vision is to become a trusted cultural platform that helps Odia families across the United States and around the world stay connected to Odisha through food, festivals, language, storytelling, youth engagement, and community pride.
We envision a future where Odia children growing up in the United States and around the world know the meaning of Jagannath culture, Odia language, pitha, festivals, food, music, art, literature, family traditions, and community values — not as distant memories, but as living parts of their identity.
Every program honors the generation that carried Odia culture across the ocean, and the man whose name this foundation bears.
Every Odia family is welcome, regardless of where in North America they’ve settled or how long they’ve been away from Odisha.
We treat heritage as something to be practiced and passed on, not simply remembered — especially by our youngest generation.
Odisha Roots respects and supports the long-standing work of The Odisha Society of the Americas (OSA), which has served as a major platform for Odia community connection, cultural promotion, and annual conventions across North America since 1969.
Our foundation is not created to replace or compete with existing Odia organizations. Instead, Odisha Roots is designed to complement and strengthen the broader Odia cultural ecosystem by focusing deeply on food heritage, pitha traditions, youth engagement, storytelling, cultural education, and recognition of everyday culture bearers.
When our programs are presented on OSA platforms, including convention settings, we do so with gratitude, coordination, and respect for OSA leadership, convention teams, chapters, volunteers, and the broader Odia community.
Odisha Roots is growing step by step, building a lasting cultural platform rather than a single event.
You might know Odisha only through your grandmother’s kitchen. That’s enough to start.
If you’re growing up far from Odisha, your heritage might feel like scattered pieces — a festival here, a family recipe there. We’re here to help you gather them. Make your first pitha. Learn a few Odia words. Hear the stories. Then carry them forward — your way.
Explore the Youth Program