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{{Infobox person
| name = Oopalee Operajita
| image = Oopali Operajita.png
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_date =
| birth_place = [[Cuttack]], [[India]]
| birth_name =
| death_date =
| death_place =
| education = [[Carnegie Mellon University]], [[Dalhousie University]], [[Delhi University]], [[Rishi Valley School]]
| parents = [[Bidhu Bhusan Das]] [[Prabhat Nalini Das]]
| relatives = Rai Bahadur Durga Charan Das, IAS, paternal grandfather Nirmala Devi, poet, paternal grandmother Professor Radha Krushna Das, maternal grandfather Krushna Priya Devi, maternal grandmother
| awards = *Canada Council Arts Award * Senior Performing Arts Fellowship, Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute * Nominated for a Harry Schwalb Award for Excellence in the Arts * Nominated for an Outstanding Established Artist Award by Pittsburgh Magazine * Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Fellowship * National Science Talent Scholar * National Scholar * Chancellor's Prize Winner for Debating * Selected to represent India at the English Speaking Union of the Commonwealth * Singar Mani from Sur Singar Samsad * Swami Haridas Award from Sur Singar Samsad * 'A' Grade Top Ranked Artist of Doordarshan, National Television, 1990 * Empanelled Ranking Artist of the [[Indian Council for Cultural Relations]], 1992 * Top-ranked Young Artist of the National [[Sangeet Natak Akademi]], 1982, nominated by [[Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay]] * Special Award for performing at the Diamond Jubilee of the Prayag Sangeet Samiti, Allahabad * Voted one of the Top Ten Dancers in the USA for concert at the Rangos Ballroom, Pittsburgh, by the [[Pittsburgh Post Gazette]], 1996 * The first classical Indian artiste to perform at the [[Carnegie Music Hall]], Pittsburgh

| occupation = Senior Parliamentary Advisor, India; Distinguished Fellow, [[Carnegie Mellon University]] (appointed by President [[Richard Cyert]]); Classical Odissi and Bharatanatyam Dancer and Choreographer
| website = http://www.cicerotransnational.com
}}

'''Oopalee Operajita''' (also spelt Oopali Operajita), is a Distinguished Fellow at [[Carnegie Mellon University]] since 1990, appointed by its legendary Founder-President Dr [[Richard Cyert]]; a senior advisor to world leaders and leaders in [[Parliament of India]] on [[Public policy]], communication and [[International relations]], polymath <ref>http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/2019/apr/07/concern-over-healthcare-1961300.html</ref> and a [[virtuoso]] classical Odissi and Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer. She was trained intensively by Guru [[Kelucharan Mohapatra]] in [[Odissi]] and by S Meenakshi and B. [[Ram Gopal (dancer)]] in [[Bharatanatyam]].<ref>[https://www.deccanchronicle.com/amp/viral-and-trending/161016/sari-tales-from-benares.html]</ref><ref>https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2006/11/04/dance-fluid-sculpture-example-odissi</ref> She is Chair and Founder of The [[Al Gore]] Sustainable Technology Venture Competition, founded in 2006, which brings new, clean and sustainable technologies to market through entrepreneurship, to [[climate change mitigation|combat climate change]] and fortify [[energy security]]. For her work, starting 2006, in the areas of climate change, sustainable technology, entrepreneurship and energy security, Operajita has been called a Planetary Woman Hero.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/english/news/2010/operajita%20competition.html|title=Operajita (MAPW'95) Works for Global Sustainability - Department of English - Carnegie Mellon University|last=University|first=Carnegie Mellon|date=30 April 2010|access-date=2018-03-25|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hindu.com/mag/2003/05/04/stories/2003050400850500.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130125124039/http://www.hindu.com/mag/2003/05/04/stories/2003050400850500.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-01-25|title=New Delhi|last=thrki|website=[[The Hindu]]|date=2003-05-04|access-date=2018-03-22}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/Woods-talk-and-rock/article15703102.ece|title=Woods talk and rock|date=2010-01-18|work=The Hindu|access-date=2018-03-22|language=en-IN|issn=0971-751X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/arts/American-band-to-feature-in-Saarang/article16837547.ece|title=American band to feature in Saarang|author=Staff Reporter|date=2010-01-14|work=The Hindu|access-date=2018-03-22|language=en-IN|issn=0971-751X}}</ref><ref>https://dare2compete.com/o/the-earth-sustainable-technology-venture-competition-iit-madras-September-29-2012-indian-institute-of-technology-iit-madras-5940</ref>

==Education==

Operajita went to [[Rishi Valley School]] at age six, and studied there for nine years, graduating with the GCE 'O' levels (Indian School Certificate) from the [[University of Cambridge]]. At Rishi Valley School, she studied [[Bharatanatyam]] of the rigorous [[Pandanallur]] style - playing lead roles in dance dramas staged under Rishi Valley's Banyan Tree for its founder, [[Jiddu Krishnamurti]], whose favourite classical dancer she was.<ref>Balasundaram. S (2012). Non - Guru Guru. (1st ed.). 57, Taormina Lane, Ojai, California: Edwin House Publishing, Inc. {{ISBN|978-0-9760006-3-1}}.</ref>

She received her higher education at [[Carnegie Mellon University]], USA; [[Dalhousie University]], Canada (where she was a [[Rotary Foundation]] Ambassadorial Fellow); [[Delhi University]]; and [[Utkal University]]. At Dalhousie University, she wrote her dissertation on [[Lawrence Durrell]]'s [[Alexandria Quartet]]. Her thesis supervisor was Canadian poet, J. Andrew Wainwright.

==Family==
Operajita belongs to a prominent political, intellectual and aristocratic family from India, and is the daughter of Indian public intellectuals, educators and Vice Chancellors, Professor [[Bidhu Bhusan Das]] and Professor [[Prabhat Nalini Das]], and a granddaughter of Rai Bahadur Durga Charan Das of the [[Indian Administrative Service]], IAS and poet, Nirmala Devi, who belonged to a well known [[Zamindari]] (aristocratic) family. Nirmala Devi's father, Basudev Kanungo, held the title of Diwan, and was renowned for his philanthropy. Her maternal grandparents are Krushna Priya Devi and Professor Radha Krushna Das, who was head of department and professor of Physics at [[Ravenshaw University]] and a classmate and friend of [[Satyendranath Bose]]. They belonged to a [[Zamindari]] family from [[Puri]] district in [[Odisha]]. Her paternal great aunt is freedom fighter and feminist [[Sarala Devi]], a colleague and friend of [[Mahatma Gandhi]], the first woman Member of the [[Odisha Legislative Assembly]] as well as its first woman Speaker. Her great uncle, [[Nityanand Kanungo]], was a member of the first post Independence cabinet of Prime Minister [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], and successive Nehru cabinets. He was also appointed governor of the provinces of Gujarat and Bihar by Nehru. Operajita is a goddaughter of actress [[Leela Naidu]] and her husband, the writer [[Dom Moraes]]. Naidu met Operajita in Rishi Valley when she was ten, and requested her parents to let her be her godmother.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Gupta|first1=Namita|title=Sari tales from Benaras|url=https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/viral-and-trending/161016/sari-tales-from-benaras.html|access-date=24 March 2018|work=[[Deccan Chronicle]]|date=16 October 2016|language=en}}</ref>

==Career==
Operajita has been a Distinguished Fellow at [[Carnegie Mellon University]] where she was appointed by its Founder President Dr [[Richard Cyert]].<ref>[https://www.deccanchronicle.com/amp/lifestyle/viral-and-trending/161016/sari-tales-from-benaras.html]</ref> She is a Senior Adviser on International Affairs, Public Policy and Communication to several of India's senior leaders in the [[Lok Sabha]] in the [[Parliament of India]].<ref>http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/2019/apr/07/concern-over-healthcare-1961300.html</ref>

Oopalee Operajita is Chair and Founder of Asia's first Sustainable Technology Venture Competition, since 2006, The [[Al Gore]] Sustainable Technology Venture Competition, which brings new, clean and [[sustainable technologies]] to market through entrepreneurship, to fight climate change, enhance [[sustainability]], and fortify energy security on the planet.<ref>https://www.news18.com/news/india/green-campus-iit-madras-students-show-the-way-404015.html</ref> The competition has become a movement, and has a footprint of some 60,000 students worldwide. Its academic partners are India's [[Indian Institutes of Technology]] (IITs), which rank with [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT), [[Carnegie Mellon University]] (CMU), the [[University of California at Berkeley]] and [[California Institute of Technology]] (Caltech), as the best technology institutions in the world.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.cmu.edu./dietrich/english/news/2010/operajita%20competition.html|title=Operajita (MAPW'95) Works for Global Sustainability - Department of English - Carnegie Mellon University|last=University|first=Carnegie Mellon|access-date=2018-03-22|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iimb.ac.in/node/1411|title=You are being redirected...|website=www.iimb.ac.in}}</ref>

==Odissi dance==

A leading disciple of Odissi Guru [[Padma Vibhushan]] [[Kelucharan Mohapatra]], and Guru [[Deba Prasad Das]], Operajita has performed worldwide and has been called "the best Odissi interpreter" by the doyen of India's dance critics,
P V Subramaniam (Subbudu), of [[The Statesman (India)|The Statesman]]. When Mohapatra returned to the performing stage, after a hiatus of twenty years, in the dance drama "Konarka", he cast Operajita to play the female lead opposite him. Operajita studied Odissi for twelve consecutive years with Mohapatra. Earlier, she trained under Guru [[Deba Prasad Das]] for five years; and Guru [[Pankaj Charan Das]] for two years. Her innovative choreographic pieces for Odissi have been set to music since 1979 by renowned vocalist [[Padma Vibhushan]] Pandit [[Chhannulal Mishra]] of [[Varanasi]]. A winner of many international and national awards for dance,
Operajita is also a critic and scholar of the arts.<ref>[https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2006/11/04/dance-fluid-sculpture-example-odissi]</ref> She belongs to the school of Aesthetics and Art Criticism of [[Arthur Danto]], Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy at [[Columbia University]] and art critic for [[The Nation]]. She is the first classical Indian artist to have performed at the [[Carnegie Music Hall]] in Pittsburgh. Operajita was invited by the [[Ministry of External Affairs (India)]], and the Office of the [[Prime Minister of India]], to choreograph the [[Rashtrapati Bhavan]] concert for President [[Barack Obama]] in 2010.<ref>{{cite web|title=Oopali Operajita (MAPW ’95) Plays Key Role in India’s Concert for President Obama|url=https://www.cmu.edu./dietrich/english/news/2010/operajita-plays-key-role-in-indias-concert-for-obama.html|access-date=23 March 2018|date=9 December 2010|publisher=[[Carnegie Mellon University]]}}</ref>

==Bharatanatyam==
Operajita started learning Bharatanatyam, at age six, in the grand [[Pandanallur]] style at [[Rishi Valley School]] from Guru S. Meenakshi and studied it for nine continuous years. In the early 1980s, she took master lessons in London from the iconic B. [[Ram Gopal (dancer)]] who taught her guru, S. Meenakshi. Operajita and her dance partner are the most prominent of Rishi Valley's dancers. As a professional classical dancer, she is a torchbearer of the great Rishi Valley dance tradition, which gave rise to phenomenally beautiful and successful dance dramas in Sanskrit, Telugu and Tamil - in which she was always cast in the lead role - staged each year under the school's famous Banyan Tree for its founder, [[Jiddu Krishnamurti]]. The music for these productions was composed by Veena G Visalakshi, a disciple of Vizianagaram Venkataramana Das, and the text was chosen or composed by Pandit Chundi Hanumantharao. Operajita studied veena for seven years and Carnatic vocal music for nine years with Veena G Visalakshi.{{sfn|Balasundaram|2012|p=77}}

Operajita was invited by Rishi Valley to choreograph a dance drama for the school. She produced an episode from [[Kalidasa]]'s "Kumarasambhavam" for which the original score had been composed exclusively for her by [[Padma Vibhushan]] Pandit [[Chhannulal Mishra]] of [[Varanasi]], thereby resuscitating a great Rishi Valley dance tradition which had lain dormant for decades.

==Author and translator==
Together with her parents, Operajita has translated pre-eminent Odia author, [[Gopinath Mohanty]]'s award-winning novel, "Amrutara Santana", widely regarded as his magnum opus, into English - the translation is called, "Amrutara Santana: The Dynasty of The Immortals." It has been published by the [[Sahitya Akademi]], New Delhi, the Indian Government's official, apex literary body, in 2016.<ref>Mohanty, Gopinath. Amrutara Santana: The Dynasty of The Immortals. Translated by Bidhubhusan Das, Prabhat Nalini Das and Oopali Operajita, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi 2015. {{ISBN|978-81-260-4746-8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/f8tZv65GRHec4VcOCm56SJ/Book-review-The-Dynasty-Of-The-Immortals-by-Gopinath-Mohanty.html|title=Book review: The Dynasty Of The Immortals by Gopinath Mohanty|last=Choudhury|first=Chandrahas|date=2016-10-07|work=www.livemint.com|access-date=2018-03-22}}</ref> Operajita was invited to read excerpts from this translation at the [[Jaipur Literature Festival]], 2017, in a session she shared with actress-author [[Nandana Sen]].<ref>https://changingtimes.media/2017/01/28/mesmerising-poets-harrowing-stories-and-heated-debate-jaipur-festival-sends-sparks-flying/</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.cicerotransnational.com Official site]

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[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Odissi dancers]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]

Oopali Operajita - Revision history

Hembram Bakhul: Created page with "{{Infobox person | name = Oopalee Operajita | image = Oopali Operajita.png | image_size = | caption = | birth_date = | birth_place = Cuttack, India..."