The youngest of the Chaudhary Group (CG), he directs the company that has an annual turnover in excess of US$270 million and provides employment to over 5,000 people. One of the most successful and single largest business conglomerates in Nepal, CG was featured in Forbes magazine as one of the richest non-royals. The multinational has over 40 companies under its umbrella from FMCG to banking, remittance, and now energy projects in the pipeline.Nirvana respectfully wears the honor of the future of Nepali business tycoon, quite a tech-savvy one, for that matter. Besides, he’s “a gadget and gizmos aficionado,” for beffer performance in workplace in his own words. Growing up mostly in a boarding school, his parents, and specially his uncles, got him introduced to all the best things in life. The toys included remote-controlled RC cars, video games like Nintendo Saturn that he would give to his cousin brothers after a few rounds, sound-blasting music player systems, boys’ toys, and electronic gadgets etc.
“I was ahead of my time. From video games to music system, I was the first one to acquire anything beautiful,” Nirvana says from his office in Sanepa. And it opened up his mind to “more, better things in life. It widened my horizons,” Nirvana reminiscences. Today, he claims to be what he is because of all those things. “I’m directly linked with my gadgets and that’s what makes me who I am. It’s not just fascination; they tremendously help me perform my work smoothly,” he says.
And he’s right. With an amazing Time Capsule (TC) system like the one from Apple, you can have all of your computers (Apple Macs) subscribed to the TC and it does the magic. He can access all the files and hard disks with the help of this TC from his laptop anywhere in the office. A big fan of Bang and Olufsen (BNO) manufactures, Nirvana has a base station called Link Connect that connects all his phones, including his two cell phones, to the station and acts as one interlink.
Nirvana is an avid music devotee. He claims it’s genetic. His industrialist father and now Constituent Assembly member Binod Chaudhary penned and sang a few songs in his youth, and recently came out with a solo album as its lyricist. With a 120 GB iPod and BNO earphones while on the move, Nirvana owns a Bose Sound system for his crib.
“My Wavy-Gravey sound system is just next to my bed, and I go to sleep and wake up with it, literally,” Nirvana says. The Bose has an alarm system.
In his house in Rabi Bhawan, Nirvana also owns a personal full-fledged audio home studio. “I make electronic music and have this small studio in my house. I have a transporter, mixer, dashboard along with musical instruments like guitars and keyboards,” says the music enthusiast who uses Ableton Live for his audio projects. He also owns a Pioneer1000 DJ system and used to be seen spinning discs at dance parties in the capital at times. “But I stopped doing the DJ thing a year ago because I wanted to make my own music, not play on others,” he says.
No house is complete without a home theatre system these days. And for Nirvana, it’s an essential. He uses a Hi-Def projector from Optoma as the screens. Soundwise, he owns a Bose Life. He also has more than 2,000 DVDs in his collection and handpicks Lord of War, Scent of a Woman, The Saint, Gladiator, and Troy as his best five.
For laptop, Nirvana uses the ultra-light travel friendly Macbook Air. “Three things that I carry when I travel: the Macbook Air, Blackberry phone, and my Sony Cybershot 10.1 MP DCS-750TN. I can’t live without them,” he proclaims. He recently got a PaceMaker (Tonium AB) boy’s toy that’s a PSP-looking virtual DJ machine for his travels. “It’s so slick that I can have 60GB of music and mix and play the DJ thing right from the handhold,” Nirvana elucidates, showing off his music maker.
You can tell a bachelor from his pad and a corporate from his office. And Nirvana’s workplace explains it all. To say that he’s the owner of a super sleek office is an understatement. The big room is well-Vastu-ed, and colors match the aura of the corporate adrenaline. One corner holds a Digital Frame from Aigo that displays his family’s portraits. His work desk contains a Bang and Olufsen cordless phone, and a 21-inch Mac machine.
From an LG flat screen to Buddha’s and Ganesh’s artwork hanging on the walls, book on Trump, coffee table books on Pilgrims and Luxury Toys and CDs of Tiesto (electronic music), Nirvana’s got it all of all extremes. His office is where aesthetics meets spirituality and materialism.
An obsessive gadgeteer, Nirvana buys but many of the toys don’t hold his attention span. “Many of my gadgets don’t seize my attention for more than 24 hours. I buy it and after 24 hours, it’s gone,” he says.
But the best gadget he owns is his car: The Range Rover TDV8 (Vogue). The full system has an amazing sound that feels like a drop from heaven, and the ride feels like you’re flying. And the best gadgets we envied of him are his watch collection. He sports a limited edition Hublot Rose Gold during weekdays. Piaget sees weekends, but his prized possession is the Vacheron Constantin Golden Eagle 100. And he wants to add Jaeger La-Coutre to his inventory.
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