Sales assistant to hotel owner

There is a three-star hotel with 45 rooms in the bustling town of Birtamod, 440km east of Kathmandu. Qatar-based Mahendra Chaulagain is the owner of the meticulously-built Holiday Home. Chaulagain is from a humble family of farmers and first came to the oil-rich country in 1996, starting as a sales assistant. Now, 21 years later, Chaulagain is the owner of a property that is worth around US $1.4 million and employs about 100 people. The town of Birtamod is not that tourist-rich. “The reason I chose this city instead of Kathmandu for the hotel is that I wanted to give something to my hometown.” The hotel offers lower room rates than similar hotels in Kathmandu or Pokhara, another tourist town west of the capital city. “The first thing is to provide jobs, then give good hospitality to customers, and then the profits will come.”Holiday Home is increasingly attracting tourists from neighbouring India, who can visit Nepal without having to obtain a visa. “They didn’t have a fine place to stay [in Birtamod]; but now they have one.” An increasing number of local tourists are also choosing to rent rooms in Holiday Home. “Business is gradually picking up,” says Chaulagain.The hotel has made a large number of people Birtamod happy. 90-year-old Tek Raj Basnet says that his friend’s grandson’s hotel has made him proud. The 55-room hotel is much more than the town folks had expected. Rudra Pandey, who works at the hotel, said he is getting more salary than he expected. “With this salary, I don’t have to go abroad.”In 2007, with the investment of $0.8 million, Chaulagain built Dipjal Boarding School nearby. The school provides English medium education to children. It has 950 students and 100 staff members. The school also provides scholarships to deserving students. Manik BK, a poor student with no means to pay the fees of an English-medium school, studies on scholarship. “My father gave me birth, but Mahendra is like another father – he has given me education and a good future.”The school also has a large number of computers, which are used to give villagers computer education free of charge. Chaulagain has also launched his own manpower agency – New Pathivara Placement Services. The agency sends a large number of youth to Qatar. Chaulagain has also funded the construction of a temple, public toilets and libraries in multiple schools. But that’s not all. Chaulagain is one of the top Nepali entrepreneurs in Qatar. He owns Woodland Contracting and General Services, Al Khouri Manpower Supply, and Service & Clearance Company in Qatar. And he has Qatar to thank for his good fortune. He cannot stop praising the country for the role it played in his success. “All credit goes to Qatar.”