Bridging Knowledge Systems, Technology & Conscious Living

Physicist turned knowledge management practitioner, social entrepreneur, dedicated S. N. Goenka Vipassana practitioner, and author of "Know Your Fear: A Journey from ‘I’ to ‘i’"

For more than two decades I've built the systems that help people share what they know — websites, archives, training programs, and film — and, alongside that, built businesses rooted in Nepali craft and agriculture: rugs, tea, and coffee. More recently, a long-standing Vipassana practice has turned that same attention inward.

deependra@tandukar.net +977 9841886243 English · Nepali · Nepal Bhasha · Hindi

Core practice and mindful anchor

Vipassana practitioner

Learned during COVID-19 lockdown within the S. N. Goenka Vipassana tradition, Anapana Sati and later Vipassana meditation anchor my daily life and writing. Rather than treating meditation as theory, I try to carry it into decision-making, leadership, and everyday moments.

What I work on

Six threads that keep showing up across the last 25 years — mostly the same question asked in different settings: how do you help people find and use what an organization already knows?

Business building
Founded and grew ventures from the ground up — Samriddhi Agriculture, Kaaya — Body and Mind, and Aroma Coffee among them — taking products from concept to international markets. Handknots Nepal and Rug for Me, my earlier rug and handmade pashmina businesses, closed in 2024; I chose to stop working with wool and other animal-derived materials. Himalayan Organic Tea continues under the same brand.
Institutional platforms
Designed and ran the website, intranet, and extranet for ICIMOD through two full rebrands, including a 2014 rebuild that introduced keyword-based content linking.
Knowledge systems
  • Built the collaborative authoring platform behind the Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment (HIMAP), letting authors and reviewers across chapters work simultaneously on one document.
  • Designed the framework for HIMALDOC, ICIMOD's open-access repository, built on Invenio.
  • Proposed the linking framework for the Himalayan University Consortium, connecting member libraries through a single access point.
Training & strategy
Designed and delivered regional trainings on knowledge management, web publishing, and document systems for staff and partners across China, India, and Kyrgyzstan.
Social media & branding
Set up ICIMOD's first institutional presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and SlideShare in 2008 — early enough that it counted as a bet, not a checkbox — and led the branding rollout across the organization's templates and video guidelines.
Multimedia production
Directed short documentaries on impact, awareness, and science topics for a mountain development audience, including films on kiwi cultivation, agrodiversity, permafrost, and bio-briquettes as an alternative fuel source.

Experience

A mix of running my own ventures and, before that, eighteen years building out ICIMOD's knowledge and web infrastructure from the ground up.

Director

Aroma Coffee

May 2023 — present

Overseeing direction for the company's coffee operations, with a focus on Himalayan coffee — trading, sourcing, and commercial distribution.

Founder

Kaaya — Body and Mind

2021

A U.S.-based startup bringing meditation, yoga, and handcrafted spiritual products abroad such as metal singing bowls.

Chairman

Samriddhi Krishi Anusandhaan Tatha Bikaash (Samriddhi Agriculture)

March 2018 — present

A passive partner and advisor, guiding the strategic vision for sustainable agriculture investment and the expansion of high-value produce across Nepal.

Chairman

Handknots Nepal

March 2018 — 2024

A hand-knotted rug and handmade pashmina business exporting to international markets, alongside its Rug for Me line. Closed in 2024 — a choice to stop working with wool and other animal-derived materials, out of not wanting to support animal exploitation.

Knowledge Management, Multimedia and Web Officer

ICIMOD

January 2000 — March 2018

Eighteen years across six roles, starting as a Networking and Training Assistant and rising through Officer for Central Asia, IYM Activities Assistant, Systems Manager, and Knowledge Management and Web Specialist.

Assistant Lecturer, Department of Physics

Tri-Chandra Campus, Kathmandu

November 1997 — February 2000

Coordinator

CORExpress — bimonthly computer magazine

November 1997 — February 2000

Technical background

Over 20 years working across the Microsoft Office suite, Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere, and Acrobat, with working knowledge of After Effects. Comfortable implementing open-source systems — document management, surveys, content management, project management, e-commerce, and calendaring — several of which are still running at ICIMOD. Also picked up hardware troubleshooting, computer assembly, and web and mail server configuration along the way.

Training

Vipassana Anapana Sati Kai-Igaku KM Practitioner Certification (CCLFI, 2016) KM for Asia — Singapore (2009, 2012) Gender Sensitivity Management by Objectives Proposal Writing WebAgris Photography Printing Technology

Education

MSc, Physics — Electronics
1994–95
Central Department of Physics, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur
BSc, Physics, Mathematics & Meteorology
1992–93
Tri-Chandra Multiple Campus, Tribhuvan University

Affiliation

Lions Clubs International

Lions Club of Kathmandu Bagmati — established 1987, still serving communities in need more than 30 years on. Served as Club President in the Lionistic year 2020/21.

Writing

Short pieces on knowledge management and media, written between 2005 and 2012.

Social Media, Networking and Knowledge Management

On why social platforms let people share first-hand information in real time, and pass it on instantly to wider networks — something older broadcast media could never do.

Multimedia Approach for Sustainable Knowledge Delivery

Makes the case for pairing multimedia with "alternative media" — song, storytelling, street theatre — to reach communities that formal channels miss.

Knowledge Management

Argues that KM succeeds or fails on people, not tools — staff competence, institutional support, and motivation matter more than any platform.

Effective Internet Searching

A practical primer on narrowing down billions of pages to find exactly what you need, written before search got as good as it is today.

Knowledge Mapping

On the everyday habit of knowing who holds what expertise — and why writing that down, systematically, is the part most people skip.

Forthcoming book · 2026

Know Your Fear

A journey from "I" to "i"

What if the cage you built for safety is what's keeping you from peace? For years I lived inside a "golden cage" of prestige, haunted by a whisper: without this, who are you? Then my mother's health began to fade, and one quiet imperative cut through the noise: be with her, now.

Her passing deepened that walk into a full inward journey — a physicist and knowledge management practitioner turning the tool of observation onto his own mind. Written through years of Vipassana practice, the book traces fear to its source in the fragile, story-bound capital "I," and toward the quieter, humbler lowercase "i" beneath it.

  • Break "the loop" — the mechanism where fear quietly becomes suffering
  • See through the story of "I," the identity you've been protecting
  • Practice surrender not as defeat, but as the strength to stop arguing with reality
  • Use gratitude and conscious breathing as everyday paths back to peace
Read more →